L. Sulla.

In the work on the war of Catiline, Sallust reveals especially the
corruption of what was called the Roman nobility, by tracing the criminal
designs of the conspirators to their sources--avarice, and the love of
pleasure. In the history of the Jugurthine war, he particularly exposes
and condemns the system of bribery in which the leading men of that
age indulged; but on the other hand, he draws a pleasing contrast in
describing the restoration of military discipline by Metullus and Marius.
The difficult campaigns in the extensive and desert country of Numidia,
and the wonderful events of this war, also deserve the attention of the
reader; the more so, as the author has bestowed the greatest care on
giving vivid descriptions of them.

Among the writings of Sallust, which have been transmitted to us in
manuscripts, and are printed in the larger editions of his works, there
are two epistles addressed to Caesar, containing the author's opinions
and advice regarding the new constitution to be given to the republic,
after the defeat of the optimates and their faction by the dictator. They
are written in his own peculiar style: the first contains excellent ideas
and energetic exposures of the general defects and evils in the state,
as well as plans for remedying them; the second adds some proposals
regarding the courts of justice, and the composition of the senate,
the utility and practicability of which appear somewhat doubtful.
The authenticity of these epistles, therefore, is still a matter of
uncertainty. Lastly, there are two Declamations (_declamationes_), the
one purporting to be by M. Cicero against Sallust, and the other by
Sallust against Cicero; but both are evidently unworthy of the character
and style of the men whose names they bear, and are justly considered to
be the production of some wretched rhetorician of the third or fourth