Sallust (Sather Classical Lectures)

Sather Classical Lectures

by Ronald Syme, Ronald Mellor (Foreword)

With this classic book, Sir Ronald Syme became the first historian of the twentieth century to place Sallust―whom Tacitus called the most brilliant Roman historian―in his social, political, and literary context. Scholars had considered Sallust to be a mere political hack or pamphleteer, but Syme's text makes important connections between the politics of the Republic and the literary achievement of the author to show Sallust as a historian unbiased by partisanship. In a new foreword, Ronald Mellor delivers one of the most thorough biographical essays of Sir Ronald Syme in English. He both places the book in the context of Syme's other works and details the progression of Sallustian studies since and as a result of Syme's work.

Genres: Classics, History

434 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Sir Ronald Syme, OM, FBA (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. Long associated with Oxford University, he is widely regarded as the 20th century's greatest historian of ancient Rome. His great work was The Roman Revolution (1939), a masterly and controversial analysis of Roman political life in the period following the assassination of Julius Caesar.