Who the hell knows why Sallust did anything? What he says is he wants to win glory, the best way usually being holding political office, but since now (in the context of the Civil War) offices are pointless, instead he's going to write history, which is the next best thing, but he doesn't say why it's next best.

This is bullshit anyway because we know he was drummed out of the Senate for his misgovernment of Africa. He didn't choose to avoid a political life, whatever he says about it. And while in the BJ he says history is useful, in the Cat. he says historians LIEEEEEE! Can't trust 'em! Back to the BJ, he says contemplating the past used to inspire one to greatness, but that doesn't work anymore; people vie with their ancestors for wealth, not honor. So, why is writing history salutatory exactly?

About the war against Jugurtha in particular, he says

first, because it was long, sanguinary and of varying fortune; and secondly, because then for the first time resistance was offered to the insolence of the nobles — the beginning of a struggle which threw everything, human and divine, into confusion, and rose to such a pitch of frenzy that civil discord ended in war and the devastation of Italy.

Well, ok, but the first two Punic wars were longer and bloodier and the outcomes in greater doubt. Some of the Latin wars lasted decades. What about the Caudine Forks? I don't buy it.

This second bit, the first time resistance was offered to the Nobles? Was it? What about the Gracchi? Is it because the matter was conducted with such apparent corruption? Memmius seems to be Our Hero who tries to point out corruption - but he's a Tribune of the plebs, so why not look at the Gracchi? I guess the nobles were not corrupt in their case? But Sallust puts a speech in Memmius' mouth complaining about the abuses the nobility imposed after the Gracchan massacres. Are we supposed to think Memmius' evaluation of the nobility of Gracchus' day is wrong?

So I don't know. I know people that think Sallust has a nice turn of phrase but a muddled sense of politics and history. I hope he's hard to understand because he's thinking something complicated and not silly. I haven't figured out what it is.

Someone else want to get Appian?