The Appraisal of Agriculture and Literature in the Proem to the De coniuratione Catilinae
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Abstract
This article re-examines the appraisal of agriculture and literature in the proem to Sallust’s De coniuratione Catilinae (Sall., Cat., 1–4) and argues that the passage in which the historian dismisses farming and hunting—presented as servile tasks—must be read within the proem’s argumentative architecture, which subordinates aristocratic pursuits to the aim of glory. On the basis of a joint analysis of the proems to Sallust’s two historical monographs, the article shows that the author’s purpose is to legitimise historiography as an alternative path to glory in a post-Caesarian context in which the political arena ceases to be a propitious field for attaining it. It further contends that this reorientation shifts the centre of glory from negotium to the arts of the mind proper to otium. In this framework, the reduced esteem accorded to agriculture and hunting is coherent: not because of their intrinsic nature, but because they do not contribute—within Sallust’s programme—to the pursuit of glory that only virtus animi and historiography can secure.
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