De Hominis Moribus: Characterization as a Vehicle for Moral Rhetoric in Sallust

Abstract

In this thesis, I argue that Sallust uses the literary device of characterization to communicate the moral rhetoric and themes of his two monographs, the Bellum Catilinae and Bellum Jugurthinum. First, I identify Sallust’s narrative that declining moral habits among Roman citizens led to the dissolution of domestic harmony and the failure of the Republic as a principal moral message of his monographs. Then, I define characterization in the context of Roman historiography and outline the methodology by which I find instances of characterization, both direct and indirect, in the text. Chapters three and four apply this methodology to Sallust’s characterization of Catiline and Jugurtha respectively to show that these characters encapsulate aspects of the aforementioned narrative of moral decline, therefore demonstrating that Sallust uses characterization as a means to deliver his moralizing message.