The only surviving works from one of the world's earliest historians, in important new translations Sallust's first published work, Catiline's War, contains the memorable history of the year 63, including his thoughts on Catiline, a Roman politician who made an ill-fated attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic. In The Jugurthine War, Sallust dwells upon the feebleness of the Senate and aristocracy, having collected materials and compiled notes for this work during his governorship of Numidia.

These three works exemplify the Roman historian Sallust's condemnation of the excesses of the late Republic. In the conspiracy of Catiline and the war against Jugurtha he sees moral and political corruption and the tragedy of civil strife. This new translation captures Sallust's distinctive style and considers his work as history and literature.

These nine biographies illuminate the careers, personalities and military campaigns of some of Rome's greatest statesmen, whose lives span the earliest days of the Republic to the establishment of the Empire. Selected from Plutarch's Roman Lives, they include prominent figures who achieved fame for their pivotal roles in Roman history, such as soldierly Marcellus, eloquent Cato and cautious Fabius. Here too are vivid portraits of ambitious, hot-tempered Coriolanus; objective, principled Brutus and open-hearted Mark Anthony, who would later be brought to life by Shakespeare. In recounting the lives of these great leaders, Plutarch also explores the problems of statecraft and power and illustrates the Roman people's genius for political compromise, which led to their mastery of the ancient world.

Sallust (86-35 BC) was a historian of major importance, writing at the time of the late Roman Republic. This is the first ever full-length commentary and English translation of one of his major works, the Histories, covering the years 78-67 BC, one of the least well-documented periods of theera. The translation is based on a text freshly examined for the first time since the original edition of 1891-3, and also includes newly discovered material.

Why did the aristocracy of the Roman Republic destroy the system of government which was its basis? The answers given by ancient authorities are moral corruption and personal ambition. The modern student finds only too inevitable the causal nexus of political conflict, violence, militaryinsurrection and authoritarian government. Yet before the era of intense violence Rome had an apparently stable constitution with a long history. In this revised edition of his classic book, for which he has written a new introduction, Andrew Lintott examines the roots of violence in Republican lawand society and the growth of violence in city war and the power of armies. It suggests in conclusion that this disaster was more the outcome of folly in the choice of political means than depravity in the choice of ends.