On the Sallustian Sv Asoriae—II

Extract

In the first part of this paper an attempt was made to show by various considerations that the second Suasoria of cod. Vat. lat. 3864 cannot be the work of Sallust. There still remains, however, a final argument which, partly because through some mischance it has never been elaborated before and partly because it leads to a slightly more definite conclusion than the foregoing, deserves separate and fuller statement. The critic whose name is most closely associated with the view that these two Suasoriae are not by a single hand is Hellwig; and though his work is now generally ignored—to some extent perhaps because he omitted the more convincing reasons for the theory he was urging—a fresh examination of the evidence may suggest that, so long as he is merely combating the assumption of single authorship, Hellwig is on the right lines. After that, unfortunately, he goes completely astray: in trying to prove that the second Suasoria is Sallustian and the first an inferior imitation, he is wide of the mark. Had he only taken a hint already available in Schenkl's review of Jordan and backed the first as authentic, he might have saved his successors much controversy.