In fact, after the proem, the portrait of the protagonist, and the antecedents ("archaeology") that link the story with the history of Rome, the historian begins to narrate the events by interspersing them with digressions and speeches that mark pauses for reflection and offer the occasion for particularly meaningful displays of rhetoric and historical judgments.

Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus carried out the siege of Carthage and annihilated its historic rival, while to the east the armies of the Urbe razed Corinth to the ground and sanctioned Roman dominance over Greece and the entire Balkan peninsula.

On the social level, however, a major crisis was sweeping the Italic economy: local crafts were being supplanted by products from the East, and small landowners, who formed the recruiting base for the armies, had found their fields destroyed after years of neglect.

In this context the policy of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus took shape: opposed to them and to the factio of the populares was that of the optimates, eager to maintain their privileges by becoming increasingly disinterested in the real conditions of the res publica.

The subject of the second Sallustian monograph is the wearisome war, which Rome fought between 111 and 105 B.C., (seventy years before the publication of the work) in Africa against the king of Numidia Jugurtha, and which ended in Roman victory.

It was not in this case a war waged by the rapacity (or avaritia as Sallust's term would have it) of the nobilitas:[note 4] in fact, the senate really had no interest in it and would not have benefited greatly from fighting on the African front, where it hoped to pursue a policy of non-intervention.

[note 5] Instead, it risked leaving the northern front uncovered, where, a few years later, there would be the dangerous invasion of Italy by the Cimbri and Teutons, who would cross the Alps only to be defeated, in Italic territory, by Gaius Marius.

[note 6] The classes most interested in the African campaign were, rather, the equites (horsemen), advocates of a policy of exploiting the commercial resources available in the Mediterranean Basin, the wealthy Italic mercatores (merchants) (from whose ranks came the negotiatores massacred in 112 B.C.

[note 7] In such a framework it is understandable how, after years of useless and inconclusive guerrilla warfare, the "Jugurthian problem" was destined to be liquidated by a representative of the forces interested in the conquest, far from the senatorial nobilitas, the homo novus Gaius Marius, and not by aristocratic generals, whom Sallust can only accuse of corruption, incapacity and pride.

[5] The universally valid Sallustian message takes on particular relevance in the context of the crisis of the res publica, when it is precisely attachment to virtus that seems to be the only path capable of restoring peace and stability.

—Sallust, Bellum Jugurthinum, 3, 1Sallust, therefore, openly criticizes the political system, which allows those who do not deserve it to attain power;[note 8] in such a situation, fundamental is the importance played by the historian's activity, which instead risks being regarded as otium.

[6][note 9] —Sallust, Bellum Jugurthinum, 5, 1After introducing the actual historical narrative, Sallust recounts, so that the whole of the events may be clearer and more understandable,[7] the history of the kingdom of Numidia: during the Second Punic War, the Numidian king Masinissa helped Publius Cornelius Scipio against the Carthaginian Hannibal, and, after the Battle of Zama and subsequent treaties, Rome decided to reward him by granting him sovereignty over many of the lands wrested from the Carthaginians, thus creating a strong friendly relationship with Numidia.

[note 17] —Sallust, Bellum Jugurthinum, 17, 1Sallust decides to interrupt the narrative to include in the work a brief ethnographic digression on northern Africa, which he considers a continent separate from Europe and Asia.

Having learned of the battle, the senate sends ambassadors to Numidia, but Jugurtha, appealing to the jus gentium, succeeds in thwarting their presence, and preventing them from speaking to Adherbal; he then devotes himself to the careful organization of the siege, making use of all his strategic gifts.

He rejoices in the prestige of Jugurtha, confident that the latter may be suitable to lead Numidia and bring it great glory, but he soon realizes that his nephew would be in a condition of clear superiority to his sons because of his age and popularity.

[note 29] The king of Numidia then demonstrates, in his attempt to eliminate his nephew, that he is a wise politician and as careful as ever about the consequences that his acts may have: he therefore avoids having him assassinated or having him fall victim to some intrigue.

The geographical and historical digression of chapters 17-19 comes across as very approximate, especially for a historian who held the position of governor of the province of Africa for a number of years: indeed, Sallust states that he draws on written sources rather than personal observation,[note 19] and this makes his description come across as inaccurate.

[24] Similarly, the portrayal of Jugurtha[10] also appears rather stereotyped, and not the result of careful observation of the habits of the local people: some traits of youthful behavior and education are those typical of barbarians, and Sallust seems to draw on the Greek historiographical tradition, in particular Xenophon's Cyropaedia.