[HISTORIES]

Birminghamiae: Typis Johannis Baskerville, 1774. 180 x 114 mm. (7 1/8 x 4 1/2"). 1 p.l., 275 [i.e., 274] pp.
Handsome contemporary hunter green morocco, covers with border of decorative gilt rolls, flat spines gilt in compartments with medallion centerpiece inside a dotted-rule lozenge, volute cornerpieces, gilt titling, turn-ins with decorative gilt roll, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt (small spot of green paint to front joint). Gaskell 55. ◆Head of front joint a little rubbed, spine slightly darkened, title page lightly browned, other trivial imperfections, otherwise an excellent copy in a lustrous binding, with clean, fresh text that shows no signs of having been read.

This is the duodecimo version of the Baskerville Classics edition of these Roman histories, offered here in an especially attractive binding. The only extant historical works of Sallust (86-34 B.C.), both included here, are his history of the conspiracy of Catiline against the senate in the year Cicero was consul, and his history of the Roman war against the Numidian (Algerian) chieftain Jugurtha, brought to its conclusion by the great soldier and populist politician Marius. As a stylist, Sallust has enjoyed great fame for his artistic and epigrammatic speeches with their vividly delineated characters. Florus, who lived at the beginning of the second century A.D., wrote a summary history of Rome from earliest times to the reign of Augustus. It still merits consultation, since it rests on a tradition independent of Livy, and was a popular school text in the Middle Ages..