The Power of Dialogism in Sallust’s Bellum Catilinae

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to highlight and analyze cases of dialogism between Sallust and Younger Cato in the Bellum Catilinae. Through close reading and linguistic analysis, prominent dialogue and its historical implications were examined. Afterwards, I used existing literature on dialogism and speeches in Ancient Historiography to speculate on Sallust’s motivation for incorporating dialogism into the Bellum Catilinae. I posit that Sallust uses dialogism as a tool to inspire introspection in the reader.