Sallustius.

SALLUSTIUS par.19.

Sallustius was a Roman writer in the first century B.C. 

I found a strange text about the Phoenicians and Carthage, when he is telling what he knows about the land and people of Africa:

“Later on founded the Phoenicians – some were forced by the overcrowding in their country, some were agitators who incited the common people and adventurers – Hippo, Hadrumetum, Leptis and other cities on the coast. Those cities quickly prospered and became partly the support, partly the glory of their mother-cities. So far as Carthage is concerned, I think it is better to be silent about that rather then to say little about it. Moreover time is pressing me to continue elsewhere.”

No word on the foundation of Utica or Carthage. Is Sallustius really in a hurry and he wishes not to elaborate on the greatness of Carthage or is there another reason? Maybe it is a poor excuse so that he can avoid the subject, If so, why? Doesn’t he want to tell about the war-crime the Romans committed in the century before him? Why avoiding that, because elsewhere he criticizes his own compatriots severely for their lack of ethics and their inclination to be bribed, for instance.