How to stop a conspiracy with Sallust

Part XXIII of the Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series

[Based on How to Stop a Conspiracy: An Ancient Guide to Saving a Republic, by Sallust, translated by Josiah Osgood. Full book series here.]

If you need a strong endorsement to move you to read the ancient Roman historian Sallust, here is one:

“You go on, I presume, with your Latin Exercises: and I wish to hear of your beginning upon Sallust who is one of the most polished and perfect of the Roman Historians, every Period of whom, and I had almost said every Syllable and every Letter is worth Studying.”

So wrote John Adams to his son, John Quincy, back in 1781. It may seem an odd way to introduce the new edition of The War Against Catiline, which concerns itself with momentous events that unfolded in the year 63 BCE in Rome, but translator Josiah Osgood knows what he is doing. He points out that the Founding Fathers of the American Republic were very much concerned with conspiracy theories and worried about an impending overthrow of the government, what sociologist Richard Hofstadter later referred to as the “paranoid style” in American politics.

I do not have to point out the obvious to you: once again that paranoid style is very much on display right now, during the third decade of…