The Blessed Isles and Counterfactual History in Sallust

Authors

  • Jennifer Gerrish

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/histos397

Keywords:

Sallust, Roman historiography, counterfactual history, Sertorius, Pompey, Blessed Isles

Abstract

Sallust’s digression on the Blessed Isles in the Histories is an exercise in ‘what if?’ or counterfactual history. Sertorius dreamed of flight to the Isles. He never went, but what if he had? Pompey would not have been granted proconsular imperium to wage the Spanish War; this was an unlawful honour, and the first of many. Sallust invites us to imagine a different history in which Pompey’s early career was constrained by law and custom, and which, in turn, did not open the door for Octavian’s equally transgressive rise to power.

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Published

2018-03-01

How to Cite

Gerrish, Jennifer. 2018. “The Blessed Isles and Counterfactual History in Sallust”. Histos 12 (March). https://doi.org/10.29173/histos397.

Issue

Vol. 12 (2018): HISTOS 12 (2018)

Section

Articles

License

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