Editing Sallust (section)

=== Early career ===

After an ill-spent youth, Sallust entered [[Cursus honorum|public life]] and may have won election as [[quaestor]] in 55&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{harvnb|Broughton|1952|p=217|ps=. "The date of his quaestorship is probably 55, since he was born in 86 and held the [plebeian] tribunate... in 52".}}</ref> However, the evidence is unclear; some scholars suggest he never held the post.<ref name=grant.13 /><ref name=syme.28>{{harvnb|Syme|1964|p=28}}</ref>{{sfn|Earl|1966|p=306}} The "earliest certain information" on his career is his term as [[plebeian tribune]] in 52 BC, the year in which the followers of [[Titus Annius Milo|Milo]] killed [[Publius Clodius Pulcher|Clodius]]. During his year, Sallust supported the prosecution of Milo.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Millar |first=Fergus |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/264095990 |title=The crowd in Rome in the late Republic |date=1998 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=0-472-10892-1 |oclc=264095990 |pages=181–83}}</ref> He also organised "ferocious street demonstrations" to exert public pressure on Cicero, intimidating him into "giving a substandard performance" when defending Milo at his trial,{{sfn|Mellor|2002|p=31}} seeing Milo leave the city into exile. In this year, he, with the other ten tribunes, all supported a law to permit Caesar to stand for a second consulship in absentia.{{sfn|Broughton|1952|p=236}}

Syme suggests that Sallust, because of his position in Milo's trial, did not originally support Caesar.<ref name=syme.29>{{harvnb|Syme|1964|p=29}}.</ref> According to one inscription, some Sallustius (with unclear [[praenomen]]) was a [[proquaestor]] in Syria in 50&nbsp;BC under [[Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus]].{{sfn|Broughton|1952|p=242}} Mommsen identified this Sallustius with Sallust the historian, but Broughton argued that Sallust the historian would not have been an assistant to Caesar's adversary or, as an ex-plebeian tribune, have taken the lowly title ''legatus pro quaestore''.{{sfn|Broughton|1952|p=247}}

Sallust's political affiliation is unclear in this early period,{{sfn|Earl|1966|p=311}} but after he was expelled from the senate in 50&nbsp;BC by [[Appius Claudius Pulcher (consul 54 BC)|Appius Claudius Pulcher]] (then serving as [[Roman censor|censor]]), he joined Caesar.{{sfn|Pelling|2012|p=1310}} He was removed on grounds of immorality, but this was likely a pretext for his opposition to Milo during his tribunate.{{sfn|Broughton|1952|p=248}}{{sfn|Pelling|2012|p=1310}}