A city for sale and soon to perish if it finds a buyer!

This line is attributed by Sallust to Jugurtha, king of Numidia, during the Jugurthine War (late 2nd century BCE). After experiencing how readily influential Romans could be bribed—first to soften Rome’s stance toward him and later to obstruct proceedings—Jugurtha is said to have remarked that Rome itself was effectively purchasable. Sallust uses the episode to dramatize the moral and political corruption of the late Roman Republic, when senatorial factions, patronage networks, and greed could distort foreign policy and judicial outcomes. The remark functions as a bitter outsider’s verdict on Rome’s vulnerability to venality.

The quote portrays Rome as a “city for sale”: a polity whose decisions and loyalties can be bought rather than earned through law, virtue, or civic duty. The second clause—“soon to perish if it finds a buyer”—turns corruption into an existential threat: once a state treats itself as merchandise, it invites conquest or collapse because its guardians can be purchased. In Sallust’s moralizing historiography, Jugurtha’s cynicism is less a compliment to his shrewdness than an indictment of Roman elites. The line crystallizes a recurring theme in Roman political thought: that internal moral decay, especially greed, can destroy a republic more surely than external enemies.

“Urbem venalem et mature perituram, si emptorem invenerit!” (Latin text commonly cited)
“A city for sale, and doomed to speedy destruction if it should find a purchaser.”
“Rome is for sale, and will perish quickly if it finds a buyer.”