How did Tacitus’s historical writing develop Sallust’s terse style?

Tacitus developed the terse style of Sallust by pushing it to an extreme, transforming it into a highly individualistic and sophisticated literary instrument. While Sallust established a reputation for his concise, sardonic moralism and his departure from the elaborate, balanced periods favored by Cicero, Tacitus refined and intensified these qualities.123

Tacitus’s development of this style involved several key techniques:

• Stylistic Complexity: He moved beyond simple brevity by incorporating archaic and poetic vocabulary, carefully avoiding commonplace expressions to create a unique, elevated tone.1
• Syntactical Variation: Tacitus intentionally broke the easy balance of sentences, using word order and syntactical shifts to create emphasis and impact rather than artificial smoothness.4
• Concentrated Force: He utilized his style to serve his political interpretations, employing ironical epigrams and penetrating characterizations to evoke the atmosphere of tyranny.14

Ultimately, Tacitus took the Sallustian foundation—characterized by its energy, passion, and rejection of rhetorical excess—and imbued it with greater rhythmic strength and color, resulting in a prose style that remains a masterpiece of Latin literature.24