In this article we analyse Sallust's presence in three Latin florilegia of the 16th century -the Polyanthea. Opus suauissimis floribus exornatum (1503) by D. Nanum Mirabellium, Illustres quaedam Sententiae ex optimis quibusque aliis autoribus selectae (1550), attributed to P. Lagnier, and the Sententiae et Exempla ex probatissimis scriptoribus collecta (1557) by Andre Rodrigues de evora- to determine whether the medieval vision of the Roman historian as a moralist and a stylistic and literary model is maintained in these Renaissance selections or, on the contrary, he is presented in a new light as a model of good government and civic liberties.