Cornelius Nepos (; c. 110 BC – c. 25 BC) was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

biographer. He was born at Hostilia, a village in Cisalpine Gaul not far from Verona.

Biography

Nepos's Cisalpine birth is attested by Ausonius, and Pliny the Elder calls him ''Padi accola'' ("a dweller on the River Po", ''Naturalis historia'' III.127). He was a friend of

Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; 84 - 54 BCE), often referred to simply as Catullus (, ), was a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes. His ...

, who dedicates his poems to him (I.3),

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

and

Titus Pomponius Atticus Titus Pomponius Atticus (November 110 BC – 31 March 32 BC; later named Quintus Caecilius Pomponianus Atticus) was a Roman editor, banker, and patron of letters, best known for his correspondence and close friendship with prominent Roman ...

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Chris ...

places him in the fourth year of the reign of

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

, which is supposed to be when he began to attract critical acclaim by his writing. Pliny the Elder notes he died in the reign of Augustus (''Natural History'' IX.39, X.23).

Works

''De viris illustribus''

Nepos' ''De viris illustribus'' consisted of parallel lives of distinguished Romans and foreigners, in sixteen books. It originally included "descriptions of foreign and Roman kings, generals, lawyers, orators, poets, historians, and philosophers". However, the sole surviving book (which is thought to be complete) is the ' ("Lives of the Eminent Commanders"), which covers commanders and generals (''imperatores''); its contents are as follows: *

Miltiades Miltiades (; grc-gre, Μιλτιάδης; c. 550 – 489 BC), also known as Miltiades the Younger, was a Greek Athenian citizen known mostly for his role in the Battle of Marathon, as well as for his downfall afterwards. He was the son of Cimon ...

* Themistocles *

Aristides Aristides ( ; grc-gre, Ἀριστείδης, Aristeídēs, ; 530–468 BC) was an ancient Athenian statesman. Nicknamed "the Just" (δίκαιος, ''dikaios''), he flourished in the early quarter of Athens' Classical period and is remembe ...

* Pausanias * Cimon *

Lysander Lysander (; grc-gre, Λύσανδρος ; died 395 BC) was a Spartan military and political leader. He destroyed the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC, forcing Athens to capitulate and bringing the Peloponnesian War to an en ...

* Alcibiades * Thrasybulus *

Conon Conon ( el, Κόνων) (before 443 BC – c. 389 BC) was an Athenian general at the end of the Peloponnesian War, who led the Athenian naval forces when they were defeated by a Peloponnesian fleet in the crucial Battle of Aegospotami; later he ...

* Dion * Iphicrates *

Chabrias Chabrias ( el, Χαβρίας; bef. 420–357 BC) was an Athenian general active in the first half of the 4th century BC. During his career he was involved in several battles, both on land and sea. The orator Demosthenes described him as one ...

Timotheus Timotheus is a masculine male name. It is a latinized version of the Greek name (Timόtheos) mmeaning "one who honours God", from τιμή "honour" and θεός "god"., . The English version '' Timothy'' (and its variations) is a common name in ...

* Datames * Epaminondas *

Pelopidas Pelopidas (; grc-gre, Πελοπίδας; died 364 BC) was an important Theban statesman and general in Greece, instrumental in establishing the mid-fourth century Theban hegemony. Biography Athlete and warrior Pelopidas was a member of a ...

Agesilaus Agesilaus II (; grc-gre, Ἀγησίλαος ; c. 442 – 358 BC) was king of Sparta from c. 399 to 358 BC. Generally considered the most important king in the history of Sparta, Agesilaus was the main actor during the period of Spartan hegemo ...

* Eumenes * Phocion * Timoleon * On Kings * Hamilcar * Hannibal Two additional lives survive from elsewhere in the ''De viris illustribus'': * Cato * Atticus The ''Excellentium imperatorum vitae'' appeared in the reign of

Theodosius I Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...

, as the work of the grammarian Aemilius Probus, who presented it to the emperor with a dedication in Latin verse. He claims it to have been the work of his mother or father (the manuscripts vary) and his grandfather. Despite the obvious questions (such as why the preface addressed to someone named Atticus when the work was supposedly dedicated to Theodosius), no one seemed to have doubted Probus's authorship. Eventually Peter Cornerus discovered in a manuscript of

's letters the biographies of Cato and Atticus. He added them to the other existing biographies, despite the fact that the writer speaks of himself as a contemporary and friend of Atticus, and that the manuscript bore the heading ''E libro posteriore Cornelii Nepotis'' ('from the last book of Cornelius Nepos'). At last Dionysius Lambinus's edition of 1569 bore a commentary demonstrating on stylistic grounds that the work must have been of Nepos alone, and not Aemilius Probus. This view has been tempered by more recent scholarship, which agrees with Lambinus that they are the work of Nepos, but that Probus probably abridged the biographies when he added the verse dedication. The ''Life of Atticus'', however, is considered to be the exclusive composition of Nepos.

Other works

Nearly all of Nepos' other writings are lost, but several allusions to them survive in works by other authors. Aulus Gellius' ''Attic Nights'' are of special importance in this respect. * ''Chronica'', an epitome of universal history;

seems to allude to the "Chronica" in his dedication to Nepos. Ausonius also mentions it in his sixteenth Epistle to Probus, as does Aulus Gellius in the ''Noctes Atticae'' (XVII.21). "Probably a chronological summary which included the history of outside nations as well as of Rome," it is thought to have been written in three books.Roberts, Arthur W. ''Selected Lives from Cornelius Nepos.'' Boston: Ginn & Company, 1895. * ''Exempla'', a collection of anecdotes after the style of Valerius Maximus; ''Exemplorum libri'', of which Charisius cites the second book, and Aulus Gellius the fifth (VI.18, 19). The book likely contained "models for imitation, drawn from the early Romans, whose simplicity contrasted with the luxury" of Nepos' era." * letters to Cicero; ''De Vita Ciceronis''. Aulus Gellius corrects an error in this work (XV.28). The book is thought to have been written after the death of the consul, statesman and orator

. According to Roberts, "his friendship for Cicero and Atticus and his access to their correspondence would have made the work an especially valuable one for us." * lives of Cato the elder; A complete biography of Cato the Censor, from which Aulus Gellius draws an anecdote of Cato (XI.8). * ''Epistulae ad Ciceronem'', an extract of which survives in Lactantius (''Divinarum Institutionum Libri Septem'' III.15). It is unclear whether they were ever formally published. Pliny the Younger mentions verse written by Nepos, and in his own ''Life of Dion'', Nepos himself refers to a work of his own authorship, ''De Historicis''. If a separate work, this would be from a hypothesized ''De Historicis Latinis'', only one book in the larger ''De Viris Illustribus'' (see above), although exclusively comprising biographies of Romans. Pliny also mentions a longer ''Life of Cato'' at the end of the extant ''Life of Cato'', written at the request of

, the "complete biography" now lost.

In popular culture

While the historical Cornelius Nepos does not appear in fiction, his name is used by the German Romantic author, Achim von Arnim, as the name of one of his characters in his novella, ''Isabella von Ägypten'' (Isabella of Egypt). Contrary to the historical Cornelius, who has been thought of as a writer of simple, less elegant prose, as evidenced through his writing, this Cornelius is a Mandrake, a root creature created from a hangman's tears, and dug up on a dark night at 11 at night, who is a treasure finder, desiring to become more important than what he is. Desiring to be a Field Marshal in the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...

, Cornelius serves the title character, Isabella, helping her by digging up treasures for them, while rejecting the very notion of being considered a Mandrake in society. An analogy to historical contexts, Arnim names the mandrake Cornelius Nepos, in an effort to implement what Tzvetan Todorov calls "the fantastic", , a genre that sets what is real against what is imaginary or supernatural; to transmit to society that life is not as simple as we make it out to be. Here, Nepos is used to convey that idea, that when the real Nepos is set against that of the supernatural mandrake, the reader and society at large, can not be certain as to which is the real and which is the imaginary, a microcosm of the "uneasy conscience of the nineteenth century."

References

Citations

External links

* *
Works by Cornelius Nepos at Perseus Digital LibraryDickinson College Commentaries: ''Life of Hannibal''
in Latin, at the Latin Library

(Rev. John Selby Watson's translation of the ''Lives'', with preface and translation of the fragments by Roger Pearse) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nepos, Cornelius Golden Age Latin writers Roman-era biographers Cornelii 2nd-century BC Romans 1st-century BC Romans 1st-century BC writers 110s BC births 20s BC deaths Year of birth uncertain