Cornelius Nepos was born in Cisalpine Gaul but lived in Rome and was a friend of Cicero, Atticus, and Catullus. Most of his writings, which included poems, moral examples from history, a chronological sketch of general history, a geographical work, Lives of Cato the Elder and Cicero, and other biographies, are lost. Extant is a portion of his 'De Viris Illustribus': (i) part of his parallel lives of Roman and non-Roman famous men, namely the portion containing lives of non-Roman generals (all Greeks except three) and a chapter on kings; and (ii) two lives from the class of historians. The lives are short popular biographies of various kinds, written in a usually plain readable style, of value today because of Nepos's use of many good sources.
  • ISBN10 0198146175
  • ISBN13 9780198146179
  • Publish Date December 1904
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 4 December 1992
  • Publish Country GB
  • Publisher Oxford University Press
  • Imprint Clarendon Press
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 140
  • Language English