Cornelius Nepos
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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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
biographer. He was born at Hostilia, a village in
Cisalpine Gaul Cisalpine Gaul (, also called ''Gallia Citerior'' or ''Gallia Togata'') was the name given, especially during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, to a region of land inhabited by Celts (Gauls), corresponding to what is now most of northern Italy. Afte ...
not far from
Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...
.


Biography

Nepos's Cisalpine birth is attested by
Ausonius Decimius Magnus Ausonius (; ) was a Latin literature, Roman poet and Education in ancient Rome, teacher of classical rhetoric, rhetoric from Burdigala, Gallia Aquitania, Aquitaine (now Bordeaux, France). For a time, he was tutor to the future E ...
, and
Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...
calls him ''Padi accola'' ("a dweller on the River Po", ''Naturalis historia'' III.127). He was a friend of
Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; ), known as Catullus (), was a Latin neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic. His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes. Life ...
, 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, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...
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 (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...
places him in the fourth year of the reign of
Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...
, which is supposed to be when he began to attract critical acclaim by his writing.
Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...
notes he died in the reign of Augustus (''Natural History'' IX.39, X.23).


Works


''De viris illustribus''

Nepos's ''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 (; ; c. 550 – 489 BC), also known as Miltiades the Younger, was a Greek Athenian statesman known mostly for his role in the Battle of Marathon, as well as for his downfall afterwards. He was the son of Cimon Coalemos, a renowned ...
*
Themistocles Themistocles (; ; ) was an Athenian politician and general. He was one of a new breed of non-aristocratic politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy. As a politician, Themistocles was a populist, having th ...
*
Aristides Aristides ( ; , ; 530–468 BC) was an ancient Athenian statesman. Nicknamed "the Just" (δίκαιος, ''díkaios''), he flourished at the beginning of Athens' Classical period and is remembered for his generalship in the Persian War. ...
* Pausanias *
Cimon Cimon or Kimon (; – 450BC) was an Athenian '' strategos'' (general and admiral) and politician. He was the son of Miltiades, also an Athenian ''strategos''. Cimon rose to prominence for his bravery fighting in the naval Battle of Salamis ...
*
Lysander Lysander (; ; 454 BC – 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 end. He then played ...
*
Alcibiades Alcibiades (; 450–404 BC) was an Athenian statesman and general. The last of the Alcmaeonidae, he played a major role in the second half of the Peloponnesian War as a strategic advisor, military commander, and politician, but subsequently ...
* Thrasybulus *
Conon Conon () (before 443 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 contributed significantly ...
* Dion * Iphicrates *
Chabrias Chabrias (; bef. 420–357 BC) was an Athens, 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 of the most ...
* Timotheus *
Datames Datames (Old Persian: ''Dātama'' or ''Dātāma'', Aramaic: ''Tadanmu'', ; 407 BC – 362 BC), also known as Tarkamuwa, was an Iranian military leader, who served as the governor (satrap) of the Achaemenid satrapy of Cappadocia (or Cilicia; the e ...
*
Epaminondas Epaminondas (; ; 419/411–362 BC) was a Greeks, Greek general and statesman of the 4th century BC who transformed the Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek polis, city-state of Thebes, Greece, Thebes, leading it out of Spartan subjugation into a pre ...
*
Pelopidas Pelopidas (; ; 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 distinguished family and p ...
* Agesilaus *
Eumenes Eumenes (; ; ) was a Ancient Greece, Greek general, satrap, and Diadoch, Successor of Alexander the Great. He participated in the Wars of Alexander the Great, serving as Alexander's personal secretary and later on as a battlefield commander. Eume ...
*
Phocion Phocion (; ''Phokion''; c. 402 – c. 318 BC), nicknamed The Good (, was an Athens, Athenian wikt:statesman, statesman and strategos, and the subject of one of Plutarch's ''Parallel Lives''. Phocion was a successful politician of Athens. He beli ...
* Timoleon * On Kings * Hamilcar *
Hannibal Hannibal (; ; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Punic people, Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Ancient Carthage, Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War. Hannibal's fat ...
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 ( ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. He won two civil wars and was instrumental in establishing the Nicene Creed as the orthodox doctrine for Nicene C ...
, 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
Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...
'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's other writings are lost, but several allusions to them survive in works by other authors.
Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, ...
's ''Attic Nights'' are of special importance in this respect. * ''Chronica'', an epitome of universal history;
Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; ), known as Catullus (), was a Latin neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic. His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes. Life ...
seems to allude to the "Chronica" in his dedication to Nepos.
Ausonius Decimius Magnus Ausonius (; ) was a Latin literature, Roman poet and Education in ancient Rome, teacher of classical rhetoric, rhetoric from Burdigala, Gallia Aquitania, Aquitaine (now Bordeaux, France). For a time, he was tutor to the future E ...
also mentions it in his sixteenth Epistle to Probus, as does
Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, ...
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 Valerius Maximus () was a 1st-century Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes: ' ("Nine books of memorable deeds and sayings", also known as ''De factis dictisque memorabilibus'' or ''Facta et dicta memorabilia''). He worke ...
; ''Exemplorum libri'', of which
Charisius Flavius Sosipater Charisius ( 4th century AD) was a Latin grammarian. He was probably an African by birth, summoned to Constantinople to take the place of Euanthius, a learned commentator on Terence. ''Ars Grammatica'' The ''Ars Grammatica'' ...
cites the second book, and
Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, ...
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's 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
Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...
. 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 Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius () was an early Christian author who became an advisor to Roman emperor Constantine I, guiding his Christian religious policy in its initial stages of emergence, and a tutor to his son Crispus. His most impo ...
(''Divinarum Institutionum Libri Septem'' III.15). It is unclear whether they were ever formally published.
Pliny the Younger Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo; 61 – ), better known in English as Pliny the Younger ( ), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and e ...
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
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 ...
, 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 Carl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim (26 January 1781 – 21 January 1831), better known as Achim von Arnim, was a German poet, novelist, and together with Clemens Brentano and Joseph von Eichendorff, a leading figure of German Romanticism. ...
for one of the characters in his novella '. 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 Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...
in the
Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
, 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, cannot 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


Further reading

* Anselm, S. ''Struktur und Transparenz : eine literaturwissenschaftliche Analyse der Feldherrnviten des Cornelius Nepos'' (= ''Altertumswissenschaftliches Kolloquium.'' vol. 11). Stuttgart: Steiner, 2004. * Bradley, J. R. The Sources of Cornelius Nepos : Selected Lives. New York: Garland Pub., 1991. * Conte, Gian Biagio. ''Latin Literature: a History'' (trans: Solodow, Joseph B.). Baltimore. 1994. esp. pp. 221–3. * Dunsch, B.''Omne aevum tribus explicare cartis – Zur Freundschaft von Nepos und Catull''.Antike und Abendland, vol. 58, 2012, pp.   37–51. * Geiger, M. J. ''Cornelius Nepos and Ancient Political Biography.'' Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, 1985. * Hägg, T. The Art of Biography in Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. * Heidenreich, H. ''“Nepos (Cornelius Nepos)“.'' In: ''The Reception of Classical Literature'', Brill`s New Pauly Supplements, vol. 5, Leiden: Brill, 2012. * Lobur, John Alexander. ''Cornelius Nepos: A Study in the Evidence and Influence.'' Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2021. * Lindsay, H. "The Biography of Atticus : Cornelius Nepos on the Philosophical and Ethical Background of Pomponius Atticus." Latomus, vol. 57, no. 2, 1998, pp. 324–336. * Lord, L. E. "The Biographical Interests of Nepos." The Classical Journal, vol. 22, no. 7, 1927, pp. 498–503. * Malcovati, Enrica. ''Quae exstant'' (G.B. Paravia, 1944). Includes a summary of all references to Nepos's lost works ("Deperditorum librorum reliquiae", pp. 177–206). * Marshall, P. K. The Manuscript Tradition of Cornelius Nepos. London: Institute of Classical Studies, 1977. * Millar, F. "Cornelius Nepos, 'Atticus' and the Roman Revolution." Greece & Rome, vol. 35, no. 1, 1988, pp. 40–55. *Peck, Harry Thurston: "Nepos" (Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1898). * Perini, Gi. B. and Cavarzere, A. (eds.): ''Orizzonti culturali di Cornelio Nipote. Dal Po a Roma. Atti del Convegno, Ostiglia, 27 aprile 2012 – Mantova, 28 aprile 2012'' (= Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana di Scienze Lettere e Arti : miscellanea, vol. 22). Firenze: Olschki, 2013. *Pryzwansky, M. M. "Cornelius Nepos: Key Issues and Critical Approaches." The Classical Journal, vol. 105, no. 2, 2010, pp. 97–108. * Ramon Palerm, Vicente. ''Plutarco y Nepote : fuentes e interpretación del modelo biográfico plutarqueo.'' Zaragoza, 1992. * Roberts, Arthur W. ''Selected Lives from Cornelius Nepos.'' Boston: Ginn & Company, 1895. * Stem, S. R. The Political Biographies of Cornelius Nepos. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2012. * Titchener, Frances. "Cornelius Nepos and the Biographical Tradition." Greece & Rome, vol. 50, no. 1, 2003, pp. 85–99. *Watson, Rev. John Selby. ''Justin, Cornelius Nepos, and Eutropius: Literally Translated, with Notes and a General Index.'' Henry G. Bohn, London 1853.


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 Ancient Roman biographers Cornelii 2nd-century BC Romans 1st-century BC Romans 1st-century BC writers in Latin 110s BC births 20s BC deaths Year of birth uncertain