Cornelius Nepos

Cornelius Nepos (c. 100 BC; † after 28 BC) was a Roman historian and biographer.

Life

Nepos, who came from northern Italy ( Cisalpine Gaul ) and is likely to have belonged to the equestrian order was friends with the neoteric poet Catullus, who dedicated his collection of poems, Marcus Tullius Cicero and Titus Pomponius Atticus whose confidants.

Of his numerous works (including histories and geography ) are preserved only a few biographies of De viris illustribus, namely. Concerning the non-Roman generals and the Book of Latin historians associated higher Cato the Elder and Atticus

Add to Nepos manuscripts also narrated are also two fragments of a letter of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, in which they attack her son Gaius Sempronius Gracchus violently. The authenticity of the letter is disputed.

Due to its simple style were and are the works of Nepos a common school curriculum.

Besides fragments following life histories are obtained: Miltiades; Themistocles; Aristides; Lysander; Pausanias; Kimon; Alcibiades; Thrasybulus; Conon; Dion; Iphicrates; Chabrias; Timotheos; Datames; Epaminondas; Pelopidas; Agesilaus; Eumenes; Phocion; De Regibus; Timoleon; Hamilcar; Hannibal; M. Porcius Cato; T. Pomponius Atticus.

Editions and translations

• Peter K. Marshall ( ed.): Cornelii Nepotis Vitae cum Fragmentis, Leipzig 1977.
• Cornelius Nepos: De viris illustribus / biographies brühmter men. Latin / German, ed. and trans. by Peter Krafft and Felicitas Olef Krafft, Stuttgart 1993.
• Cornelius Nepos: Famous Men / De viris illustribus. Latin - German, ed. and trans. by Michaela Pfeiffer and Rainer Nickel, Dusseldorf 2006.