Summary

Cornelius Nepótes (Hostilia, c. 100 B.C. - Rome, c. 27 B.C.) was a Roman historian and biographer.

Little is known about Cornelius Nepot's life. He was born in about 100 B.C. in Hostilia (present-day Ostiglia), then a small village in Cisalpine Gaul near the Po and not far from Verona, now located in the province of Mantua. Its Cisalpine origins are attested by Pliny the Elder, who described it as Padi accola, or inhabitant of the banks of the Po.

He moved perhaps in 65 B.C. to Rome, where he met such cultural figures of the time as Cicero (with whom he had long correspondence), Atticus, Varro, and Catullus. Unlike these, however, he was an outsider to the political life of those years. He had a special relationship with Catullus, who dedicated his Liber (or more likely part of it) to him:

According to Pliny the Elder's account, Cornelius Nepos died, probably in Rome, around 27 BC, "under the principate of Augustus."

The existence of the Chronica is attested by Catullus. These accounts show that the work was structured in three books and was a kind of compendium of universal history, from the mythical age to that contemporary with Nepot, perhaps based on the work of the same name by the Greek Apollodorus. As mentioned the work was entirely lost. Catullus says of it (I, 5-7), "ausus es unus.

Another significant work of his is the Exemplorum Libri, a collection of anecdotal episodes in five books. Aulus Gellius and Charisius testify to their existence.

The De viris illustribus is a collection of biographies in sixteen books divided into sections. Only the book devoted to foreign leaders (De excellentibus ducibus exterarum gentium) has reached us in its entirety. Also, isolated, are the lives of Cato the censor and Atticus.

Inspired by the poetae novi, perhaps in his youth, he also began to compose verse, but he did not have the desired results and soon abandoned this idea, although he remained faithful to the aesthetic line they supported, as indeed Catullus' dedication would suggest.

Cornelius Nepot's style is connoted by being flat and linear, sometimes very simple, although the writer attempted, especially in his biography of Atticus, to imitate the more complex style of his friend Cicero. The language is sometimes colored by some archaism. Finally, unlike other Latin authors, Nepote frequently employs the comparative of minority: among the Romans, in fact, there was a tendency to emphasize more the abundance of a quality than its deficiency. The essential style of this author (in fact, the language is often monotonous and the news is schematic and sketchy) has meant that, nevertheless, he is one of the most widely translated by those preparing to study Latin, with Caesar, Phaedrus, and Eutropius.

Sources

1. Cornelius Nepos
2. Cornelio Nepote
3. ^ a b c Roberts, Arthur W. Selected Lives from Cornelius Nepos. Boston: Ginn & Company, 1895.
4. ^ Achim von Arnim (1997) [1812]. Isabella von Ägypten. Translated by Bruce Duncan. Edward Mellon Press. ISBN 9780773484399.
5. ^ Stephen Stem (2021). The Political Biographies of Cornelius Nepos. University of Michigan Press. p. 16. ISBN 9780472118380.
6. ^ Plinio, Naturalis Historia, III 127.
7. ^ Plinio, Naturalis Historia, IX 137.
8. Плиний Младший. Письма, IV, 28 (1);
9. Марк Туллий Цицерон. К Аттику, DCCLXX [XVI, 5], (5);
10. Марк Туллий Цицерон. К Аттику, DCCCV [XVI, 14], (3);
11. Естественная история. Книга III, с. 127
12. Естественная история. Книга IX, Книга X
13. Np. ok. 99 p.n.e. (Słownik pisarzy antycznych, Warszawa 2001, s. 350) czy też po 109 p.n.e. (Słownik kultury antycznej, Warszawa 1988, s. 301).