thumbnail|Cornelius Nepos

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

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 born at Hostilia, a village in Cisalpine Gaul not far from Verona, or at Ticinum (modern Pavia).

He was a friend of Catullus, who dedicates his poems to him (I.3), Cicero and Titus Pomponius Atticus. Eusebius places him in the fourth year of the reign of Augustus, 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'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);

  • 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's era." 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, 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.
  • Works by Cornelius Nepos at Perseus Digital Library
  • Dickinson College Commentaries: Life of Hannibal
  • Works of Nepos, in Latin, at the Latin Library
  • Cornelius Nepos at tertullian.org (Rev. John Selby Watson's translation of the Lives, with preface and translation of the fragments by Roger Pearse)