Cornelius Nepos and the Biographical Tradition
By Frances Titchener
Abstract: Scholarly interest in Cornelius Nepos has typically been in direct proportion to what light Nepos could shed on other, more significant, figures of the day: Catullus and Cicero, obviously, but chiefly that elusive and enigmatic man behind the scenes, Atticus. Yet Nepos survived the turbulent storm of the Late Republic, counted influential politicians, citizens, and artists as his personal friends, and wrote a fair amount about all of it, including the Chronica (a univeral history), possibly a geographical treatise, some kind of poetry, and of course the series of parallel biographies of Romans and non-Romans. He occupies a small but important place in the history of Roman and all ancient biography, and is ‘someone who in his modest way reflects many of the major tendencies of Roman society and culture in the first century BC’. Yet he and his writings have been and continue to be the object of some intense scholarly and artistic criticism, harsh beyond what seems reasonable. This paper aims to present a reasoned picture of Nepos’ purpose, method, and style, and to supply one answer to the question of why he has inspired such a negative reaction in some circles.