mpare foreigners with
Romans, and to please, as well as instruct, those ignorant of Greek
culture.

_Pel._ 1, 1, 'Vereor ... ne non vitam eius enarrare, sed historiam
videar scribere.'

_Hann._ 13, 4, 'Tempus est ... Romanorum explicare imperatores, quo
facilius collatis utrorumque factis, qui viri praeferendi sint, possit
iudicari.'

_Pel._ 1, 1, 'Medebor cum satietati tum ignorantiae lectorum.'

_Praef._ 2, 'Hi erunt fere, qui expertes litterarum Graecarum,' etc.

Besides tradition and his own recollection, Nepos mentions the
following sources: Thucydides (_Them._ 1, 4, etc.); Xenophon (_Ag._ 1,
1); Plato's _Symposium_ (_Alc._ 2, 2); Theopompus (_Alc._ 11, 1);
Dinon (_Con._ 5, 4); Timaeus (_Alc._ 11, 1); Silenus, Sosilus,
Polybius, Sulpicius Blitho, Atticus (_Hann._ 13, 1 and 3); the
writings of Hannibal (_Hann._ 13, 2); Speeches and _Origines_ of Cato
(_Cat._ 3, 2); Cicero's works, especially _Epp. ad Att._ (_Att._ 16,
3). The book contains lives of twenty Greek generals from the Persian
wars to the time of Alexander's successors; a short article on Persian
and Macedonian kings who were also generals; and the lives of Hamilcar
and Hannibal, Cato and Atticus. The work possesses little independent
value, and the following are the chief faults:

1. There are many mistakes in history and geography.

2. The biographies, and the events recorded in them, are badly
arranged; eulogy is employed indiscriminately, and petty anecdotes are
too frequent.

3. Important names, as Cimon and Lysander, are dismissed too briefly;
others, as Atticus and Datames, are treated too fully. Many are left
out altogether, as some of the leaders in the Peloponnesian war.

4. Important authorities are not used: so Herodotus, for Miltiades,
Themistocles, and Pausanias. No use is made of the _Hellenica_ of
Xenophon.

For views on Nepos, cf. Gell. xv. 28, 1, 'Cornelius Nepos rerum
memoriae non indiligens.'

Pliny, _N.H._ v. 4, 'Portentosa Graeciae mendacia ... quaeque alia
Cornelius Nepos avidissime credidit.'

Nepos is not mentioned by Quintilian in his list of Roman historians.

In the MSS. only the _Atticus_ and the _Cato_ are ascribed to Nepos,
the rest being entitled _Liber Aemilii Probi de excellentibus ducibus
exterarum gentium_. It has been suggested that this arose from a
misapprehension of _em_(_endavi_) _Probus_. There is an epigram by
this Probus in the MSS., referring to poems of his and standing after
the Life of Hanni