Nepos, Cornelius

Nepos, Cornelius nē´pŏs [key], c.100 BC–c.25 BC, Roman historian. He was an intimate friend of Pomponius Atticus, Cicero, and Catullus. His only extant work is a collection of biographies, mostly from a lost larger work, De viris illustribus [on illustrious men]. The general method was to compare the lives of great Roman and non-Roman leaders. Nepos wrote in a popular manner in clear and simple Latin; his work was sometimes inaccurate, but significant in the history of biography writing.

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