Hor. _Sat._ i. 10, 42;
_Od._ ii. 1, 9 _sqq._) and love poems (Plin. _Ep._ v. 3, 5). (3) A
work in which the style of Sallust was criticized (Sueton. _Gramm._
10). His remarks on Caesar, Cicero, and Livy may be from the same book
(Sueton. _Iul._ 56; Quint. xii. 1, 22; i. 5, 56).

For Pollio's style, cf. Quint. x. 1, 113, 'A nitore et iucunditate
Ciceronis ita longe abest ut videri possit saeculo prior.' Pollio
founded the first public library at Rome, in the _Atrium Libertatis_,
B.C. 38 (Plin. _N.H._ xxxv. 10), For his intimacy with the poet Cinna,
who wrote the _Propempticon Pollionis_ in his honour, see p. 142; and
for his patronage of Virgil and Horace, see Verg. _Ecl._ 3, 84; 8,
6-13; Hor. _Sat._ i. 10, 42. Pollio, of course, belongs to the
Augustan Age, but is mentioned here because of his connexion with the
_Corpus Caesarianum_.

CORNELIUS NEPOS.

(1) LIFE.

The praenomen of Cornelius Nepos is unknown. In Pliny, _N.H._ iii.
127, he is called 'Padi adcola,' and in Pliny, _Ep._ iv. 28, 1 (to
Vibius Severus), he is mentioned as a townsman of T. Catius, 'Imagines
municipum tuorum, Cornelii Nepotis et T. Cati.' Now T. Catius was an
Insubrian (Cic. _ad Fam._ xv. 16, 1), and as the only Insubrian town
on the Padus was Ticinum, Nepos was probably born there.

There is no direct evidence as to the date of his birth but we may
infer from the following facts that he was born not long before B.C.
100.

1. Jerome puts his literary activity under B.C. 40 = yr. Abr. 1977,
'Cornelius Nepos scriptor historicus clarus habetur.'

2. A son of his died B.C. 44 while a boy, and unknown to Cicero.

Cic. _ad Att._ xvi. 14, 4, 'Male narras de Nepotis filio: valde
mehercule moveor et moleste fero; nescieram omnino esse istum puerum.'

3. The respect with which he looks up to Atticus, who was born B.C.
109.

4. A fragment of his _Exempla_ quoted by Pliny, _N.H._ ix. 136,
regarding the changes of fashion in purple robes: 'Nepos Cornelius,
qui divi Augusti principatu obiit, "Me," inquit, "iuvene violacea
purpura vigebat, ... nec multo post rubra Tarentina. Huic successit
dibapha Tyria... Hac P. Lentulus Spinther aedilis curulis (B.C. 63)
primus in praetexta usus improbabatur. Qua purpura quis non iam,"
inquit, "triclinaria facit?"'

Nepos held no public office, but confined himself to literature, in
which he was associated with Atticus. Their intimacy must have begun
after B.C. 65, when Atticus returned to Rome from Athens