nostra speciosi
ministerii locum. Finita equestri militia designatus quaestor necdum
senator aequatus senatoribus, etiam designatis tribunis plebei, partem
exercitus ab urbe traditi ab Augusto perduxi ad filium eius. In
quaestura deinde remissa sorte provinciae legatus eiusdem ad eumdem
missus sum.'

In A.D. 9 Velleius served in Dalmatia (ii. 115, 5), afterwards
spending two years in Germany (ii. 104, 3 above). In the winter of
A.D. 12-13 he took part in the triumph of Tiberius: ii. 121, 2, 'Ex
Pannoniis Delmatisque egit triumphum ... quem mihi fratrique meo inter
praecipuos praecipuisque donis adornatos viros comitari contigit.'

Velleius was praetor-elect in A.D. 14: ii. 124, 4, 'Quo tempore mihi
fratrique meo, candidatis Caesaris, proxime a nobilissimis ac
sacerdotalibus viris destinari praetoribus contigit, consecutis ut
neque post nos quemquam divus Augustus neque ante nos Caesar
commendaret Tiberius.'

The publication of his history, sixteen years later, is the only
circumstance recorded of Velleius after this date.

The _Historia Romana_, in two Books, was published A.D. 30, in the
consulship of M. Vinicius, to whom the book is addressed (i. 8, 1, and
often). The beginning of Book i. is lost; the first eight chapters in
our text are occupied with a rapid survey of the history of Greece
since the Trojan war, the Phoenician settlements in the Mediterranean,
and the chief events in the history of the world before the foundation
of Rome. C. 8 breaks off at the rape of the Sabine women, and there is
a great lacuna before we reach, in c. 9, the defeat of Perseus at
Pydna in B.C. 168. Ch. 9-13 carry the narrative down to the
destruction of Carthage and Corinth. Book ii. commences at that point,
and ends with the death of Livia, A.D. 29 (ii. 130, 5, 'cuius temporis
aegritudinem auxit amissa mater').

Velleius is constantly calling attention to the brevity and
compression of his treatment, in such phrases as 'omnia transcursu
dicenda' (ii. 55), 'artatum opus' (ii. 86), 'recisum opus' (ii. 89).
Much that the plan of his book compels him to omit, he promises to
publish later in a larger work, _e.g._ ii. 99, 3, 'iusto servemus
operi,' ii. 114, 4, 'iustis voluminibus ordine narrabimus.' Even as it
is, he occasionally pauses to describe a great character (ii. 41,
Caesar), or to express his personal opinion (ii. 66, 3, denunciation
of Antony for Cicero's murder). Specially noticeable are the
digressions on the Roman colo