The lives of illustrious men written in Latin by Cor. Nepos and done into English by several hands.

THE LIFE OF CORN. NEPOS.

THere is no part of Hu∣man Learning so uni∣versally Advantageous to Mankind, as History. It res∣cues our Ancestors from Obli∣vion; It can Instruct and Delight the Present and Future Ages. We are oblig'd by all the Laws of Natural Religion, to preserve our Relations as long as possibly we can: Even then when their Lives are scarce worth the keep∣ing, when Old Age has ren∣der'd them useless both in Pub∣lic and Private Capacities, by the nauseous Methods of Phy∣sick,

we endeavour to keep them among us. And certainly our Piety should not end at the Grave; but employ it self in securing all that remains of them. Urns and Pyramids can only preserve their Ashes; which are, even to the most curious Observer, undistinguishable from those of other Men. Pictures and Medals represent only their outward Lineaments; which are often not unlike in Fools and Wise-men. But History gives an Account of their Nobler Parts; their Wit, their Learn∣ing, and their Virtue: And the Reader hath, what will be no inconsiderable part of our Hap∣piness in the other World, the Conversation of all the Great and Good Men of past Ages.

And their Examples will prove to him far greater Incentives to Virtue than all the grave and serious Precepts of Philoso∣phers. They assume to them∣selves the Boldness and Ma∣jesty of a Legislator, lay down rigid and severe Rules of Life, treat us with jejune and ab∣stracted Notions, which few Persons can understand, much less deduce to practice: But the the force of Example is intelli∣gible to the meanest Capacities. We Read, and Admire; and, having naturally an Itch after Glory, pursue the same Me∣thods our Forefathers so suc∣cessfully proceeded in.

But tho History in General be so Pleasant and Instructive, yet certainly Biography is more

Eminently so. The General Historian is wholly taken up in giving the Relations of Great and Glorious Exploits; of the Rise and Fall of Empires and Great Men. You have Alexan∣der at the Granic, and Cesar in the Fields of Pharsalia: But an account of their daily Conver∣sation, of the Menage of their Estate, their Behaviour to their Friends and their Family, their Government of their own Passi∣ons, is below the Dignity of the Subject; and if the Author should oblige us by an useful Digression (it may be, of more real Advantage than the whole Series of the History) it would be call'd by the Men of Art, an impertinent Excrescence; and the whole Work be esteem'd

Monstrous, that in one part so swells beyond the lawful pro∣portion. As the poor Poet is Damn'd in Horace, that because he had got a delicate Descrip∣tion of the Rhine, was resolv'd to insert it into his Poem, tho wholly impertinent to his De∣sign.

Yet certainly the History of these Actions, tho of a meaner nature, is infinitely more useful. The other, 'tis true, are more Heroical and Illustrious, extreme∣ly fit objects for our Admira∣tion, but usually unimitable. They do indeed raise our Atten∣tion; but then they debauch our Reason: For, as the Sto∣machs of those who have in∣dulg'd themselves in the use of Spirituous Liquors, can after∣wards

admit of no wholesom Diet: So, after these Miracu∣lous Accounts of Knights and Giants, all sober and sound Sense proves Nauseous to us.

In the General History, we see the Hero at the Head of an Army, or in a Triumph; but by what Steps and Degrees he rais'd Himself to this Great∣ness, we are unacquainted with; which would yet more improve and delight the Reader. The Acquisition of Glory, is like that of Money: The greatest Art consists in getting a Stock at first; which afterwards, if manag'd with an ordinary Pru∣dence, encreases prodigiously.

Biography is indeed of a li∣mited and confin'd Nature; since it respects only the Acti∣ons

of particular Persons, and is not oblig'd to give the whole Process of an Expedition. And therefore, since the Mithridatic War was manag'd by Sylla, Lucullus, and Pompey, successive∣ly, an accurate Description of it is not to be expected from the Biographer. But then the General Historian is as imper∣fect in the Lives of particular Persons; takes them only as they fall in his way, and can∣not insist long upon them, with∣out transgressing the Laws of a Methodical History. But the Biographer attends his Hero from the Cradle to the Throne: Shews him at first, it may be, mean and contemptible, despis'd and depress'd, till at last by Ver∣tue and Industry he breaks thro

all Impediments, and in despite of Envy and Detraction, mounts Himself above his peevish Ene∣mies. He accompanies him in his Retirements, gives his Car∣riage to his Friend and Relati∣ons, acquaints you with his Di∣vertisements, lays aside the State and Grandeur, the Pomp and Parade, draws the Scene, and shews you the Man himself, di∣vested of his Gaudy or Formal Dress. And then, whereas the General Historian, like a false Courtier, takes notice of him only in his Greatness; and when he becomes unfit for Service in the Camp or the Senate (as some ill Masters do their worn∣out Servants) deserts him; Bio∣graphy still waits upon him, tho discarded the Court; and tells

you with what Courage and good Grace he bears the Af∣fronts of his ungrateful Coun∣try-men, his Sickness, and Death it self. Which certainly (unless you read History as Ladies do Romances) you would as wil∣lingly be inform'd of, as his Gallantry in the hottest Engage∣ment. 'Twere easie to enlarge upon this subject, were I to write a Panegyric of Biography, and not the Life of a parti∣cular Historian.

Among Authors of this Na∣ture, there is scarce any so con∣siderable as C. Nepos; who has had the good Fortune to please the most Judicious Critics of all Ages; but in this is strangely unhappy, That having been so industrious in Immortalizing

other Men, and having wrote a particular Volume of the Lives of Historians, he himself has been almost forgotten, and we have very little left us con∣cerning him. Nay, and to add to the Misfortune, even this very Treatise, of the Lives of Excel∣lent Generals, which is the only one left us of his numerous Writings, hath by some very ill Judges been attributed to an obscure person, one Aemilius Probus, who liv'd in the Barba∣rous Age of Theodosius. But of this below.

He was born in Hostilia, a Village depending upon Verona; whereof Pliny, Antonine in his Itinerary, &c. make mention; and is at this day subject to the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of Verona. Verona lies near the Po;

upon which account Pliny calls our Author Podi Accola: It is situated likewise in that part of Italy which the Romans (for to us 'tis otherwise) call'd Italia Transpadana, that part of Italy which is on the other side the Po: So that Catullus, in his De∣dication of his Excellent Poems to C. Nepos, might very justly call him an Italian. But because the same Country was call'd Gallia Togata (or that part of Gall wherein Gowns, the Roman Habit, were worn, in opposi∣tion to Gallia Braccata, so nam'd from the Garments of the Bar∣barous Inhabitants) Ausonius, alluding to Catullus's foremen∣tion'd Epigram, tells his Paca∣tus, That he had found a more Learn'd and Obliging Patron

than Gall furnish'd Catullus with. But these two Poets may be easily reconcil'd, considering that the same place was, with diffe∣rent respects, reckon'd part both of Gall and Italy. Now, that Nepos was a Veronese, was the constant opinion of that City, where in the Senate-House his Statue was erected among those of the Illustrious Men born there. Elios Vinetus would in∣deed perswade us, that there is nothing of certainty when Ne∣pos was born; but besides the constant Tradition of the City of Verona, and that his Statue was plac'd among those of the Ve∣ronian Writers, (which certainly would satisfie any man of a tolerable ingenuity) we have the Authority of Leander, Alber∣tus,

Paulus Merula, and of the Learn'd and Illustrious Alexan∣der Becellus, Chancellor of Ve∣rona.

The Territories of Verona en∣joy a delicate thin Air; the Soil as healthful, as well water'd, and supply'd with Fruits of all kinds, as most places in the World; as if it were design'd by Nature for the Country of Great and Witty Men. 'Tis not impossible for a great Genius to proceed from an unhealthy and boggy Soil, where the Air as well as Water stagnates, and is cor∣rupted: But 'tis very improbable there should. Plutarch and Pin∣dar were born in Boeotia, but not one eminent Writer more, as we hear of. Erasmus came from Rotterdam; and yet the greatest

Judg of the last Age was pleas'd to say of Gretser, 'Tis a Witty Man for a German. And if we consider the dependance which our Souls have upon our Bo∣dies, as to their operations, we need not wonder, that thick and foggy Airs should so seldom be bless'd with extraordinary Men. 'Tis certainly a mighty Advan∣tage to be Born in a place emi∣nent for Wit and Learning; where great Examples daily ap∣pear before us, and raise in us a generous Emulation to equal or surpass them. Upon this ac∣count it is, that Cities have be∣come famous for some parti∣cular Excellence; and Wit, as some Herbs, if once rooted in a ground, cannot without diffi∣culty be got out. Verona has

indeed produc'd as great Wits, and as Learn'd Men in all Fa∣culties, as any City perhaps in the World. Here were born the two Plinies, Macer the Bo∣tanic Poet, Vitruvius the Archi∣tect, and (in a later Age) that Prodigy of Wit and Learning Hieronymus Fracastorius, the best Phyfitian, Mathematician, and Poet of his Age.

As Nepos was Born in a Place famous for polite Learning, so likewise in an Age when Wit and Elegance of Stile were ad∣vanc'd to their utmost perfecti∣on; in that Age which the Cri∣tics call, The Golden Age of Elc∣quence. There is no question, but Junius the Rebel, M. Vale∣rius the Dictator, Menenius Agrip∣pa, so famous for Reconciling

the Patricians and Plebeians, did make Orations to the People; tho not so fine ones as Histori∣ans ascribe to them. They were certainly Men of incomparable Valour and of sound Sense; but they had only a good unpolish'd rough Eloquence, and with that attain'd their Ends upon a People rude and illiterate; and wanted only a Grecian Education, to render 'em the greatest Wits in their Age. But as the Roman Empire began to extend it self into Greece, and People admir'd the Oratory of that Nation, the Roman Language was daily re∣fin'd. It at first became neat and clean, the Words and Phrases proper and easie, not florid, much less ranting and fustian. This is that which is so admirable in

the ancient Comedies, of which Plautus and Terence are the on∣ly now left us; which as Scali∣ger well observes, our misfor∣tunes have endear'd to us; we admire them the more, because we have none else left us to ad∣mire. In the Eloquence of that Age, there was nothing affected, nothing of Paint and Daubing, but pure Natural Beauty, un∣debauch'd, and preferable upon account of its Native simplicity to all the swelling Rhetoric of some after Ages. But at last the Roman style was Illustrated with Tropes and Figures; which, if Modestly made use of, are the real Ornaments of a style, but if us'd with Imprudence, become nauseous, and more like the Say∣ings of a Mad-man than an

Orator. In this Golden Age, the Romans had rais'd themselves to the utmost pitch, they had gone as far as Prudence would permit them; which when their immediate Successors endea∣vour'd to surpass, they swell'd into Bombast, and their Wit was more like an Hydropic Tumor, than a Natural Plumpness. The Spaniards brought this disease of style into Italy; and Cicero in his Oration for Archios the Poet, ex∣poses the Barbarous and Greasie Wit of that Nation. And yet there are some Men who com∣pare and prefer Martial to Ca∣tullus, between whom there is as wide a difference, as betwixt the sordid Drollery of a Buffoon and the Ingenious Raillery of a Gentleman. They have had a

greater esteem for the Heat of Lucan, than the just Greatness of Virgil. But the best Judges rather pity these mistaken Gen∣tlemen, that dispute with them.

Now to be considerable in such an Age as this, to be infi∣nitely esteem'd and Caress'd by the greatest Persons in it, is an infallible Argument of the real Excellence of an Author. When Cicero, Catullus, Atticus, &c. ap∣pear as Witnesses, it must needs be a vile Ignoramus Jury that will not find the Bill. Catullus, the most accurate and delicate Epi∣grammatist that ever writ, dedi∣cated his Poems to him. Cicero was his most intimate and bo∣som Friend; there was a con∣stant Intercourse of Letters be∣twixt them. Sueton in his Life

of Julius Cesar takes notice of a Letter from Cicero to Nepos, and Lactantius quotes an Epistle of Nepos to Tully. Nay their Epi∣stolary Commerce was so great, that Macrobius makes mention of the second Book of Epistles from Tully to Nepos. His intimacy with Atticus is evident from the Life of Atticus, here annex'd to his Lives of Excellent Generals; for Atticus himself was so far from being one, that he never engag'd in the War either for Caesar or Pompey, and yet had the good Fortune (which I be∣leive very few of that Humour ever met with) to be Honour'd, esteem'd, and unmolested thro the whole course of his Life.

He left many Learned and Curious Works behind him,

which the injury of time hath depriv'd us of; and we have on∣ly just enough left us to see the greatness of our loss in the rest. He was Author of a Book, which he call'd his Chronicle, wherein (in three distinct Volumes) he gave an account of those three great Intervals of time, which Historians so much talk of, The Obscure and Uncertain, the Fabulous, and the Histo∣rical Ages of the World. As to the first and second, Tertullian informs us, that Nepos affirms, there never was any Saturn but what was a Man; and Au∣sonius tells his Pupil the Empe∣ror, that he sent him Titianus's Fables, and Nepos's Chronicles, which were not much unlike 'em; and Catullus in his Preface

to his Poems, tells us, that Ne∣pos did Omne Aevum tribus explicare chartis.

Besides this great Work, he writ the Lives of Illustrious Men, of which twenty-two, which re∣spect the Grecians and Barbari∣ans, are transmitted to us; and likewise the Lives of the Roman Hero's (as is evident from his Life of Hannibal) and the Roman Kings. But what thro the Inva∣sion of Forreign Nations, and the Ignorance and carelessness of Superstitious Monks, who let them ly and rot unobserv'd in their Libraries, we have only their Titles from other Authors, which had the good fortune to survive. Aemilius Probus hath by some Critics bin suppos'd to be the Author of the Lives of For∣reign

Generals; But 'tis a palpa∣ble mistake occasion'd by an E∣pigram prefix'd to some antient Manuscripts of this Author, wherein Probus commands his Book, if the Emperor Theodosius enquire after the Author, to tell Him it is one Probus. But then it follows, Corpore in hoc manus est Genetricis Avique Meique, viz. that his own hand, his Mothers, and Grandfathers were concern'd in the work. Whence 'tis clear be∣yond contradiction, that this Pro∣bus was only a Transcriber. Be∣sides, can Robortellus who writ a Treatise of the Art of Criticism, or any Man of common Learning and Sense, perswade himself, that this wretched Poet could be the Author of this most delicate and

Judicious peice of History. But from the cleanness and tersness of Expression may undeniably be evinc'd, that the Author of this Book liv'd in the Age of Julius and Augustus; and besides all this there are forty places in the Lives themselves that prove Nepos was their Author, and liv'd in the Age aforesaid, for which if you please consult Lambin.

But Nepos hath not bin more abus'd by ascribing his Works to other Men, than in making him the Author of some peices wholy Unworthy of him. Thus the Book of Illustrious Men, which usually was said to be Pliny's, but is really Aurelius Victor's, some Critics Father upon our Author, and the Translation of Dares the Phry∣gian is said to be his: But the ve∣ry

style it self is sufficient to con∣vince any Judicious Reader. Ne∣pos, in the Judgement of some Men liv'd after the Nativity of our Lord, but if you consider how Celebrated he was for his Learning in the days of Catullus, Cicero and Atticus, you will find no great reason to subscribe to their opinion.