[Sidenote: Cornelius Nepos.] A much less interesting writer than Sallust is Cornelius Nepos. Like Catullus and several other authors of this period, he came to Rome from the north. His birthplace was probably Ticinum, on the river Po. Little is known of his life, which appears to have extended from a little before 100 B. C. to a little after 30 B. C. He was a friend of Catullus and of Cicero’s friend Atticus, probably also of other literary men at Rome. His works were all, with the exception of some love poems, historical and biographical. The _Chronica_, in three books, treating of universal history, was probably written before 52 B. C. The _Exempla_, in five books, was a history of Roman manners and customs. Three other works were a _Life of Cato_ (the elder), a _Life of Cicero_, and a treatise on geography. His latest work, published apparently between 35 and 33 B. C., was a great collection of biographies of distinguished men (_De Viris Illustribus_), dedicated to Atticus. An addition to the life of Atticus was made between 31 and 27 B. C. This work contained at least sixteen books, and was divided into sections of two books each, so that each section contained one book on Romans and one on foreigners. The sections treated of Kings, Generals, Statesmen, Orators, Poets, Philosophers, Historians, and Grammarians. [Sidenote: Qualities of the works of Nepos.] Of all the works of Nepos, there remain to us only the book on foreign generals, and from the book on Roman historians the lives of Cato the elder and of Atticus, besides fragments of the letters of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi. The book on foreign generals contains biographies of twenty Greek generals, a brief sketch of kings who were also generals, and biographies of Hamilcar and Hannibal. Nepos draws his facts from good sources, such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Theopompus, Polybius, and the writings of Hannibal, but is careless and uncritical, and does not employ all the important sources of information on each subject. He makes mistakes in matters of history and geography, arranges his material badly, and gives to trivial anecdotes the space that might better have been devoted to more important matters. His style, though generally clear, is without elegance. The structure of his sentences is simple, and his subject-matter is interesting. For these reasons, rather than on account of any literary merit, his _Lives_ have been much used as a text-book for beginners in Latin.