At an early age he went to Rome, where he studied under Appion. It does not appear that he could have seen Tiberius, who by this time had retired to Capreae; but it is probable that he was admitted to the court of Caligula. When twenty-two years of age, he resided some time on the coast of Africa, and afterwards served in the cavalry under Lucius Pomponius, when he had an opportunity of traversing Germany from one extremity to the other. At this time he wrote a treatise, De Jaculatione Equestri, on the art of casting the javelin on horse-back; and afterwards composed an historical work, in which he detailed all the wars carried on by the Romans beyond the Rhine. Returning to Rome at the age of thirty, he pled several causes, and became a member of the college of augurs. Part of his time was spent at Comum in superintending the education of his nephew, for whom, it is probable, he composed his three books entitled Studiosus, in which he described the progress of an orator in the various steps towards perfection. During the greater part of the reign of Nero he seems to have been without any public employment; but towards the end of it he was appointed procurator in Spain, where, it is presumed, he remained pending the civil wars of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. On revisiting the capital he was favourably received by Vespasian, on whom he had the privilege of waiting every morning before sunrise, as already mentioned. It is probable that at this period he wrote the History of his own Times, which consisted of thirty-one books, and completed the work which Aufidius Bassus had left unfinished. His Natural History, which he dedicated to Titus, appears to have been finished about the 78th year of our era.