Valerius Maximus

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Valerius Maximus , c.20 BC–c.AD 50, Roman author. Little is known of his life. His Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX [nine books of memorable deeds and sayings] was written c.AD 30 and is a miscellany of anecdotes about a variety of subjects. The work was widely popular, especially as a source for writers and orators.

Valerius Maximus, in Tiberius' reign composed a handbook of illustrative examples of ‘memorable deeds and sayings’, Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX. He was a friend of a Sextus Pompeius whom, if he is correctly identified with the Sextus Pompeius who was consul in AD 14, he accompanied to his governorship in Asia (Val. Max. 2. 6. 8: AD 24/5?), composing his book after his return. It is dedicated to Tiberius, to whom constant flattery is addressed; and the violent denunciation of a conspirator usually identified with Sejanus (9. 10. Externa 4) suggests, if this identification is correct, that it was published soon after his downfall in 31. The subject-matter has no clearly defined plan, but is divided under headings mostly moral or philosophical in character (e.g. Omens, Moderation, Gratitude, Chastity, Cruelty), usually illustrated by Roman (domestica) and foreign (externa) examples. The latter, chiefly Greek, are admittedly less important, and in keeping with the strongly national spirit of the compilation are outnumbered by the domestica by two to one. Valerius' chief sources seem to have been Livy and Cicero, but there are indications of many others, such as Varro, Coelius Antipater, Pompeius Trogus, and several Greek writers. His use of this material is almost entirely non-critical, and varies greatly in extent and accuracy. The work has been condemned as shallow, sententious, and bombastic, full of the boldest metaphor and rhetorical artifices of the silver age, especially forced antitheses and farfetched epigrams, only occasionally relieved by touches of poetic fancy or neat passages of narrative or dialogue; but its sources and alignment have begun to attract attention. The variety and convenience of the compilation ensured some measure of success in antiquity, and considerably more in the Middle Ages. It is referred to by Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, and others. Most significant, however, is the existence of two later epitomes. The first is by Julius Paris (4th cent.?) and has attached to it a summary on Roman names, De praenominibus, ascribed to a certain C. Titius Probus and elsewhere erroneously included in MSS as book 10 of Valerius' own work. The second, by Ianuarius Nepotianus (5th cent.?), breaks off early in book 3.

George Clement Whittick; and Barbara M. Levick