Nine Books of Memorable Deeds and Sayings

and performed; thence came a rhetorical, flowery, and ornate style of speech, tangled with constant subtleties and insolent witticisms. And while we know this to have been characteristic of other writers of the same age, we see it cultivated by Valerius with particular zeal. For it was in his interest, through the very work itself, to set forth for his students both a distinguished example of the art and a standard for that eloquence which he had uniquely conceived in his mind as refined, ingenious, and effective. If this is true, it becomes apparent that in examining and weighing the efforts of Valerius, one must not employ the same scale as one would for works concerned with pure history. For it was not his intention to compile history, as he himself professes. That particular epitomator original: "epitomator ille" who reduced these books into a compendium form in ancient times perceived the author's plan better than most modern men who have voiced their opinions about him 1.

However, just because the author may have held this utility of the work primarily before his eyes, I would not deny that he simultaneously followed another purpose in selecting and recounting memorable sayings and deeds, which gave a peculiar form to this little book. For who can fail to perceive that, by representing notable virtues and vices and reporting customs and institutions worthy of praise or blame, he wished his contemporaries to gaze into the lives of men as if into a mirror and to take examples for themselves from others? Furthermore, so large a part of this book is occupied with illustrating and amplifying the Roman name that it cannot escape anyone that, by a certain design, the Roman people are depicted as a specimen and example of every individual virtue and decorum 2. This virtue is represented during the times of the free Republic by the offspring of illustrious families: the Cornelii, the Fabii, the Caecilii, the Aemilii, the Claudii, and later the Caesars and those who stood on their side. To these, external examples seem to be added only so that domestic glory may shine more clearly through the very comparison and to delight with variety 3. Nor is he always a just judge of the latter, even if he has been their immoderate praiser 4. But of these things more...

1) Cf. the letter of Paris prefaced to the epitome in Mai's "New Collection of Ancient Writers," Vol. III, Part 3, p. 1.
2) Cf. I, 1, 8; I, 1, 15; II, 7, 15; IIII, 7, 4.
3) Cf. III, 8, ext. 1; VII, 2, ext. 1; VI, 3, ext. 1; VI, 9, ext. 1; VIII, 15, ext. 1.
4) To cite a few from many, he frequently and with almost ridiculous hatred vented his spleen against the Greeks. Cf. III, 2, 22; IIII, 7, 4.