Roman History (Historia Romana)

From all these, the character of these men, and the causes of their actions, undertakings, and achievements—insofar as they reside within the persons—are perceived. In this genre, the greater a person is in the glory of their name, the more diligent and copious Velleius is in describing their character and customs. He seems to have pleased himself so much in this genre that he almost never fails to place an image of them before the eyes when he encounters men who are significant on either side. These notations of character, which are inserted in an opportune place, wonderfully aid the reader’s judgment of these persons. They commend themselves by their truth and the brevity of the speech, are a significant ornament and delight of the work, distinguish the narrative by their variety, and are for the readers like resting places where the mind can pause after a long and hurried traversal of briefly presented events.

Then, when he approaches the events themselves, he compiles the sum of the matter by prudently selecting the parts, so that whatever would be most in the reader's interest to perceive is not at all missed. For examples, among others, one might take the brief and apt exposition of the Social War (II. 15 and 16) and the Catilinarian Conspiracy. But he had regard not only for the understanding of the readers, but also for moving the affections of their minds, by selecting those parts that place the magnitude of the things and persons before the eyes, excite admiration, inject or dispel fear, instill joy regarding the outcome, and move one to grief and pity. Therefore, he often holds the minds of his readers by placing dangers to be discussed before their eyes (see, for example, II. 2, 6 ff., 18 ff., 109, and 110 ff.), by justly estimating the opposing forces (see, for example, 2, 49, 51 ff., 84, 109, 110 ff. compared with 111), by exposing the impediments thrown in the way of plans and actions (see, for example, II. 51 ff., 55 ff., 79 ff.), by pursuing the reason and prudence of the plans by which they were scattered, as well as the fortitude of the actions (see II. 11 and II. 88 compared with I. 111, 112 ff.), and finally by leading to an outcome that was either unexpected or deplorable (see, for example, II. 28, 66, 67).

In treating events in this way, he structured his brevity for both causes and effects of events—the kind which is called pragmatic. For he either adds the causes of the whole event, and of that which is great, more fully at the very beginning of the narrative (see, for example, II. 2, 6, 13, 44, 48, etc.), or he intermixed them into the exposition of the parts and individual events (see, for example, II. 21, 48, 63, 82); nor did he only have regard for those causes that were certainly established, or appeared so to him, but also for those that were either reported by many, or which it was possible to reach by conjecture. See, for example, II. 2, 6, 48. These causes, however, he either correctly derives from antecedent events (see the aforementioned passages) or from the character of the human mind and the customs of men—even the perverse ones—whose power, proven elsewhere by common experience of things, is confirmed by the very fact narrated by the writer. In this very genre, Velleius generally prefers a sententious method of proposing ideas, passing from a common place encompassing the cause to the effected matter. See, for example, I. 9, II. 30, 31, 53, etc.