A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Valerius Maximus, to whom the praenomen Marcus is assigned in one of the best MSS., and that of Publius in another, is known to us as the compiler of a large collection of historical anecdotes, entitled De Factis Dictisque Memorabilibus Libri IX., arranged under different heads, the sayings and doings of Roman worthies being, moreover, kept distinct in each division from those of foreigners. No reasonable doubt can be entertained with regard to the period when he fourished. The dedication is indeed couched in such general terms, that the adulation might apply to almost any Caesar; but when we find the writer speaking of himself as removed by two generations only from M. Antonius the orator (6.8.1), when we remark the studied abhorrence everywhere expressed towards Brutus and Cassius (6.4.5, 1.8.8), and the eager flattery so lavishly heaped upon the Julian line, we at once conclude that he lived under the first emperors. The description of the reigning prince as one descended from both of the two illustrious censors, Claudius Nero and Livius Salinator (9.2.6), distinctly marks out Tiberius; and, this point being fixed, we can determine that the parricide, whose treason and destruction form the theme of a glowing invective (9.11.4), must be the notorious Sejanus. The opinion hazarded by some of the earlier scholars, that we ought to regard this Valerius Maximus as the same person with the consul of that name who held office for the first time under Volusianus in A. D. 253, and for second time under Gallienus in A. D. 256, seems to be totally devoid of any foundation, and is directly contradicted not only by the evidence recited above, but also by the fact that the Valerius Maximus whom we are now considering is referred to by the elder Pliny (H. N. i. ind. lib. vii.), by Plutarch (Marcell. sub fin.), and by Aulus Gellius (12.7), the testimony of the last especially being quite impregnable. Of his personal history we know nothing, except the solitary circumstance, recorded by himself, that he accompanied, but in what capacity we are not told, Sex. Pompeius into Asia (2.6.8), the Sextus Pompeius apparently who was consul A. D. 14, at the time when Augustus died, and who was the first to render homage to his successor.

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