Three Lives -- Alcibiades, Dion, Atticus

by Cornelius Nepos

As an author, Nepos wrote smooth-flowing, easy-to-understand prose, and this book offers students a chance to enjoy the beauty of the language. The book includes an introduction, original text, student notes, vocabulary, and illustrations. Also Pro Caelio - ISBN 0865165599
Love and Hate - ISBN 0865161801 For over 30 years Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers has produced the highest quality Latin and ancient Greek books. From Dr. Seuss books in Latin to Plato's Apology , Bolchazy-Carducci's titles help readers learn about ancient Rome and Greece; the Latin and ancient Greek languages are alive and well with titles like Cicero's De Amicitia and Kaegi's Greek Grammar . We also feature a line of contemporary eastern European and WWII books. Some of the areas we publish in Selections From The Aeneid
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Genres: Nonfiction, History

138 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1987

About the author

Cornelius Nepos (c. 110 BC – c. 25 BC) was Gallic Roman biographer.

Reviews

[Drianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contains Nepos' Lives of Alcibiades, Dion, and Atticus, with introduction, notes, and vocabulary. There are also a lot of illustrations/photos of various sort of relevant things accompanying the introduction. Originally published in the 1950s, this is the BCP/Bolchazy reprint from the 80s.

The notes were generally helpful, and the lives themselves were interesting, although the typical 2nd year student today would need *much* more help than the notes give and would not be particularly familiar with the historical background, which might make it difficult for them to appreciate these three selections.

There were several typos in the Latin text (uums for suum in the Dion; maicos for amicos and Antoniu siudicatus for Antonius iudicatus in the Atticus). There are no macrons, which I disapprove of (both in general but especially in works aimed at beginning/intermediate students).

To make this edition suitable for school use (in the 1950s) the introduction acknowledges that there are "two small excisions," which are noted in the text itself by an ellipsis: viz., the omission of the reference to the unspeakable vice of the Greeks in the Alcibiades, and the omission of the phrase puero scorta adducebantur in the Dion. The first excision is not as small as the other, either in length or in import; it consists of some two sections of the chapter, and as it is one of the things Alcibiades is most known for (largely thanks to Plato's portrayal of him in the Symposium, which is what Nepos talks about here), it is all the more terrible an expurgation. But props to the editor for both noting that excisions had been made and visually marking them in the text with the ellipses so that the interested pupil could hunt them down.

Nepos' reputation is that of being a super easy author whose works are appropriate for the moral edification of children; I had never actually read any of his lives before. The Latin is indeed generally quite clear, and his sentences are relatively short and straightforward; the lives themselves are also each short, which is another plus. He does draw a lot of little morals along the way and certainly shows how character and actions adduce consequences. But his skill as a biographer falls far short of the literary merits of his later follower, Suetonius, and neither his prose style nor his psychological insights measure up.

I can see both why these used to be so popular for student instruction and why they've fallen out of favor; I won't be adding them to my own curriculum, anyway.

[Lucia Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This honestly comes out more about the audio book version on audible. This should be a one star review, but I can't really comment too much on the actual story because the audible version is horrible.

I picked this up as "The Life of Dion" (review taken from my audible review), along with a few other ancient stories. I figured I would never get around to reading them so I would just listen to them, and I was shocked by how bad they edited and performed a 16-minute book. I get it, this is probably someone translating the text as they read it... At least I hope it is. That being said this is the absolute worst editing/recording/performing I have ever heard.

The voice at first made me think it was Microsoft Word reading a book, but she caught her rhythm. Then she would stop three or more times and REREAD the same sentence (stopping at different points to reread again) with a slightly different pronunciation. I get it, it takes a few reads to translate something (I still hope you are at least doing that and not making this mess with something already in English)... oh god I just realized it was translated by someone else so it must have been in English.

The most awesomely horrible part is she belches in the middle of reading and they left it in... and it isn't a comedy act, it is supposed to be a serious reading of a translated story. Seriously a high schooler could do better in their mother's basement. Does Audible do any sort of quality control? I suspect not of this gets through.

It is only a 16-minute audio file. I record and cut videos longer than this for youtube and it literally would take an editor less than 15 minutes to cut out the re-reading and make it sound 100 times better. Oh and I just found that this isn't actually a full book, the full book is Cornelius Nepos: Three LIves -- Alcibiades, Dion, Atticus, so they basically grabbed a few chapters out of a book...

Dang, now I have to go back and check out the other books I Have from "Museum Audiobooks".

[Francisco Colon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This edition was poorly put together (physically). Pages not in sequence and multiple misspellings in the Latin text. Author's notes not always useful for conducting the translation. On the other hand, the Vocabulary section in the back is the only source you will need for translation. Nepos is a good selection for second-year Latin practice.

[Sineala · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read the life of Alcibiades.

[Harald · Rating 3 out of 5]

The historian Nepos wrote brief biographies of a number of Greek and other military personalities stressing traits appreciated by the Romans such as bravery, cunning, and especially loyalty. For the modern reader this view of leadership is perhaps the most interesting aspect of these biographies that otherwise tend to blur together. I've read the "Lives" in a modern Norwegian translation. Available translations from Latin to English seem quite old.