PROSE WRITERS OF THE SAME PERIOD:
L. Cornelius Sisenna (praetor B.C. 78), author of Historiae of the Social and Civil Wars (Vell. Pat. ii. 9). Cicero thought him superior to his predecessors, but childish (Brut. 228, De Leg. i. 7), and Sallust remarks his want of frankness in speaking of Sulla’s career (Iug. 95). He avoided a piecemeal and desultory treatment of events; cf. his own words quoted by Gell. xii. 15, 2, ‘Nos una aestate in Asia et Graecia gesta litteris idcirco continentia mandavimus, ne vellicatim aut saltuatim scribendo lectorum animos impediremus.’ His translation of the Μιλησιακά of Aristides is mentioned by Ovid, Tr. ii. 443.
Contemporary with Sisenna were Q. Claudius Quadrigarius, and Valerius Antias, whose narrative was coloured by partiality for the Valerii and for Scipio Africanus ([see under ‘Livy’]).
C. Licinius Macer, father of the poet Calvus, was one of Livy’s sources for the early history. Dion. Hal. (vi. 11 and vii. 1) complains of his carelessness and the weakness of his chronology. He claimed that he used original authorities, e.g. the libri lintei, lists of magistrates written on linen. He was a strong democrat, and is looked upon by Mommsen (R.H. iv., p. 602) as manufacturing authorities in support of his political views.
Sulla wrote memoirs of his own life (Plut. Lucull. 1), and Lucullus composed in Greek a history of the Marsian War (ibid.).