VALERIUS MAXIMUS.
Nothing is known of the life of Valerius Maximus beyond the fact that he visited Asia in company with Sex. Pompeius, the friend of Ovid and of Germanicus. Pompeius was consul A.D. 14, and between A.D. 27 and 30 became proconsul of Asia.
Val. Max. ii. 6, 8, ‘Consuetudinem ... illam etiam in insula Cea servari animadverti, quo tempore Asiam cum Sex. Pompeio petens Iulidem oppidum intravi.’
Valerius dwells on his obligations to Pompeius in his chapter on friendship (iv. 7, ext. 2).
His sole work, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia, in nine books, is a collection of notable incidents and sayings, classified under appropriate headings, for the convenience of speakers seeking illustrations for their subject-matter. Cf. the preface, ‘Urbis Romae exterarumque gentium facta simul ac dicta memoratu digna, quae apud alios latius diffusa sunt quam ut breviter cognosci possint, ab illustribus electa auctoribus digerere constitui, ut documenta sumere volentibus longae inquisitionis labor absit.’
The illustres auctores from whom he draws most of his material are Livy, Cicero (each mentioned only once), Sallust, and Trogus; but thirteen Latin and twenty Greek authors are mentioned by name. He frequently misrepresents his authorities.
Each book is divided into chapters on separate topics (e.g. De Pudicitia), under each of which he gives (1) illustrations from Roman history, (2) those from the history of other nations. The latter of course are few in comparison.
Although Iulius Paris, the epitomizer of Valerius, speaks of ten books, only nine are extant, and it may be doubted whether there ever was a tenth. Book i. is mutilated.
There are only two passages which throw any light on the date of composition—viii. 11, ext. 4, a denunciation of Seianus, obviously written after his fall in A.D. 31; and vi. 1 praef., before the death of Livia, A.D. 29. The work was published at latest in A.D. 37, for it is dedicated to Tiberius, who is the object of the most servile flattery (e.g. ii. 9, 6); similar language is used of Iulius Caesar (iv. 5, 6), and Augustus (i. 7, 1), while Brutus and Cassius are denounced as parricides (i. 5, 7; i. 8, 8).
Two abridgments of Valerius Maximus are extant.