CHAPTER IV.
POST-AUGUSTAN WRITERS.
VELLEIUS PATERCULUS.
C.[72] Velleius Paterculus was born at latest B.C. 19, as he was quaestor-elect A.D. 6. He was descended from a distinguished family in Campania (Vell. ii. 16, 2; Liv. xxiii. 7 sqq.). His father was a praefectus equitum (ii. 104, 3). After some military experience in Thrace and Macedonia, Velleius accompanied C. Caesar, the grandson of Augustus, on his mission to the East, A.D. 1. His rank at this time was tribunus militum.
ii. 101, 2 (of the meeting of C. Caesar and the Parthian king), ‘Sub initia stipendiorum meorum tribuno militum mihi visere contigit: quem militiae gradum ante sub patre tuo, M. Vinici, et P. Silio auspicatus in Thracia Macedoniaque, mox Achaia Asiaque et omnibus ad Orientem visis provinciis et ore atque utroque maris Pontici latere, haud iniucunda tot rerum, locorum, gentium, urbium recordatione fruor.’
In A.D. 4, as praefectus equitum, he accompanied Tiberius to Germany: ii. 104, 3, ‘Hoc tempus me, functum ante tribunatu, castrorum Ti. Caesaris militem fecit; quippe protinus ab adoptione missus cum eo praefectus equitum in Germaniam, successor officii patris mei, caelestissimorum eius operum per annos continuos viii. praefectus aut legatus spectator et pro captu mediocritatis meae adiutor fui.’
In A.D. 6, when quaestor-elect, he commanded reinforcements sent from Rome to Tiberius in Pannonia, and at the expiration of his term of office as quaestor in Rome, he returned to Tiberius as a legatus: ii. 111, 3, ‘Habuit in hoc quoque bello mediocritas nostra speciosi ministerii locum. Finita equestri militia designatus quaestor necdum senator aequatus senatoribus, etiam designatis tribunis plebei, partem exercitus ab urbe traditi ab Augusto perduxi ad filium eius. In quaestura deinde remissa sorte provinciae legatus eiusdem ad eumdem missus sum.’
In A.D. 9 Velleius served in Dalmatia (ii. 115, 5), afterwards spending two years in Germany (ii. 104, 3 above). In the winter of A.D. 12-13 he took part in the triumph of Tiberius: ii. 121, 2, ‘Ex Pannoniis Delmatisque egit triumphum ... quem mihi fratrique meo inter praecipuos praecipuisque donis adornatos viros comitari contigit.’
Velleius was praetor-elect in A.D. 14: ii. 124, 4, ‘Quo tempore mihi fratrique meo, candidatis Caesaris, proxime a nobilissimis ac sacerdotalibus viris destinari praetoribus contigit, consecutis ut neque post nos quemquam divus Augustus neque ante nos Caesar commendaret Tiberius.’
The publication of his history, sixteen years later, is the only circumstance recorded of Velleius after this date.