Cornelius, a celebrated Latin biographer, who flourished in the time of Julius Caesar, and lived, according to St Jerome, to the fifth year of Augustus. He was an Italian, if we may credit Cattullus, and born at Holfilia, a small town in the territory of Verona, in Cilalpine Gaul. Aufonius, however, will have it that he was born in the Gauls; and in that they may both be in the right, provided that under the name of Gaul is comprehended Gallia Cilalpina, which is in Italy. Leander Alberti thinks Nepos's country was Verona; and he is sure that he was either born in that city or neighbourhood. For the rest, Cicero and Atticus were friends of our author; who wrote the lives of the Greek historians, as he himself attests in that of Dion, speaking of Philistus. What he says, also, in the lives of Cato and Hannibal, proves that he had also written the lives of the Latin captains and historians. He wrote some other excellent works which are lost.

All that we have left of his at present is, "The Lives of the illustrious Greek and Roman Captains;" which were a long time ascribed to AEmilius Probus, who published them, as it is said, under his own name, to infuse himself thereby into the favour of the emperor Theodosius; but, in the course of time, the fraud has been discovered, although several learned persons have confounded the two authors. This piece has been translated into French by the Sieur de Claveret, with a dedication to the duke of Longueville, in 1663; and again by M. le Gras, then of the congregation of the Oratory at Paris, 1729, 12mo. We have an excellent translation of it into English, by several hands at Oxford, which has gone through several editions.