CAIUS VELLEIUS, a Roman historian, was the son of a prefect of cavalry, and is conjectured to have been born in 19 B.C. He was descended from a Campanian family which had been distinguished during several generations for its devoted attachment to the Romans. One of his ancestors, Decius Magnus, was the leader of the Roman party in Capua when the majority of the citizens were revolting to Hannibal. Another of his ancestors, Minatius Magnus, fought zealously and bravely on the side of Rome in the Social War. His grandfather also, a retired captain of the artificers, was so chagrined when the infirmities of age would not permit him to follow his general, Claudius Nero, into banishment, that he run himself through with his own sword. From these old heroes Paterculus inherited a warlike zeal and energy. Succeeding his father in 4 A.D. as a prefect of cavalry in the army of Tiberius Caesar in Germany, he soon gained preferment and honour. He obtained the quaestorship in 7 A.D., a share in the triumphal honours of his general in 12 A.D., and the praetorship in 14 A.D. His services and abilities seem also to have secured for him the friendship of the Emperor Tiberius, and of the emperor's rising favourite, Sejanus. It was, however, in the character of a historian that Paterculus won his brightest laurels. In 30 A.D. he sat down to write a historical compendium which should embrace not only the annals of his own country down to his own time, but also those of the rest of the civilized world. The cursory nature of such a work would not permit him to dwell long upon any particular scene, and whirled him along, as he said himself, "with the rapidity of a wheel or torrent." Yet, by omitting all incidents that were not absolutely essential, and by describing at length those events that formed the characteristics of the several ages, he succeeded in making his narrative at once comprehensive and interesting. The shortness of the time allotted for the task often hurried him into confused and slovenly sentences. Yet he narrated facts with great point and vigour, and made reflections that were strikingly original and appropriate. The work was finished the same year in which it had been begun; and was dedicated to M. Vinicius, the ruling consul. When and how Paterculus died have not been ascertained. It has been conjectured that he was involved in the ruin of Sejanus in 31 A.D., along with that minion's other friends. The work of Paterculus has come down to modern times under the title of a Roman History, and with some of its parts wanting. Beatus Rhenanus discovered the manuscript in the monastery of Murbach in Alsace, and printed it at Basle in 1520. The most valuable edition is that of Rubenken, Leyden, 1779, reprinted by Frotscher, Leipzig, 1830-39. The edition of Orelli, Leipzig, 1835, contains some textual improvements. An English translation of Paterculus forms, in conjunction with translations of Sallust and Florus, a volume of Bohm's "Classical Library."