Valerius
1.
Antias. See
Antias.
2.
Maxĭmus, a Roman historian. Of his
life we know only that he accompanied the proconsul Sextus Pompeius to Asia in A.D. 27 (ii.
6, 8). On his return he composed, between A.D. 29 and 32, a collection of historical
anecdotes in nine books,
Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium Libri, which he
dedicated to the emperor Tiberius. The book consists of an uncritical collection of extracts
taken mostly from Livy and Cicero, but also from Sallust and Pompeius Trogus. These are
divided into domestic and foreign instances under different headings, mostly descriptive of
moral qualities, sometimes grouped according to subjects and sometimes not. The style is bad,
and full of rhetorical declamation; the character of the compiler reveals itself in his gross
flattery of Tiberius. Nevertheless, owing to the convenient selection of anecdotes which the
book offered to orators and authors, it was much quoted in the succeeding generations down to
the Middle Ages. It has come down to us with two epitomes, drawn up in late Roman times, by
Iulius Paris and Ianuarius Nepotianus. The short dissertation
De
Praenominibus, appended to the work, has nothing to do with Valerius himself. It is
an epitome drawn up by the above-mentioned Paris from the first portion of a work on Roman
names by an unknown writer, who quotes old authorities on the subject, especially Varro.
There are good texteditions of Valerius Maximus by Halm
(Leipzig, 1865) and
Kempf
(2d ed. Leipzig, 1888); and with English notes on selected passages, by
Smith
(Boston, 1895).
3.
Gaius Valerius Flaccus Balbus Setīnus, a Latin writer
of epic verse, born at Setia, who flourished under Vespasian and Titus, and died before A.D.
90. We have an unfinished epic by him on the expedition of the Argonauts
(
Argonautica) in eight books, which was begun about the time of the
destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70), and was dedicated to Vespasian. The poem is a free
paraphrase of the work of Apollonius Rhodius, with his characteristic style and manner, in
language which, though careful and tastefully chosen, is sometimes difficult and obscure, and
overladen with rhetorical adornment. Editions by Thilo
(Halle, 1863); Schenkl
(Berlin, 1871); and Bährens
(Leipzig, 1875). See Peters,
De Valerii Flacci Vita et Carmine (Königsberg,
1890).
4.
Iulius Valerius, of Africa, who lived about the end of the third
century A.D., and wrote a Latin translation of the Pseudo-Callisthenes. See
Callisthenes.
5.
Valentīnus. See
Tappula Lex.
6.
See
Valeria Gens.
