He was very wealthy, and his magnificent house was the centre of literary society in Rome, He helped both Virgil and Horace in a substantial manner, and the latter is constantly referring to him in his poetry.

He died (8 B.C.) childless, and left his fortune to Augustus.
The prose writers who lived at this period were Livy, Sallust, and Nepos.
LIVY is the best of these.

He was a native of Patavium (Padua), a man of rhetorical training, who spent most of his time in Rome.

The historical value of his work cannot be overestimated, on account of the scarcity, and in many cases the utter lack, of other historical documents on the times of which he wrote.

His style is spirited, and always interesting.
His accuracy, however, is not to be compared with that of Caesar.