Definition: Cornelius Nepos, who probably lived from around 100 to 24 B.C., is our first surviving Latin biographer. A contemporary of Cicero, Catullus, and Augustus, Nepos wrote erotic poems, a Chronica (an epitome of history), Exempla (anecdotes), a Life of Cato, a Life of Cicero, a treatise on geography, at least 16 books of De viris illustribus (On Famous men), and De excellentibus ducibus exterarum gentium aka Vitae excellentium imperatorum (On Eminent Foreign Leaders ). The last survives and fragments of others remain.
Nepos, who is thought to have come from Cisalpine Gaul [see map] to Rome, wrote in an easy style of Latin.
Source: Early Church Fathers, where you'll also find the manuscript tradition and an English translation.
For more on Nepos and the scholarship on him, see "Nepos and the Generals," by A. C. Dionisotti. The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 78, (1988), pp. 35-49.
Examples:
Nepos seems to have arranged his biographies of famous men into 8 classes: kings, generals, statesmen, orators, historians, philosophers, and scholars, with one book for each class about Romans, and the other about non-Romans, probably the model for Plutarch's parallel lives. Source: "The Biographical Interests of Nepos," by Louis E. Lord. The Classical Journal, Vol. 22, No. 7 (Apr., 1927), pp. 498-503.
