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|a "I wrote the first version of the book as a PhD thesis. I was occupied in this undertaking from 2013 to 2016, a period spent mainly in Verona. The thesis was read on multiple occasions with great patience by Professor Alberto Cavarzere. His outstanding knowledge of Latin and his remarkable expertise in textual analysis have been principle guides for me. He never failed to answer my numerous questions on all aspects of language and literature. The commentary also benefitted from Professor Luisa Prandi's supervision: without her authoritative knowledge of Greek history and historiography this work would have been of less use and interest to historians. She provided me with plentiful advice and lively encouragement on many occasions, especially at times of the greatest frustration. I was fortunate to hold post-doctoral positions at the University of Verona from 2017 to 2019 and at the University of Milan from 2020 onwards, providing the ideal conditions and the motivation to work on this text, translating it from Italian and improving its outcome. The thesis was examined in May 2016 by Professor Elisa Romano, from the University of Pavia, Professor Maria Teresa Schettino, from the Université de Haute-Alsace et de Strasbourg, and Professor Gregory O. Hutchinson, Regius Professor of Greek at Christ Church, Oxford. Their critical examination led to a great number of improvements and enabled me to make the commentary function better. I wish to express my deepest gratitude to them. A first part of the revised work was submitted to Oxford University Press in 2017, and the remaining parts followed. I am enormously indebted to the Delegates for undertaking its publication, and to the anonymous Readers for giving me essential advice and suggestions for amendments. This was an opportunity to approach my commentary, and Nepos in general, more critically. Any mistakes in this book should, therefore, be attributed entirely to its author. Originally, the thesis was intended as a commentary on the entire Liber de Excellentibus Ducibus Exterarum Gentium. However, the strange lack of recent scholarly commentaries on Nepos suggested that a more in-depth analysis of only part of Liber might be worthwhile. I therefore decided to focus on the first eight Vitae of the corpus, which form the smaller group of the Greek generals of the fifth century BC: Miltiades, Themistocles, Aristides, Pausanias, Cimon, Lysander, Alcibiades, and Thrasybulus. The commentary of the remaining biographies will be the subject of a future work. The first version, a long thesis in Italian, needed to become a functional tool, and I decided to re-evaluate Nepos and give him more status, to try to overcome the accepted notion that he was an insignificant author, one usually relegated to 'entry levelʼ study material for students in Classics. If any reader should re-evaluate Nepos (even to a limited degree), my work will not have been in vain. The book is intended, in the first instance, for scholars, but it is also accessible to undergraduates and readers interested in ancient biography, Latin historiography, and the way Greek history was received during the late Roman republic. To reduce the original length, I excluded a significant number of notes, explanations, and bibliographical works. I hope the reader will accept this commentary as a way of reading Nepos: lack of notes on specific topics or references to specific scholarly works should not be interpreted as a sign of disdain or carelessness, but rather as the final stage of a selection process which also took into account editorial decisions and aims. Commentaries up to the nineteenth century are not referred to very frequently, but I have included opinions and notes that I considered relevant to my own views. The Latin text is the outcome of my reflections on testimonia, style, and context. I have analysed the most important manuscripts, including microfilm or photographs, and examined the collations made by previous editors. Four editions provided the basis for comparison, i.e. the editions by Eric O. Winstedt, Anne-Marie Guillemin, Enrica Malcovati, and Peter K. Marshall. The introduction presents the main issues in Neposʼ biographies, such as the composition and arrangement of the De Viris Illustribus and the Liber, the connection between biography and epideictic oratory, and Nepos' use of sources, narratology, style, and grammar. The commentary reflects my own opinions and aims to clarify and explain Nepos' text. Exhaustive treatment, as already mentioned, is avoided in order to present a practical book intended to serve as an introduction to further studies. Notes primarily address philological issues, explain stylistic and grammatical peculiarities, and approach historical themes. I am strongly of the opinion that Nepos should be regarded as a significant author for historians and scholars interested in Latin biography and classical historiography"--
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