SOURCE: Wardle, D. “Valerius Maximus on the Domus Augusta, Augustus, and Tiberius.” Classical Quarterly 50, no. 2 (2000): 479-93.

In the following essay, Wardle stresses the conventional political orientation of Valerius's Memorable Doings and Sayings in its praise for the Roman imperial family.

Valerius Maximus' Facta et dicta memorabilia provide an opportunity of seeing how an undistinguished talent responded to the demise of the republic and the establishment of an imperial system. Fergus Millar has argued that we should view Valerius as a contemporary of Ovid, that is as an author influenced by the last years of Augustus and writing in the early years of Tiberius' reign,¹ but the internal evidence of Facta et dicta memorabilia better fits publication in the early 30s a.d. in the aftermath of Sejanus' unsuccessful conspiracy.² Although this does distance Valerius further from the key years of transition, he is not remote—and because of...