There is very little information transmitted about Ianuarius Nepotianus, who produced an epitome of Valerius Maximus.  Consequently, the identification of this author within the socio-cultural panorama of the late-antique Latin-speaking world is doubtful.  If one accepts the hypothesis advanced by some scholars (Mommsen, Bergk) that Nepotian should be considered the addressee of Ausonius’ 15^th poem of the Commemoratio professorum Burdigalensium, then the author of our compendium is to be identified with the homonymous grammaticus and rhetor of Bordeaux.  The attempt (Herzog) to equate this figure with the Nepotianus orator who is the addressee of one of Simmachus’ letters (9.32) supports the belief that Ianuarius’ training was of a linguistic-rhetorical type.

The name Nepotianus appears in two inscriptions of the 3^rd c. AD.  According to Hirschfeld, the inscription discovered in 1905 in Spain, namely at Sicca Venaria (CIL 2.354), which refers to an orator with the cognomen Nepotianus, is ultimately misleading in its delineation of the person, though one also finds in it the same name as the addressee of the compendium: Victor.  On the other hand, the Latin inscription in honor of a certain Nepotianus procurator sexagenarius ab actis et centenarius primae cathedrae, ascribed - like the one above - to the ordo Siccensium, is judged relevant.

Elements of style and content, however, which reflect the changes taking place in the conception of religion from the period following the edict of Constantine, seem to suggest (Buecheler) a later chronological placement, and opinions among scholars remain divergent. The only certain date is the terminus ante quem: the epitome is cited by Ennodius, a bishop of Pavia who was active between the end of the 5^th c. AD and the beginning of the 6^th c. AD (Mommsen, Droysen, Vogel, Faranda).

Reflecting as he does the language of his time (Ihm) and also suffering from a corrupt manuscript tradition, Nepotian has been a victim of especially harsh criticism, ranging from misellus scriptor (Halm) to insulsus et indoctus because of his sermo corruptus et interdum fere barbarus (Kempf).

In sum, from the evidence mentioned it is possible to sketch the portrait of a man whose provenance is unknown; who was active between the 4^th and 5^th c. AD; who was a rhetor by training and presumably well-read, given the store of anecdotal quotations from which he variously draws; and who was not lacking in spirit of initiative or propriety of language, the pedagogical intent of which is expressed clearly in the preface to the collection. For these reasons, his figure has now been eagerly redeemed (Galdi), so much that his importance has surpassed that of Julius Paris, who is the other extant author of an epitome of Valerius Maximus’ work dedicated to Tiberius.  [N. Rosso; tr. C. L. Caterine].