Tra cronologia e antropologia : gli excursus sulla storia della cultura in Velleio Patercolo

It is possible to study the excursus in the work of Velleius Paterculus as an overview, as a historiographical tool by which the writer explores cultural reality through his focus on chronology. It is also useful to circumscribe the investigation to the comparison between men and animals, a theme that is proposed at the beginning of the excursus on literature at the end of the first book. Therefore we can understand that the peculiarity of Velleius Paterculus does not only concern the formal and structural elements of his work, but also his vision of the world and the relationship between living things.