page_title: Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX
section_title: Kindness and compassion
hierarchical_section_title: Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX / Subjects / Kindness and compassion
context_page_description: Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX by Valerius Maximus was written around CE 30 or 31. It is a collection of approximately a thousand short stories that Valerius wrote during the reign of Tiberius. The stories are a variety of anecdotes illustrating how the ancient Romans lived. While the majority of the stories are of Roman life, he does have some foreign stories at the end of some chapters. Most of these are of Greek life and most of those are about Greek philosophers or famous kings.
  Several of the stories relate to moral subjects that parallel those in the Old Testament and New Testament. Valerius refers to his moral stories as "examples" that were to be used as moral guidance. Valerius' work on the preservation of moral values of the Roman Republic of the past was widely popular through the Age of Enlightenment, a literary life-span of some 1,700 years. People read Valerius' work for practical guidance in their everyday tasks for living a moral life. This work was especially used as a reference by writers and professional orators.
  It is estimated that Valerius's work on these nine books took over a decade.
context_section_description: The themes in Chapter 1 of Book 5 are kindness and compassion; Valerius gives several examples based on these concepts. He considered these lesser virtues than generosity, although companions of it. Valerius writes that kindness is shown to those that are in trouble and compassion is for those whose luck has turned against them. He considered generosity to be the one that derived its name from a god, and should receive the most approval of these three.
  One Roman story is where Valerius gives an example of generosity, kindness and compassion. Here he explains that one day the Roman Senate was offered a large sum of ransom money for the release of 2,743 Carthaginian soldiers and refused it. The Senate released the soldiers to the representatives that had come to get them, and forgave the crimes. The representatives were astonished and even admitted that they themselves would not have been so kind and generous.
  Another Roman story in which Valerius writes about kindness is where king Syphax of western Numidia died in prison in Tibur (modern day Tivoli, Italy) in 201 BCE. The Senate gave him a state funeral with a proper burial.
  Another similar Roman story in which Valerius writes about compassion is where the Senate sent a quaestor to Alba (in Latium) in 167 BCE. There King Perseus of Macedonia was banished to and had just died there. They wanted to give him honor and provided a state funeral for the king.
caption: Roman Forum
exif: {}