This article argues that the programmatic statements in Nepos’ preface to the Lives of Foreign Generals and in some of the Lives themselves help establish that his biographies emphasize the virtues of his subjects and not their res gestae. References to unlearned readers, often taken as an indication of the general igno- rance of Nepos’ audience, are actually a method for constructing an ideal reader who will be sensitive to cultural differences between Greeks and Romans and will understand the differences between biography and history.