Livy
'''Titus Livius''' (around
59 BC - 17 AD), known as
Livy in
English, wrote a monumental history of
Rome from its supposed founding in 753 BC.
Life and Works
The book's title,
Ab Urbe Condita ("From the Founding of the City"), makes Livy's ambition clear, but not his method. He wrote in a mixture of annual chronology and narrative—often having to interrupt a story to announce the elections of new
consuls at Rome. A lack of historical data prior to the sacking of Rome in
390 BC by the
Gauls made Livy's task more difficult.
Livy wrote the majority of his works during the reign of
Caesar Augustus. However, he is often identified with an attachment to the
Roman Republic and a desire for its restoration. Since the later books discussing the end of the
Republic and the rise of Augustus did not survive, this is a moot point. Certainly Livy questioned some of the values of the new regime but it is likely that his position was more complex than a simple
republic/empire preference.
Livy's work was originally composed of 142 books, of which only 35 are extant; these are 1-10, and 21-45 (with major lacunae in 40-45). A fragmentary
palimpsest of the 91st book was discovered in the
Vatican Library 1772. Some idea of the contents of the remaining books can be gleaned from a thin epitome, the
Periochae, and an epitome of books 37-40 and 48-55 uncovered at
Oxyrhynchus. A number of Roman authors used Livy, including Aurelius Victor,
Cassiodorus,
Eutropius,
Festus,
Florus,
Granius Licinianus and
Orosius. Julius Obsequens used Livy, or a source with access to Livy, to compose his
De Prodigiis, an account of supernatural events in Rome, from the consulship of Scipio and Laelius (A.U.C. 453) to that of Paulus Fabius and Quintus Aelius (A.U.C. 742).
A digression in book IX, sections 17-19, of this history of Rome, suggests that the Romans would have beaten Alexander the Great if he lived longer and turned west to attack the Romans, making this the oldest known
alternative history.
Livy was a native of
Padua on the
Po River in northern
Italy.
External links
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Category:Roman era historians
Category:1st century BC births
Category:1st century deaths