Titus Livius (traditionally 59 BC – AD 17^[1]), known as Livy in English English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries and of the United States since the mid 20th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. It is, was a Roman Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, Ab Urbe Condita Ab Urbe condita is Latin for "from the founding of the City (Rome)", traditionally set in 753 BC. It was used to identify the Roman year by a few Roman historians. Modern historians use it much more frequently than the Romans themselves did; the dominant method of identifying Roman years was to name the two consuls who held office that, from before the foundation of the city (traditionally dated to 753 BC) through to the reign of Augustus Augustus , born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, was adopted by his great-uncle Julius Caesar in 44 BC, and between then and 27 BC was officially named Gaius Julius Caesar. After 27 BC, he was named Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus. Because of the various names he bore, it is common to call him Octavius when referring to events between 63 and 44 BC, Octavian ( in Livy's own time.

Life and works

Livy was a native of Patavium, the modern Padua Padua is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 (as of 2008[update]). The city is sometimes included, with Venice (Italian Venezia), in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area, having a population of c. 1,600,000. The title of his most famous work, Ab Urbe condita Ab Urbe condita is Latin for "from the founding of the City (Rome)", traditionally set in 753 BC. It was used to identify the Roman year by a few Roman historians. Modern historians use it much more frequently than the Romans themselves did; the dominant method of identifying Roman years was to name the two consuls who held office that ("From the City having been founded"), expresses the scope and magnitude of Livy's undertaking. He wrote in a mixture of annual chronology Chronology is part of periodization. It is also part of the discipline of history including earth history and geochronology dependent disciplines and the earth sciences. When used for specific examples, a chronology is a sequential arrangement of events, such as a chronicle or, particularly when involving graphical or literary elements, a timeline and narrative A narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events. It derives from the Latin verb narrare, which means "to recount" and is related to the adjective gnarus, meaning "knowing" or "skilled". (Ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European root—often having to interrupt a story to announce the elections of new consuls In various Italian city states, the republican regimes gave its chief magistrates the title of Consul; thus there have been governments lead by consuls in Bologna, Novara (with one Maggiore as head of state), Trani, Treviso as this was the way that the Romans kept track of the years. Early scholars have claimed that Livy's lack of historical data should be attributed to the sacking of Rome in 387 BC by the Gauls Gaul is a historical name used in the context of the Roman empire in references to the region of Western Europe approximating present day France and Belgium, but also sometimes including the Po Valley, western Switzerland, and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River Rhine. In English, the word Gaul may also refer to.^[2] However, it is now thought that the Gauls' interest in movable plunder, rather than destruction, kept damage to a minimum.^[3] This idea is supported, in part, by the lack of archaeological evidence to prove that the Gallic sack ever happened: for example, the burnt layer under the comitium The comitium was the nerve center of the Forum valley in ancient Rome. It had major religious and prophetic significance. It was the location for all political and judicial activity of the early Roman Kingdom and Republic. The word itself means "place of assembly . It is the historic meeting place of the comitia curiata, the grown males of, once attributed to Brennus Brennus is the name of two Gaulish chieftains famous in ancient history:. The Brennus of the fourth century BC was a chieftain of the Senones, a Gallic tribe originating from the modern areas of France known as Seine-et-Marne, Loiret, and Yonne; in 387 BC, in the Battle of the Allia, he led an army of Cisalpine Gauls in their attack on Rome. The, is now dated to the 6th century BC.^[4]

Livy wrote the majority of his works during the reign of Augustus Augustus , born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, was adopted by his great-uncle Julius Caesar in 44 BC, and between then and 27 BC was officially named Gaius Julius Caesar. After 27 BC, he was named Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus. Because of the various names he bore, it is common to call him Octavius when referring to events between 63 and 44 BC, Octavian (. However, he is often identified with an attachment to the Roman Republic The Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c. 509 BC, and lasted over 450 years until its subversion, through a series of civil wars, into the Principate form of government and the Imperial period and a desire for its restoration. Since the later books discussing the end of the Republic A republic is a form of government in which the head of state is not a hereditary monarch and the people have an impact on its government. The word 'republic' is derived from the Latin phrase res publica which can be translated as "public affairs" 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. Augustus does not seem to have held these views against Livy, and entrusted his great-nephew, the future emperor Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus or Claudius I (Tiberius Claudius Drusus from birth to AD 4, then Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus from then until his accession) was the fourth Roman Emperor, a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from 24 January AD 41 to his death in AD 54. Born in Lugdunum in Gaul (modern-day Lyon, France),, to his tutelage. His effect on Claudius was apparent during the latter's reign, as the emperor's oratory closely adheres to Livy's account of Roman history.

Livy's writing style was poetic and archaic in contrast to Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar , (13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire's and Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists's styles. Also, he often wrote from the Romans' opponent's point of view in order to accent the Romans' virtues in their conquest of Italy and the Mediterranean. In keeping with his poetic tendencies, he did little to distinguish between fact and fiction. Although he frequently plagiarized previous authors, he hoped that moral lessons from the past would serve to advance the Roman society of his day.

Livy's work was originally composed of 142 books, of which only 35 are extant Extant literature refers to texts that have survived from the past to the present time. Extant literature can be divided into extant original manuscripts, copies of original manuscripts, quotations and paraphrases of passages of non-extant texts contained in other works, translations of non-extant texts into other languages, or, more recently,; these are Books 1–10 and 21–45 (with major lacunae The state of old manuscripts or inscriptions which have weathered or been damaged sometimes gives rise to lacunae — passages consisting of a word or words that are missing or illegible. Palimpsests are particularly subject to lacunae. In order to reconstruct the original text, the context is to be considered. In archaeology and literary in 41 and 43–45). A fragmentary palimpsest A palimpsest is a manuscript page from a scroll or book that has been scraped off and used again. The word "palimpsest" comes through Latin from Greek παλιν + ψαω = , and meant "scraped (clean and used) again." Romans wrote on wax-coated tablets that could be smoothed and reused, and a passing use of the rather bookish of the 91st book was discovered in the Vatican Library The Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from throughout history. From July 2007, the library has been in 1772, containing about a thousand words, and several papyrus fragments of previously unknown material, much smaller, have been found in Egypt since 1900, most recently about forty words from Book 11, unearthed in the 1980s. Livy was abridged, in antiquity, to an epitome An epitome is a summary or miniature form; an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment, which survives for Book 1, but was itself abridged into the so-called Periochae, which is simply a list of contents, but which survives. An epitome of Books 37–40 and 48–55 was also uncovered at Oxyrhynchus Oxyrhynchus is a city in Upper Egypt, located about 160 km south-southwest of Cairo, in the governorate of Al Minya. It is also an archaeological site, considered one of the most important ever discovered. For the past century, the area around Oxyrhynchus has been continually excavated, yielding an enormous collection of papyrus texts dating from. So we have some idea of the topics Livy covered in the lost books, if often not what he said about them.

His sources include the annalists Annalists , is the name given to a class of writers on Roman history, the period of whose literary activity lasted from the time of the Second Punic War to that of Sulla. They wrote the history of Rome from the earliest times (in most cases) down to their own days, the events of which were treated in much greater detail. Annalists were different, including Quintus Fabius Pictor Quintus Fabius Pictor was one of the earliest Roman historians and considered the first of the annalists. A member of the Fabii gens, he was the grandson of Gaius Fabius Pictor, a painter ("pictor" in Latin). He was a senator who fought against the Gauls in 225 BC, and against Carthage in the Second Punic War. He was appointed to travel, Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius, Sempronius Asellio Publius Sempronius Asellio was an early Roman historian and one of the first writers of historiographic work in Latin. He was a military tribune of P. Scipio Aemilianus Africanus at the siege of Numantia in Hispania in 134 B.C. Later he joined the circle of writers centred around Scipio Aemilianus. Asellio wrote the history of the events of which and Valerius Antias Valerius Antias was a Roman annalist living apparently in the first century BC, a younger contemporary of Quadrigarius, who wrote the history of Rome from the earliest times in a voluminous work consisting of at least seventy-five books, but also the Greek historian Polybius Polybius was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his book called The Histories covering in detail the period of 220–146 BC. He is also renowned for his ideas of political balance in the government, which was later used in Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws and the drafting of the United States Constitution, especially for events in the Eastern Mediterranean.

In turn, a number of Roman authors used Livy, including Aurelius Victor Aurelius Victor was the author of a History of Rome from Augustus to Julian , published ca. 361. Julian honoured him, and appointed Aurelius prefect of Pannonia Secunda. Possibly he is the same person who was consul in 369, jointly with the son of Valentinian I, and the prefect of the city of Rome (389), Cassiodorus Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator , commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman and writer, serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. Senator was part of his surname not his rank, Eutropius Eutropius was an Ancient Roman Pagan historian who flourished in the latter half of the 4th century. He held the office of secretary at Constantinople, accompanied the Emperor Julian (361 - 363) on his expedition against the Persians (363), and was alive during the reign of Valens (364-378), to whom he dedicates his Breviarium historiae Romanae, Festus, Florus Florus, Roman historian, lived in the time of Trajan and Hadrian, Granius Licinianus Granius Licinianus was a Roman annalist, believed to have lived in the age of the Antonines and Orosius Paulus Orosius was a Christian historian, theologian and disciple of Augustine of Hippo from Gallaecia. He is best known for his Historiarum Adversum Paganos Libri VII ("Seven Books of History Against the Pagans"), which he wrote in response to the belief that the decline of the Roman Empire was the result of its adoption of Christianity. Julius Obsequens Julius Obsequens was a Roman writer who is believed to have lived in the middle of the fourth century AD. The only work associated with his name is the Liber de prodigiis , completely extracted from an epitome, or abridgment, written by Livy; De prodigiis was constructed as an account of the wonders and portents that occurred in Rome between 249 used Livy, or a source with access to Livy, to compose his De Prodigiis, an account of supernatural The term supernatural or supranatural pertains to an order of existence beyond the scientifically visible universe. Religious miracles are typically supernatural claims, as are spells and curses, divination, the belief that there is an afterlife for the dead, and innumerable others. Supernatural beliefs have existed in many cultures throughout events in Rome, from the consulship of Scipio and Laelius to that of Paulus Fabius and Quintus Aelius.

A digression Digression is a section of a composition or speech that is an intentional change of subject. In Classical rhetoric since Corax of Syracuse, especially in Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, the digression was a regular part of any oration or composition. (An oratorical discourse should have five sections: prelude, narration, argumentation, in Book 9, Sections 17–19, suggests that the Romans would have beaten Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon, popularly known to history as Alexander the Great, was an Ancient Greeki[›] king (basileus) of Macedon. Born in 356 BC, Alexander succeeded his father Philip II of Macedon to the throne in 336 BC, and died in Bablyon in 323 BC at the age of 32 if he lived longer and turned west to attack the Romans, making this the oldest known alternate history Alternate history or alternative history is a subgenre of speculative fiction and historical fiction that is set in a world in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It is sometimes abbreviated AH. Another occasionally-used term for the genre is "allohistory" (lit. "other history").^[5]

Reception

Livy's work met with instant acclaim. His books were published in sets of ten, although when entirely completed, his whole work was available for sale in its entirety. His highly literary approach to his historical writing renders his works very entertaining, and they remained constantly popular from his own day, through the Middle Ages, and into the modern world. Dante Durante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His central work, the Divina Commedia (originally called Commedia and later called Divina ("divine") by Boccaccio), is often considered[who?] one of the greatest literary works composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature speaks highly of him in his poetry, and Francis I of France Francis I (12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547), was crowned king of France in 1515 in the cathedral at Reims and reigned until 1547 commissioned extensive artwork treating Livian themes; Niccolò Machiavelli Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was an Italian philosopher, writer, and politician and is considered one of the main founders of modern political science.[citation needed] As a Renaissance Man, he was a diplomat, political philosopher, musician, poet and playwright, but, foremost, he was a Civil Servant of the Florentine Republic. In June of 1's work on republics A republic is a form of government in which the head of state is not a hereditary monarch and the people have an impact on its government. The word 'republic' is derived from the Latin phrase res publica which can be translated as "public affairs", the Discourses on Livy The Discourses on Livy is a work of political history and philosophy composed in the early 16th century by the famed Florentine public servant and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), best known as the author of The Prince. Where The Prince is devoted to advising the ruler of a principality, i.e., a type of monarchy, the Discourses is presented as a commentary on the History of Rome. That he was chosen by Rome's first emperor to be the private tutor to his eventual successor indicates Livy's renown as a great writer and sage. As topics from his history appear to have been used for writing topics in Roman schools, it is more than likely that his works, or sections, were used as textbooks. The two ten-book sets that remained popular throughout the millennia are the first ten books, describing the founding of Rome and its conquest of Italy, and the third set of ten books (XXI to XXX) recounting the war with Hannibal Hannibal, son of Hamilcar Barca,[n 1] , commonly known as Hannibal (in Punic: Annobal,[dubious – discuss] meaning "Ba'al's grace/help/blessing") was a Carthaginian military commander and tactician who is popularly credited as one of the most talented commanders in history. His father Hamilcar Barca was the leading Carthaginian, which he himself indicates is his greatest theme. He can be looked upon as the prose counterpart of Vergil Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70 BCE – September 21, 19 BCE) was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him. The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be regarded as one of Rome's greatest poets. His Aeneid can be in Golden Age Latin literature.

Politics

Many of Livy's comments on Roman politics seem surprisingly modern today. For example, he wrote (of the year 445 BC):

War and political dissension made the year a difficult one. Hardly had it begun, when the tribune Canuleius Gaius Canuleius, according to Livy book 4, was a tribune of the plebs in 445 BC. He introduced a bill proposing that intermarriage between patricians and plebians be allowed. As well, with his fellow tribunes he proposed another bill allowing one of the two annually elected consuls to be a plebeian introduced a bill for legalizing intermarriage between the nobility and the commons. The senatorial party objected strongly on the grounds not only that the patrician blood would thereby be contaminated but also that the hereditary rights and privileges of the gentes, or families, would be lost. Further, a suggestion, at first cautiously advanced by the tribunes, that a law should be passed enabling one of the two consuls to be a plebeian, subsequently hardened into the promulgation, by nine tribunes, of a bill by which the people should be empowered to elect to the consulship such men as they thought fit, from either of the two parties. The senatorial party felt that if such a bill were to become law, it would mean not only that the highest office of state would have to be shared with the dregs of society but that it would, in effect, be lost to the nobility and transferred to the commons. It was with great satisfaction, therefore, that the Senate received a report, first that Ardea had thrown off her allegiance to Rome in resentment at the crooked practice which had deprived her of her territory; secondly, that troops from Veii Veii was, in ancient times, an important Etrurian city 16 km (9.9 mi) NNW of Rome, Italy; its site lies in Isola Farnese, a village of Municipio XX, an administrative subdivision of the comune of Rome in the Province of Rome. Many sites associated with Veii, which were in the city-state of Veii, are also located in Formello, another comune of the had raided the Roman frontier, and, thirdly, that the Volscians The Volsci were an ancient Italic people, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. They then inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the south, the Hernici on the east, and stretching roughly from Norba and Cora in the north to Antium in the and Aequians were showing uneasiness at the fortification of Verrugo. In the circumstances it was good news, for the nobility could look forward even to an unsuccessful war with greater complacency than to an ignominious peace. ^[6]

References

Bibliography

• Burck, Erich (1934). Die Erzählungskunst des T. Livius. Berlin: Weidmann.
• Chaplin, Jane (2001). Livy's Exemplary History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198152743.
• Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony, eds (2003). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198606413.
• Feldherr, Andrew (1998). Spectacle and Society in Livy's History. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520210271.
• Jaeger, Mary (1997). Livy's Written Rome. University of Michigan Press. ISBN B000S73SBI.
• Kraus, C. S.; Woodman, A. J. (2006). Latin Historians. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199222933.
• Lipovsky, James (1984). A Historiographical Study of Livy: Books VI-X. New Hampshire: Ayer Company. ISBN B0006YIJN0.
• Luce, T. James (1977). Livy: The Composition of his History. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691035529.
• Mackail, J. W. (2008). Latin Literature. BiblioLife. ISBN 978-0554321998.
• Miles, Gary B. (1997). Livy: Reconstructing Early Rome. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801484261.
• Oakley, S. P. (2008). A Commentary on Livy, Books VI-X. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199237852.
• Ogilvie, R. M. (1965). A Commentary on Livy Books 1 to 5. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN B0000CMI9B.
• Radice, Betty (1982). Rome and Italy: Books VI-X of the History of Rome from its Foundation. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-044388-2.
• Walsh, P. G. (1996) [1967]. Livy, his historical aims and methods. Bristol Classical Press. ISBN 978-1853991301 1.

Notes

1. ^ Ronald Syme, following G. M. Hirst, has argued for 64 BC–AD 12
2. ^ Platner, S.B.; Ashby, T. (1929). Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 506-8.
3. ^ Cornell, Tim (1995). The Beginnings of Rome. London: Routledge. p. 319. ISBN 978-0415015967. http://books.google.com/books?id=EAEOAAAAQAAJ.
4. ^ Coarelli, Filippo (1983). Il Foro romano (3 ed.). Quasar. ISBN 978-8885020443.
5. ^ Dozois, Gardner; Schmidt, Stanley, eds (1998). Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History. New York: Del Rey. pp. 1–5. ISBN 978-0345421944.
6. ^ Livy, History of Rome, Penguin Classics, 1982, ISBN 0-14-044388-6

External links

Primary sources

• Ab Urbe condita (Latin)
• The History of Rome
  • Roman History, Books I-III
  • The History of Rome, Books 09 to 26
  • The History of Rome, Books 27 to 36

Secondary sources

• Livius.org: Livy

Categories: 59 BC births | 17 deaths | Golden Age Latin writers | People from Padua | Latin writers | Roman era historians | 1st-century BC historians | 1st-century historians | 1st-century BC Romans | 1st-century Romans

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• Livy
• Author:Livy
• Discourses On Livy
• Arts: Classical Studies: Roman: Livy

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