Life
Titus Livius, known to the English-speaking world as Livy, was born in Patavium (modern Padua) in 59 BCE. Very little of his early life is known. From his own writings, it is clear that he lacked political power and never saw battle, yet he must have been wealthy to spend decades writing such a long work. From passages in Tacitus and Suetonius, it was commonly held that Livy tutored Claudius, but taken at face value, they only show that he was well-respected and that young Claudius consulted him about the writing of history.
Livy died in 17 CE.
Works
Livy’s sole work was the massive Ab Urbe Condita (“From the Founding of the City”), a history of Rome from its mythical origins down through the Augustan Age in an unprecedented 142 books. Only books 1–10 and 21–45 survive intact.
The books are divided into sets of ten called “decades.”
Books 1–10 cover the beginning of Rome until the Third Samnite War (289 BCE), and 21–45 cover the Second Punic War (218 BCE) until the Macedonian War (167 BCE). For the rest of the books except 146 and 147, only either epitomes or periochae (“Synopses”) survive.
The work begins with a rather bleak outlook on Rome, castigating the current state of Roman society compared to years past. On account of this outlook, some scholars see Livy as actively disparaging the Augustan regime; fundamental characters, such as Aeneas or Romulus, are portrayed in ways that they could be read as critiques of Augustus’ contemporary rule. Romulus, for example, to whom Augustus is often compared, is portrayed especially negatively, with Livy explicitly doubting his deification, positing instead that he was killed by Senators. For Livy’s audience, a comparison to Julius Caesar, who was stabbed and later deified, would have been inescapable.
Perhaps this, or similar readings, is the cause for Augustus’ remark (Tacitus, Annals 4.34) that Livy was a “Pompeian”, referring to Pompey, Caesar’s opponent in the civil war.
Livy Online
Latin: PHI Latin Texts
English: Bruce Butterfield’s online website
Further Article
- Badian, E. 1993. “Livy and Augustus,” in Livius: Aspekte seines Werkes, W. Schuller ed. Universitätsverlag Konstanz.
- Chaplin, Jane D. 2000. Livy’s Exemplary History. Oxford.
- Forsythe, Gary. 1999. Livy and Early Rome: A Study in Historical Method and Judgement. Stuttgart.
- Hayne, L. 1990. “Livy and Pompey.” Latomus 49: 435-442.
- Petersen. H. 1961. “Livy and Augustus,” TAPhA 92: 440–452.
- Walsh, P. G. 1963. Livy: His Historical Aims and Methods. Cambridge.
