Livy was born in the Northern Italian city of Padua
and spent most of his life in Rome. His family did
not belong to the influential circles of the Roman
Empire, yet Livy early attracted the attention of AUGUSTUS
and was invited to supervise the literary activities
of the young Claudius, who later became the
Roman emperor. Augustus appreciated Livy’s independent
and sincere mind, and he expressed his
respect by giving Livy the nickname “Pompeian.”
At a young age, Livy started his work entitled
The History of Rome from Its Foundation, a history
of the Romans from ancient times to his day. Initially,
he published his writing in units of five
books, the length of which was determined by the
size of the ancient papyrus roll.With time, however,
his work became more complex; Livy abandoned
the symmetrical pattern and wrote 142
books. Books 11–20 and 46–142 have been lost;
they are known mostly from surviving summaries.
Letters from Livy to statesman PLINY THE YOUNGER
reflect the historian’s doubts about his work and
his fears that the scope of the undertaking was too
huge.However, the work turned out to be so fascinating
that he continued writing. As a result, he
became famous and was deeply respected throughout
the Roman Empire.
What attracted contemporary readers to Livy’s
work was the way he explained history. Unlike his
predecessors, who were entangled in political battles
that affected what they wrote, Livy saw history
in more personal, moral terms. This tendency to
step away from the politics and concentrate on
moral values was characteristic of Augustus’s rule.
Through legislation and propaganda, Augustus
tried to strengthen moral ideals. Such prominent
figures as HORACE and VIRGIL wrote poetry stressing
the same message—that moral qualities make the
Roman Empire great and allow Rome and its citizens
to retain their power. Ironically, the Italian
historian Niccolò Machiavelli (1429–1527), who
was known for his deceit in diplomatic negotiations,
wrote an in-depth analysis of Livy’s History,
titled Discourses on Livy (1551), in which he espouses
the ideals of an autocratic government
made effective only by conflict, rather than stability—
a far cry from the morality Livy discusses.
In addition to his contributions to the moral
ideals of the Roman Empire at the time, Livy also
affected the use of Latin as the language of writing.
The earliest Romans wrote in Greek, which was
considered the language of culture. Therefore,
Latin had formed no appropriate style for the
recording of history. Livy filled this void. In his
History, he developed a varied and flexible style
that the ancient critic QUINTILIAN described as
“milky richness.”
By contemporary standards, Livy can hardly be
considered a serious scholar. His history is more
personal than “formal,” and some of the information
he includes in History can hardly be considered
faultlessly accurate. In addition, he borrows
greatly from Virgil’s Aeneid, giving his work almost
a fictional aspect. His History, however, tells much
about the moral values and attitudes of the Romans:
who they were and what they thought of
themselves and the rest of the world in the first
century. The History became a classic in Livy’s own
lifetime and exercised a profound influence on the
style and philosophy of historical writing down to
the 18th century.
English Versions of a Work by Livy
The Early History of Rome. Translated by Aubrey De
Selincourt. Introduction by R. M. Ogilvie. New
York: Penguin Classics, 2000.
Rome and the Mediterranean. Books XXXI–XLV of
‘The History of Rome from its Foundation.’ Translated
by Henry Bettenson. Introduction by A. H.
McDonald. Hammondsworth, U.K.: Penguin,
1976.
Works about Livy
Briscoe, John. A Commentary on Livy. Oxford, U.K.:
Clarendon Press, 1981.
Chaplin, Jane D. Livy’s Exemplary History. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2000.
Feldherr, Andrew. Spectacle and Society in Livy’s History.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
Machiavelli, Niccolò. Discourses on Livy. Oxford’s
World Classics Series. Translated by Julia Conaway
Bondanella and Peter Bondanella. Oxford:Oxford
University Press, 2003.