Titus Livius
ab urbe condita
continued
Titus Livius (Livy)
and Early Roman History
The historian Livy ( 59 B.C. – A.D. 17)
 Work: ab urbe condita ( from the founding of Rome) an
enormous history of Rome from its foundation to his own
time, contains many traditional stories about early
Roman history that are not historical facts
 Stories reflect traditional Roman ideals and values, not
necessarily those of the early Romans, but rather of later
periods and of Livy’s own period.
 Important: history reflects Roman vision of the past
 Stories provide many exempla (examples) of exemplary
Roman men and women who act according to Roman
values, and examples of those who do not.

Livy’s prologue

“Events before the city was founded or planned, which
have been handed down more as pleasing poetic fictions
than as reliable records of historical events, I intend
neither to affirm nor to refute. To antiquity we grant the
indulgence of making the origins of cities more
impressive by commingling the human with the divine,
and if any people should be permitted to sanctify its
inception and reckon the gods as its founders, surely the
glory of the Roman people in war such that, when it
boasts Mars in particular as its parent and the parent of
its founder, the nations of the world would as easily
acquiesce in this claim as they do in our rule.”
Themes in Livy’s History
Nationalism
 The Roman character
 Roman values; values associated with
Roman institutions


Transition from Old Rome to present New
Rome
Nationalism:
Rome was on a mission

Driven forward by will
and character of
Roman people, by the
will of the gods:
Preface:
 “The subjects to which I would ask my
reader to devote his earnest attention are
these: the life and morals of the
community; the men and the qualities by
which through domestic policy and foreign
dominion was won and extended.”


From the Old Rome to the New Rome
Preface:
 “Then as the standard of morality
gradually lowers, let him follow the decay
of the national character, observing how
at first it slowly sinks, then slips downward
more and more rapidly, and finally begins
to plunge into headlong ruin, until he
reaches these days, in which we can bear
neither our disease nor their remedies.”

Rome’s destiny to rule the world
Book 5.48; 49
“A conference took place between Q. Sulpicius,
the consular tribune, and Brennus, the Gallic
chieftain, and an agreement was arrived at by
which 1,000 lbs. of gold was fixed as the ransom
of a people destined ere long to rule the world.”
 “But gods and men alike prevented the Romans
from living as a ransomed people.”

Vergil’s Aeneid
book 6.795-800

“Now turn your eyes this way to see this race
and your Romans. Here Caesar and all of the
clan of Iulus will come to the great vault of
heaven. This man, this he whom again and
again you have heard in the promise of
prophecy, Caesar Augustus, son of a god. He
shall found once again an era of gold in the land
of Latium, throughout the fields that Saturn
once ruled. He shall carry his power beyond
Garamantes and Indians….”
Vergil’s Aeneid
Book 6. 860-862

“You, Roman, remember to govern the
peoples with power (these arts shall be
yours), to establish the practice of peace,
spare the conquered, and beat down th
haughty.”
The Roman Character in Livy
Has courage, selfrestraint, discipline,
resilience, frugality,
pietas (for the gods,
for the pater,
magistrate, law)
 Respect for mos
maiorum traditions of
the ancestors

pietas for the gods and mos maiorum
Book 5. 46 (Gallic Invasion 390 BCE)

“The Fabian house had an annual sacrifice on
the Quirinal, and C. Fabius Dorsuo, wearing his
toga…and bearing in his hands the sacred
vessels, came down from the Capitol, passed
through the middle of the hostile pickets,
unmoved by either challenge or threat, and
reached the Quirinal. There he duly performed
all the solemn rites and returned with the same
composed expression and gait, feeling sure of
the divine blessing, since not even the fear of
death had made him neglect the worship of the
gods.”
Aeneas’ symbol of pietas
The role of religion in Livy
Book 1.19

“[Numa} realized that a people whose aggression had
formerly been checked by fear of their enemies and by
military discipline might become fractious in their newfound idleness. He therefore first aimed to instill in them
fear of the gods, an invaluable constraint in the case of
an untutored multitude, which in those days was rather
primitive. ..because he could not win them over without
some miraculous fiction, he pretended that he met by
night with the goddess Egeria: it was at her prompting,
he claimed, that he was instituting religious rites that
would please the gods most and was assigning a special
priest to each of them…”
Livy as a source for
Political history –
 Religious history
 Social history

Livy as a source for social history
Consequences of War, Book 32.7

“ Matrons were wandering about the
streets and asking those they met what
recent disaster had been reported or what
news was there of the army……The next
day and several days afterwards, a large
crowd, containing more women than men
stood at the gates waiting for some one of
their friends or for news…”
Settlement of veterans
Book 31.4

“….the question was brought up as to the
holdings which were to be assigned to the
veteran soldiers who had served with
Scipio in Africa. ….appoint ten
commissioners for the purpose of
measuring and allotting that portion of the
Samnite and Apulian territory which had
become State domain.”
corn (grain) distribution
Book 31.4

“They also distributed to the people with
strict impartiality and to the general
satisfaction a vast quantity of corn which
Scipio had sent from Africa. It was sold at
four asses the modius.”
On slaves in wartime
book 34.6

“Our allies had fallen away from us, we
had no reserves from which to make good
our losses, no seamen to render our navy
effective, and no money in the treasury.
We ad to arm the slaves and they were
bought from their owners on condition
that the purchase money should be paid
at the end of the war. … We gave up our
slaves to act as rowers ….”
slaves can starve
Book 2. 34

“…In this year….the commonwealth was
attacked by another much more serious evile:
first, dearness of food, owing to the fields
remaining uncultivated during the secession,
and following on this a famine such as visits a
besieged city. It would have led to the perishing
of the slaves in any case, and probably the
plebeians would have died, had not the consuls
provided for the emergency for sending men in
various directions to buy corn (grain)…”
Women and the Oppian Law
Book 34.1

“ M. Fundanius and L. Valerius, had brought in a
proposal to repeal the Oppian Law. This law had
been made on the motion of M. Oppius, a
tribune of the plebs, during the consulship of Q.
Fabius and Tiberius Sempronius, when the strain
of the Punic War was most severely felt. It
forbade any woman to have in her possession
more than half an ounce of gold, to wear a
dress of various colors or to ride in a two-horsed
vehicle within a mile of the City or of any Roman
town unless she was going to take part in some
religious function.”
Debate on Repeal of Oppian Law
Book 34.2-7
Speech by Marcus Porcius Cato on behalf
of the law: 2-4 – conservative patriarchal
view of women and their duties
 Speech by L. Valerius in favour of the
repeal: 5-7: - lists the accomplishments of
women in times of crises.

Livy and Polybius on Rome’s success
Livy: Rome’s rise to greatness was due to the
Roman character traits (virtutes)
 Polybius: Rome’s rise to dominance was due to
its political constitution.
 Livy - transition from old Rome to new Rome;
shows moral decay of individuals but Rome
remains a stable state and not merely a stage in
a continuing process of decay (Like Sallust)
 Polybius - saw historical process as cyclical
