Introduction

INTRODUCTION Livy the Historian Livy , or in full Titus Livius, was born at Patavium in northern Italy (Padua today) in 59 bc, and so lived through the turbulent years of the fall of the Roman Republic into the calm and politically controlled era of one-man rule under Augustus and his successor Tiberius. 1 According to St Jerome’s Chronicle he died in ad 17. He seems not to have held public offi ce or done any military service. Apart from some essays, now lost, on philosophy and rhetoric, he undertook in his late twenties to compose an up-to-date history of Rome drawing on mostly Roman but also some Greek predecessors. He entitled it From the Foundation of the City ( Ab Urbe Condita ): to all Romans their City was unique. The history eventually amounted to 142 books, taking Rome’s history from its traditional foundation-date of 753 bc down to the year 9 bc — a colossal achievement, much lengthier than Gibbon’s Decline and Fall , for instance. Of it only the fi rst ten Books and then Books 21–45 survive. Books 6–10 take the story of Rome from 390 bc down to the year 293. Evidence in the work indicates that Livy began writing in the early 20s bc, for around 18 bc he reached Book 28. A subheading to a surviving résumé (epitome) of the lost book 121 states that it was published after Augustus’ death in ad 14: some- thing that probably held true, too, for those that followed. The history ended at the year 9 bc. 2 Livy’s youth was a time of growing political instability, even though Rome had subdued and was still expanding an empire 1 An epitaph at Patavium seems to commemorate him: it marks the tomb of Titus Livius son of Gaius, his wife Cassia Prima, and two sons (H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae (Berlin, 1892–1916; henceforth ILS ), no. 2919); we also know that he had a daughter. 2 For Books 1–5 (the ‘fi rst pentad’) see Livy: The Rise of Rome: translation, notes, and introduction by T. J. Luce (Oxford World’s Classics, 1998). We have epitomes (periochae ), put together in the late Roman empire, of all the Books except 136–7; they give an idea of what has been lost — although the periochae of surviving Books show how idiosyn- cratic and at times frivolous the anonymous epitomators could be. The epitomes are translated by J. D. Chaplin, Livy: Rome’s Mediterranean Empire. Books 41–45 and the Periochae (Oxford World’s Classics, 2007). 000-Livy-FM.indd0-Livy-FM.indd vviiii 112/19/20122/19/2012 99:51:05:51:05 AAMM viii introduction from the Atlantic to the river Euphrates, and Julius Caesar was about to launch his conquest of Gaul. Roman political life was degen- erating fast into power-contests between dominant leaders even to the point of civil war in 49 bc. When Caesar triumphed, he was quickly eliminated, in 44 bc, by an alliance between disenchanted supporters and resentful ex-enemies. Fresh upheavals broke out, climaxing in prolonged and violent rivalry between the two remain- ing leaders — Caesar’s former deputy Mark Antony and his great- nephew and adopted son Caesar Octavian. The outcome was victory for Octavian in 31–30, which made him master of Rome and the empire. Taking the ceremonious name Augustus in 27, the new ruler set himself to restore peace, order, and confi dence at home, to con- tinue expanding the empire, and also to make it plain that he was not giving up his supremacy as princeps (fi rst citizen). The renewal of Rome was accompanied by a remarkable literary and artistic fl ower- ing that came to be called the Augustan Age (although in fact it had begun in the still-stressful 30s), when poets like Virgil, Horace, and later Ovid composed masterpieces that became more or less instant classics, while at the same time taking care to laud the new ruler. Artists and architects created works like Augustus’ emblematic Altar of Peace, dedicated in 9 bc, and the Augustan Forum, opened in 2 bc. The historians of the time were active too: for example writing on the tumultuous times that had recently ended (like the ex-consul Asinius Pollio, who also sneered at Livy, opaquely, for ‘Patavinity’) or, in our Patavian’s case, undertaking the momen- tous project of telling a new generation Rome’s history from its beginning. 3 At the start, Livy had no idea that his work would fi ll 142 books. The fi rst fi ve, on Rome of the kings (Book 1) and then the fi fth- century Republic, dealt with about 360 years; then Books 6–10 narrate the ninety-seven years from 389 to 293 bc. In the middle of Book 10 he pauses, almost in wonderment, to comment on how lengthy his narrative of the Samnite wars has so far proved — four books — and how more is still to come (10.31). He was undeterred: the next ten books, which did not survive Roman times, covered 3 Livy’s Patavinitas: Quintilian, The Training of the Orator 1.5.56, 8.1.3. The contexts make it clear that Pollio thought poorly of some of Livy’s vocabulary choices and expres- sions, but other theories have been advanced. 000-Livy-FM.indd0-Livy-FM.indd vviiiiii 112/19/20122/19/2012 99:51:05:51:05 AAMM introduction ix only seventy-four years, and 21–30 (the famous ‘third decad’ on Hannibal’s war) took the story through a mere eighteen, from 219 to 201. By the time he started on Book 31, Livy felt it necessary to tell his readers that he felt ‘like someone who wades out into the sea after being initially attracted to the water by the shallows . and I foresee any advance only taking me into even more enor- mous, indeed bottomless, depths’. A task that he had thought would lessen in size as it progressed seemed instead to be expanding indefi nitely. 4 He was right. The epitomes that survive of the history show that the second half of his work, starting at Book 72, began with the year 91 bc, and the work from there to Book 133 gave an immensely detailed account of events down to 29 bc . Augustus’ virtual mon- archy brought about a change: if their epitomes are a guide, Livy’s fi nal books (134–142) narrated mainly foreign wars down to 9 bc — a sign, perhaps, of political discretion by an author now famous and enjoying the ruler’s favour. The complete history was too massive for most readers. Eighty years later the poet Martial joked that his library could not fi t Livy in whole, and he welcomed an abridgement. Of this vast narrative only one-third survives. Book 10 ends with the year 293 bc ; then 21–45 take us from 219 down to 167. Even these thirty-fi ve Books fi ll six or seven volumes of Latin text. 5 Structure and Chronology in Books 6 to 10 Book 6 opens with the year 389, the aftermath of the famous capture of Rome by a marauding army of Gauls. It takes the story down to 367, and then the narrative grows steadily ampler: Book 7 covers 366 to 342, Book 8 the years 341 to 322, Book 9 the period from 321 to 304, and Book 10 from 303 to 293. 6 Not only is Livy’s narration fuller as it progresses from book to book, but the quality of informa- tion clearly improves, especially in Book 10: the numbers of enemy 4 Livy 31.1, tr. J. C. Yardley, Livy: The Dawn of the Roman Empire. Books 31–40 (Oxford World’s Classics, 2000). 5 Martial, Epigrams 14.190. 6 This illustrates the ‘landscape principle’ — that more recent times receive fuller attention than those further back — noted by A. A. Barrett in J. C. Yardley and A. A. Barrett, Velleius Paterculus: The Roman History , translated with introduction and notes (Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett, 2011), pp. xxvii–xxviii. 000-Livy-FM.indd0-Livy-FM.indd iixx 112/19/20122/19/2012 99:51:05:51:05 AAMM x introduction casualties become somewhat more realistic (even if still not always credible), and place-names are not only more numerous but look more realistic, though with the same caveat. A great deal of the narrative throughout — well over half — relates the Romans’ incessant wars with their neighbours, as the city expanded its dominance over further regions of the Italian peninsula. Another theme, likewise continuing from earlier books, is the struggle between Rome’s oli- garchic patricians and the plebeian majority over civil and economic rights and political power. Both themes evolve steadily. In Book 6, Rome’s military horizons extend only to regions within a few days’ march: southern Etruria, eastern Latium, and, beyond this, the mountains and valleys of her old foes the Aequi, Hernici, and Volsci. In succeeding books, Roman diplomacy and warfare expand to Campania, the Sabines and Umbrians, all Etruria, Apulia, and — toughest enemies of all — the Samnites. Despite opponents’ resilience, and occasional disasters like the famous aff air of the Caudine Forks (9.1–11), Rome’s fortune pre- vails over all. At home, patrician–plebeian confrontations bring a series of plebeian gains despite strong patrician resistance, from the easing of debt-burdens to laws that open consulships and pontifi cal priesthoods to plebeians. The politically dominant elite thus becomes a joint patrician–plebeian aristocracy, although social and economic tensions never die away.

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