The Mission of Livy’s History
Titus Livius (59 BC-17 AD), or Livy as he is commonly called, was a Roman historian during the years Augustus was building the Roman Empire. Livy wrote a massive 142 book history of Rome called Ab Urbe Condita (From the Founding of the City) which covered all of Roman history from the very beginning up until Livy’s own time. Unfortunately, only part of this great historical work has survived, mostly from the earlier half of Roman history. It is considered one of the greatest works of history ever written and is regarded as a fairly reliable source for information about early Rome.
Livy’s goal in writing history was to use history to teach moral lessons to his fellow Romans. His critics have claimed he was a pessimist who felt that the best days of Rome were behind her. This was only partially true. He did believe that Rome was decaying as a result of corruption and a loss of values, but he felt that the glory days of Rome could be renewed if only Rome could learn from her history. In this sense Livy carried a semi-cyclical view of history. There were recognizable patterns throughout history that would repeat; there would always be a rise, a fall, and a rebirth.
Ab Urbe Condita(From the Founding of the City)
Livy realized that his ancestors faced similar problems that his own generation faced and understood the importance of knowing the good and the bad things in Rome’s history. While his goal of bringing Rome to that “Rebirth” stage made his efforts patriotic, Ab Urbe Condita is largely considered a fair and balanced work, which is part of Livy’s significance to history.
Livy is also renowned for his writing style. Some have described his work as “poetic prose” and even to a modern reader his work is fairly entertaining. He felt that clarity was extremely important and was inspired by the works of Julius Caesar and Cicero. With a work the size of his Ab Urbe Condita it was essential the work be readable in order to be useful.
One of his techniques was to write speeches and place them in the mouths of historical figures. This practice has obviously fallen out of favor with historians because it is inaccurate, but it used to be a useful technique to allow ancient readers to understand the motivations and thoughts behind historical figures. Despite using this form of rhetorical history, his work is generally straightforward and relatively easy to read. Sometimes ancient books can be difficult to fight through, but Ab Urbe Condita is very smooth and flowing.
Livy’s Sources
To create a comprehensive history of Rome from the very beginning, Livy relied heavily on secondary sources. At the time he wrote Ab Urbe Condita primary documents covering early Roman history were lost or hard to come by. The ones that were available (and there were quite a few) were hard to use and disorganized. By not using primary documents, Livy was able to finish his massive history in his lifetime. Obviously neglecting primary documents is not something modern historians would encourage, but it is easy to understand why Livy did just that. He was not alone in this sense, and many Roman historians were “unhistorical” in the sense that they did not resort to studying primary documents.
Therefore, Livy relied heavily on Roman historians like Q. Fabius Pictor, Aelius Tubero and the widely respected Polybius. Livy was careful about how he used his sources and in many cases managed to neutralize the bias they may have had. On occasion, some of the flaws of his sources crept into Ab Urbe Condita, notably the blatant Roman patriotism of Q. Fabius Pictor.
A “Fair and Balanced” History
Despite this, Livy’s goal was to write an accurate version of Roman history that could be used to restore the former glory of the Roman Republic, and he tried his best to eliminate bias. He even wrote from the perspective of Roman opponents from time to time.
To attain balance, Livy would also use at least two sources for everything, presenting alternate versions of events and letting the reader decide which one seemed more accurate, seldom passing judgment himself. Livy recognized the strengths and weaknesses of his sources and used them accordingly. For instance, Polybius was and still is considered the expert on Roman campaigns in Greece and the East. So when covering these portions of history in Ab Urbe Condita, Livy relied heavily on Polybius’ work.
Livy’s Research Methods
Livy’s research methods ensured that he could complete his massive Roman history before he died. He claimed to have read all of the historical works that preceded him and seems to have had a deep knowledge of Roman history to start with. For his research he would read a source, decide what was important in it, then outline what events his own work would cover, and then simply rewrite the original source. He would use additional facts and sources to clarify or thicken his portrayal of events. In essence he wasn’t writing his own history of Rome as much as he was simply creating a synthesis of all the previous work that had been done.
Being so long, Ab Urbe Condita had to be organized in order for it to be easily read and understood. Thus Livy separated the work into 142 books, each with sub-sections and clearly separated from each other by prefaces or thematic differences. Livy made sure that each segment of Ab Urbe Condita had a beginning, middle, and an end, while focusing on a major event like a particular war.
The Importance of Livy
All of this combined made Livy an important historian. He was the first professional, full-time historian. He championed independent (he was not a court historian) and relatively unbiased history as an educational tool. His success at writing accurate Roman history and his love of balance impresses even modern historians who are surprised Livy got so much right, considering his research methods. Despite some historical periods where his form of history has fallen out of favor, we can thank Livy today for creating a popular view of what history is and should be.
Sources
Foster, B.O. Livy, with an English translation. London and New York: Putnam, 1959.
Dorey, T. A. Latin Historians. New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1966.
Kraus, C.S. and A. J. Woodman. Latin Historians. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Luce, T. J. Livy: The Composition of His History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.
Mellor, Ronald. The Roman Historians. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.
Miles, Gary B. Livy: Reconstructing Early Rome. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1995.
Walsh, P. G. Livy: his historical aims and methods. Cambridge University Press, 1961.
Reference:
- www.associatedcontent.com/article/907647/an_introduction_to_livy_the_great_roman.html
- www.associatedcontent.com/article/994738/is_livy_a_better_storyteller_or_historian.ht
- www.associatedcontent.com/article/24853/populism_and_class_division_in_livys.html?cat
