Person59 BC – AD 17

Livy

Also called: Titus Livius, Tito Livio

Roman historian from Patavium (Padua) who wrote the history of Rome from its founding to his own day in 142 books (Ab Urbe Condita), of which 35 survive

He was born in the prosperous northern Italian city of Patavium (Padua), in 59 BC (some say 64 BC). Taking no part in politics or the army, he devoted his life in Rome to writing history and left the History of Rome in 142 books, from the founding of the city to 9 BC. Though on good terms with Augustus, he praised the men of the republic, and he encouraged the young Claudius to study history. His vivid, dramatic style made his work the classic of Roman history, and Machiavelli wrote his Discourses on the first ten books. He died in Patavium around AD 17.

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27 BC – AD 17Livy’s History of Romeauthor
From about 27 BC the historian Livy of Patavium (Padua) wrote the history of Rome from its founding to his own day in 142 books (Ab Urbe Condita, “From the Founding of the City”). Book 1 tells the founding legends from Aeneas to the end of the monarchy. Thirty-five books survive.

People who appear alongside

Augustus63 BC – AD 14
First Roman emperor (r. 27 BC – AD 14); as Octavian, Caesar’s adopted heir, he won at Actium and founded the principate

Themes this person appears in

The Founding Myths of Rome1200 BC – 1471
From Aeneas escaping burning Troy to Dido, Romulus and Remus, the Sabine women and Lucretia — the origins the Romans claimed for themselves, in story order, alongside the sites of Lavinium and the Palatine, the Aeneid and Livy’s History, the Ara Pacis and the Capitoline Wolf