His history of rome became a classic in his own lifetime and exercised a profound influence on the style and philosophy of historical writing down to the 18th century. Titus livius, commonly known as livy, was one of the greatest historians of ancient rome His monumental work, ab urbe condita (from the founding of the city), chronicles the history of rome from its legendary beginnings to his contemporary period during the reign of augustus. Livy lived through one of the most tumultuous periods in roman history The assassination of julius caesar, the civil wars, and the eventual rise of augustus as the first emperor all occurred during his lifetime. While he would spend most of his adult life in rome, arriving there at the age of thirty, livy, was actually born in the small town of patuvium located in northern italy, modern day padua, around 59 bce, and it was in his place of birth that he would return to die in 17 ce at the age of sixty.
Roman historian, author of the authorized version of the history of the roman republic. At times he is quite florid, rivaling cicero in periodic structures At others he is straightforward, even plain, as befits an historian of military affairs As with all authors, the style and vocabulary become more easily absorbed as the work progresses. Livy (titus livius), the great roman historian, was born at or near patavium (padua) in 64 or 59 bce He may have lived mostly in rome but died at patavium, in 12 or 17 ce
Livy employed annalistic features to associate his history with the dominant traditional of roman history, which was to write these annalistic chronicles In so doing, he imbued his history with an aura of continuity and stability along with pontifical authority. Livy covered the earliest legends of rome through to the reign of caesar augustus, who died while livy was still writing Livy’s contribution to the historical record has been instrumental in our understanding of how the roman people lived and how their empire was created.
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