Livy's History of Rome

Livy's History of RomeBOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1 89 1 BY
HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE
GAYLORD PRINTED IN U.S.A.
the Cornell University Library.
the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028290066
teLLSCLASSICALTRANSLATIONS
E =1
LONDON
AND NEW YORK.
Bohfis Classical Library by another translator.
tjNBlNO*^^
ir^
PREFACE.
I HAVE endeavoured, in revising this translation, to make it
readable, according to the best of my ability, for those who, possessing no knowledge of Latin, may yet be desirous of
gaining some acquaintance with the works of the most picturesque of Roman historians. I have at the same time tried to give a rendering sufficiently literal to meet the re-
quirements of those who are preparing for examinations,
and need the assistance of a translation.
I hope the short notes may be found of some service in
explaining allusions to historical, constitutional, and geo-
graphical matters. I have purposely avoided anything in
the shape of grammatical or textual remarks.
The Introduction makes no claim to originality : first and foremost I must acknowledge my obligations to the intro-
ductions in Weissenborn's edition of the text alone, and of the text with German notes. I have also consulted the
article " Livy " in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica ; " Ihne's
"Early Rome;" Arnold "On the CredibiHty of Early Roman History ;
" and the volume " Livy " in " Ancient Classics for English Readers." A few alterations are due to some MS. corrections by
another scholar in the volume placed at my disposal by the
publishers.
For the sake of uniformity, I have revised the translation
according to the text (founded on Weissenborn) of the
latest edition of Prendeville's " Livy," recently published by Messrs. George Bell and Sons.
INTRODUCTION.
Of the life of Titus Livius but little is known. There appears no doubt, however, that he was bom at Patavium (Padua) in b.c. 59 (or B.C. 57), the year of Julius Caesar's^,
first consulship : he was thus some ten years Virgil's
junior, and Horace's by about five years. The name of his
birthplace is confirmed by Martial.^ Patavium was a city of
great antiquity, the chief town of the Veneti, and, like
Rome, claimed a Trojan origin, as having been founded by Antenor (see Book I. ch. i.). In Livy's time it was a most flourishing mercantile town, also celebrated for its hot sulphur springs. It appears to have borne a high reputatjpn
for morality, and to have staunchly upheld republican prin-
ciples. This would in great measure account for Livy's
detestation of monarchy, and the regrets constantly ex-
pressed by him at the gradual deterioration of public
manners at Rome. Nothing is known for certain concerning his parentage,
but it may be conjectured, from his general sympathy with
the aristocratical party, that he belonged to a family of
rank, and received a liberal education. He probably mi-
grated to Rome about the time of the battle of Actium (b.c. 31), in any case some time before b.c. 27. He there at-
tracted the attention of the Emperor Augustus, who, as is
well known, delighted to gather round him men eminent for
literary ability. He afterwards became intimate with
Augustus, and appears to have acquainted him with his
design of writing the history of Rome. Tacitus mentions
that Livy was a devoted admirer of the character of Pom- peius, so much so that Augustus nicknamed him a Pom-
^ Epigr. I. 61. Censetur Apona Livio suo tellus (Apona tellus, in
the neighbourhood of Patavium, was so called from a warm spring,
Aponi fons).
vill INTRODUCTION.
peian, but that this did not interfere with their friendship.
Further, according to Suetonius, the future Emperor Claudius
was first led by Livy to turn his attention to the study of
history. He does not seem, although possessing strong
political sympathies, to have taken an active part in politi-
cal affairs, but to have devoted himself entirely to literature.
According to Seneca, he also busied himself with the com- position of philosophical dialogues and rhetorical treatises,
his early occupation having possibly been that of a pro-
fessor of rhetoric. According to the same authority, he is
to be considered inferior only to Cicero and Asinius Pollio
in such branches of study. The reputation in which he was held at Rome is said to have been so great, that a
Spaniard came all the way from Gades (Cadiz) merely to
see him. Beyond the fact that he had a son and daughter,
the latter married to one Lucius Magius, a rhetorician, we know little or nothing else concerning him. After the death of Augustus, possibly feeling that he might be less secure
during the reign of Tiberius, he retired to his native city,
and died in a.d. 17, in the same year as the poet Ovid, and in the seventy-sixth year of his age.
The date of the commencement of his work can be fixed
with tolerable certainty, between b.c. 27-25. In Book I.
ch. xix., we read that the temple of Janus was only shut twice after the time of Numa, the first time at the close of the first Punic war, the second, after the battle of Actium (B.C. 31), no mention being made of its being shut for the third time at the end of the Cantabrian war (b.c. 25). Further, the emperor is called Augustus in the above pas- sage, a title which he assumed in b.c. 27. Again, the terms in which Livy alludes to the civil wars, as disasters of recent date, from the evil effects of which the city had not recovered, point to the fact that he commenced to write the first decade very soon after their conclusion. It is
probable that the last part of the work (from Book CXXI.) was published after the death of Augustus (a.d. 14) : so that Livy must have been engaged more than forty years on his great work, almost up to the time of his death.
His original design was to write the history of Rome, from the arrival of Aeneas in Italy up to the death of Augustus : as a matter of fact the work stops short at the
INTRODUCTION. ix
:
the death of Drusus was not of sufficient importance to form a fitting conclusion, and 150 books at least would have been necessary to have rounded off the number. But it does not appear that he got beyond the 142nd book, the last book of which we have the epitome.
The original title of the work is unknown : ab urbe con-
dita liber primus, secundus, etc., is considered to have the
best authority. The division into decades is assigned to the
fifth century a.d. ; the books were probably published in
sets, this view being supported by the prefaces (compare the
commencement of Books VI. and XXI.), which would hardly
have been prefixed had not the books been intended for the
use of immediate readers.
Of the 142 books, scarcely a quarter has been preserved
to us. Books XI. to XX. and XLVI. to CXLII. are entirely
lost, while Books XLI. and XLIII. are in a very imperfect
condition. The first decade is extant, commencing with
the earliest history of Rome, and embracing a period of
460 years : the second, which comprehended a period of
only seventy-five years, is lost ; the third, containing a de-
tailed and eloquent account of the second Punic war, the
longest and most hazardous, as he says, to which the for-
tunes of the state were ever committed, is extant ; the
fourth, embracing a period oftwenty-three years only, owing to
the variety and importance of the events which are recorded,
containing an account of the Macedonian war against Philip,
and the Asiatic campaign against Antiochus, is also extant ;
of the fifth, only the first five books are preserved, and these
only in a very imperfect condition. They give an account
of the war with Perseus, king of Macedon, whose kingdom,
after various vicissitudes of defeat and success, is at length
reduced to a Roman province : of the third Punic war,
which lasted only five years : and of the extortionate rule of
certain Roman governors in the provinces. The remaining
books are all lost : they seem to have perished some time
between the seventh and fifteenth centuries, probably owing
:
little credence is to be attached to the story of Pope Gregory
X INTRODUCTION.
I , having given orders for all the copies of Livy to be burnt
which he could lay hands upon, by reason of the many superstitions they contained. Some few fragments have
been discovered, notably of Book XCI. in the Vatican in
1772. Fortunately, however, some idea of the contents of
the lost books has been preserved to us, although in a mere
skeleton form, in the Periochae (or Epitomae) : neither the
name of the compiler of these nor the date of their compo- sition is known : they have been attributed to Florus, who flourished (probably) in the reign of the Emperor Trajan,
while others assign them to a much earlier date. From them we learn that Book LVIII. contained an account of the
tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus : Book LXXXIX. of the dic-
tatorship of Sulla : Book CIII. of the first consulship of
Caesar : Book CXXIV. of the battle of Philippi ; Books CXXXIIl., CXXXIV., of the battle of Actium, and the
accession of Augustus : Books CXXXV.-CXLII. of the
early years of his reign.
Livy is not to be regarded as an historian in the strict
sense of the word, as a critical investigator of facts and authorities, and a careful inquirer into the value of the
evidence before him ; in fact, Macaulay goes so far as to
say that "no historian with whom we are acquainted has
shown so complete an indifference to truth." Livy's idea
of his duty and aim as the historian of the Roman people
proceeded from an entirely different standpoint. He wrote
as a Roman for Romans : he was absorbed in the contem- plation of the greatness of a single city, and that city was Rome : and his main object was to glorify its greatness,
following in this the example of the earlier annalists, who began to write at the time of the Punic Wars, and the great
struggle with Carthage. This could not fail sometimes to
lead him to give an exaggerated estimate of the achieve-
ments of Rome, and to neglect events of importance occur-
ring elsewhere, simply because they had no direct bearing on Roman history.
He was profoundly impressed with the importance of morality, and is fond of drawing moral lessons : -ihus in his
preface and elsewhere he contrasts the virtues of the past
with the vices of the present, and does not hesitate to cen-
sure the aristocratical party, with which he was in sympathy,
INTRODUCTION. xi
when they appear to him to deserve it. He is styled by Seneca "candissimus omnium magnorum ingeniorum aesti-
mator." Although he composed treatises on philosophy, he by no means comes up to the idea of a philosophic historian,
and had little acquaintance with the theory and science of politics. On the whole, as has been noted, his sympathies were on the side of the nobility against the commons : he detested monarchy : and clearly saw that the gradual spread of slavery, the employment of foreign mercenaries, and the
corruption that would follow—^as in the case of Alexander —the mixing with foreign nations, and the adoption of their
vices, would finally lead to the ruin of Rome. He has been described as a painter and a consummate artist, but no historian.
These few remarks will render it easier to understand the
spirit in which Livy approached the authorities which he had at his command, and a brief account may here be given of
the nature of these authorities, (i) Public documents and state registers. Such were the "Annales Maximi," a brief
annual register of remarkable public events, prepared by the
Pontifex Maximus : the " Commentarii Pontificum," pre-
served in the colleges of pontiffs and censors : the " Fasti,"
or " Libri Magistratuum " (written on linen), kept in the
temple of Juno Moneta on the Capitol—a register of official
personages, still extant as the "Fasti Capitolini." These, how-
ever, were only a bare outline of events^/without the details
required by the historian. Further, even in regard to these,
we are met by the fact, mentioned by Livy himself, that
almost all perished at the time of the burning of the city by
the Gauls. In the beginning of Book VI. Livy speaks of the
events he has previously described as " obscure from their
great antiquity and the want of written documents;" adding
that, " even if any such did exist in the ' Commentarii Ponti-
ficum,' or other public and private records, they most of
them perished at the burning of the city." Some fragments
of the " Leges Regise " and the twelve tables alone seem to
have escaped the flames.
and treaties, might also have been available, but these also
in many cases perished, and even where this was not the
case, Livy does not seem to have made use of them, but to
xii INTRODUCTION.
monuments may be mentioned the pillar in the temple of
Diana, recording the treaty entered into with the Latins
(Book I. xlv.), with which Livy does not seem to have
been acquainted; the lex Icilia (III. 31); the treaty with
Ardea (IV. 31), and Gabii (I. 54); and the inscription on the spoils taken from Lars Tolumnius, by A. Cornelius
Cossus,in the temple of Jupiter Feretrius (IV. 20), which he
visited with Augustus, but treated with contempt.
The genealogical records of private families and funeral
orations (laudationes), eulogies of distinguished men and their achievements as well as of those of their ancestors—we should, from their very nature, not expect to find particu-
larly trustworthy. Flattery and family vanity would be only
too apt to attribute fictitious titles and honours to the
ancestors of a particular family. Livy himself (VIII. 34) expresses the following opinion :
" I am inclined to think
that history has been much falsified by funeral panegyrics
and pretended inscriptions on statues, each family striving
by misleading and false representations to claim for itself
the renown of famous deeds and public honours. On this
account, undoubtedly, both the acts of individuals and the
public records of events have been rendered uncertain ; nor is there any contemporary writer of these times on whose authority we can rely with certainty." Such biographies are
stigmatized by Arnold as " the most unscrupulous in false-
hood of any pretended records of facts that the world has yet seen." Niebuhr and Macaulay set great value on lays
sung at festivals and handed down by oral tradition, as
forming the foundation of much of the early history of Rome. Mention may here be made of the probability that
the "Annales" of Ennius (B.C. 239-169), a history of Rome, written in hexameter verse, supplied Livy with some of the material for the history of the legendary period, which is borne out by the somewhat poetical diction of the earlier books (especially the first), although this may be also accounted for by the nature of the events recorded. We have seen that Livy either could not or would not
make the best use of the most original and trustworthy authorities. Almost his only guide seems to have been the writings of the Annalists, who must be briefly noticed.
INTRODUCTION. xiii
The earliest of these is Quintus Fabius Pictor (a connec- tion of the famous Quintus Fabius Maximus Cunctator), the father of Roman history, who flourished during the Second Punic War. He wrote a history of the same in Greek, and prefixed a short introduction, giving an account of the foun- dation of Rome, of the regal period, and early years of the republic. He is considered by Livy to be his most reliable
authority, but he is blamed by Polybius for being unduly prejudiced in favour of his own countrymen. Contempo- rary with Fabius was Lucius Cincius Alimentus. He was taken prisoner by Hannibal, and on his release from cap-
tivity he wrote (also in Greek) a history of Rome from the earliest times. Quintus Claudius Quadrigariiis, who lived
in the time of Sulla, wrote an " Annales " in twenty-three
books, commencing with the invasion of the Gauls. He is
supposed to have translated from Greek into Latin an "Annales" composed by Gaius Acilius at the beginning of
the seventh century a.u.c. Quintus Valerius Antias was a
contemporary of Cicero. He composed an " Annales " in
seventy-five books, from the commencement of the city to
his own times. " He has done more than any other writer
to falsify Roman history," allowing full scope to his inven-
tive powers in his descriptions of battles, victories, and defeats, the number of killed and wounded, and such de-
tails : but, in spite of this, owing to the liveliness of his nar-
rative and the picturesqueness of his style he was widely
read. Gaius Licinius Macervi&s a plebeian (tribune of the
people, B.C. 73). The influence of his anti-aristocratic ten-
dencies may be traced in Livy (e.g. IK. 39). He appears to
have been a careful and conscientious writer. Quintus
Aelius Tubero (who lived about the same time) wrote a
history of Rome in fourteen books down to the time of the
civil wars. He is praised for his accuracy by Dionysius.
These were the chief authorities for the first and second
decade. In the third he placed most reliance on Fabius
and Cincius, and others. Quintus Coelius Antipater (b.c.
120), a distinguished lawyer, wrote the history of the Second
Punic AVar in seven books. He is described by Cicero
as " scriptor . . . ut illis temporibus luculentus." The " Annales " of Gaius Acilius have been mentioned before.
In the fourth decade he also made use of the "Origines" of
xiv INTRODUCTION.
Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder (b.c. 234-149), who com-
posed a history of Italy and Rome from its earliest founda-
tion up to the year b.c. 151. This was the first history of
Rome written in Latin. In the third, fourth, and fifth
decades he mainly followed PolyMus. Polybius was one of
the 1,000 Achaean captives who, after the victory at Pydna
(b.c. 167) and the downfall of the Macedonian monarchy,
were brought to Rome, where he lived for seventeen years.
During this time he employed himself in studying the his-
tory, manners, and customs of the Romans, and published
the result of his investigations in the shape of a universal
history in forty books, the first two of which contained a
brief sketch of the early history of Rome and Carthage, the
remainder an account of events from the commencement of
the Second Punic War to the destruction of Carthage and
Corinth.
Such, then, was the nature of the authorities on whom Livy chiefly relied. In regard to them we are immediately
struck by the fact that for the first five centuries of Roman history we have no contemporary history, as the earliest of
the annalists, Fabius Pictor, did not flourish until some 500 years after the date of the supposed foundation of Rome. What, then, were the authorities used by the annalists them-
selves ? To this question we can give no answer : it is,…