Livy

liv'i, a Roman historian much read in college. Partly from conjecture, authorities have said that he lived from 59 B. C. to 17 A. D., that he was wealthy and well educated, and that he passed the greater part of his life in Rome. He lived in the Augustan age of Latin Literature. His History of Rome was written in 142 books. Like all literary works of that day, the only possible copies were made by hand. Only thirty-five books, and two of these are incomplete, have survived fire and the ravages of time. One hundred seven books are lost wholly. Instead, then, of a history of Rome from the fabled founding of the city to the writer's own time, we have only a few valuable fragments. The thirteen books giving the wars with Hannibal are exceedingly valuable. While the material of Livy's History, especially the earliest portion, is largely fable and tradition, he gives no doubt the national history of Rome as currently held by the more intelligent people of that city. Livy is a fine storyteller. His style is careless but attractive. Even a college freshman cannot fail to enjoy Livy's way of putting things, nor fail to feel that Livy stood for the best there was in Roman character. Goldsmith, and Walter Scott in his Tales of a Grandfather, are thought to remind the reader of Livy's narrative style. See Latin