Ab Urbe Condita by Titus Livy

Ab Urbe Condita by Titus Livy

A title in the Bristol Classical Press Latin texts series, in Latin with English notes, vocabulary and introduction. Titus Livius lived from 59 BC to AD 17 and was a native of the northern Italian town of Patavium. It is generally agreed that he settled in Rome at about the age of 30, and spent the last forty years of his life in the composition of his great history. In writing the history of Rome, Livy sought to emphasize the traits in the national character that had made Rome great, and to impress upon his readers that Rome had developed into a great empire under their guidance and leadership. Livy has been praised for the power of his graphic descriptions, his dramatic contrivance, his imaginative skill in the composition of his speeches, his details of character, and finally his language. He is simultaneously historian, poet and rhetorician. This edition should prove useful to students and undergraduates.

Titus Livius was born in Patavium (modern Padua) in northern Italy around 59 BC. Given that he was able to devote so much of his life to writing history, it is reasonable to suppose that Livy's family must have been fairly wealthy. This work, which he called the Ab Urbe Condita-From the Founding of the City- took Livy forty years to write.