Tito Livio

In order to know and understand previous generations, historians have contributed their knowledge and research , thanks to them it is possible today to understand the past. Great fathers of writing have left an important legacy in history and thanks to them, the different contributions made by great civilizations are known today. One of these great historians was Tito Livio, who captured the struggle and creation of the Roman Empire .

What did

Tito Livio, in addition to having under his responsibility the education of the Emperor Claudius , was a writer, playwright, novelist and historian who was in charge of capturing the entire history of the Roman people from the moment the city was founded until it occurred. the death of Nero Claudius Druso . In his books, you can find the events that occurred in the empire including the Second Punic War, the conquest of the people of Rome in Gaul, Greece, Macedonia and finally, a part of Asia Minor.

Biography of Tito Livio

Tito Livio was born in 64 BC in Padua , which in its time, was considered the most important city in the northwestern part of the Italian peninsula . His family had a good economic condition and was classified as bourgeois but was not part of the aristocracy of Rome. Apparently he arrived in Rome when he was 30 years old . Although much of his early life is shrouded in mystery, it was in Padua that he received his formal education at the time of the civil wars that took place between 49 and 30 BC.

Because Livy had no part in war or the empire directly, it is very little the information we have about him. According to his writings, he was married and had at least one son and one daughter who would later marry a rhetorician named Lucius Magus .

He was an impressive writer of the time who sought to create a true artistic work with his writings. His style , managed to create documents that included studied periods , used various types of poetic elements , a type of finger rhythm and poetic expressions that included several daring metaphors .

Death

After the death of Augustus, he decided to retire to spend his last days in Padua and died in 17 AD .

Physical characteristics

There are no exact data on its physical characteristics

Personality

There is actually very little data on his personality since Tito Livio did not participate in any type of activity that was directly related to the Roman Empire . Some data that have been extracted from his works point out that he was a cold man , a little distant , arrogant and that he also had quite traditional moral principles , typical of a type of Roman conservatism .

Importance

Titi Livio was an important Roman writer who focused mainly on being able to write his history to illustrate the evolution of the Roman character and the people as such, the conditions that developed or that shaped the virtues that made his compatriots great. He managed to capture the value of Roman religion and its traditional rituals and documented how neglect of this important institution led to the eventual decline of Roman morality.

Thanks to his writings, the history of Rome can be known today from the moment it was founded until the death of Nero. Livy tried to direct his readers to examine morals and politics in order to see how important it is to maintain standards of morality . It also provided a wealth of worldly detail that cannot be found elsewhere and is therefore the most important source for the general history of the Roman Empire .

Acknowledgments

There are no known recognitions that have been granted to Livy, however, he is recognized in today’s world for being one of the main historians of the Roman people because thanks to his writings, today it is possible to know in detail the way in which this incredible empire it was created and the way it evolved.

Works of Tito Livio

Without a doubt, the main work of Tito Livio was known as Ab Urbe Condita and is generally known by three different names: History of Rome , Annals and Decades . In it, he is in charge of narrating the entire history of Rome from Aeneas to the death of Drusus. This work consisted of a total of 142 books which, at the same time, were divided into decades, groups formed by 10 books of which only 35 completely survived, which are:

• Book I: narrates the origin of Rome and the events that occurred during the time of the Roman monarchy.
• Books II – V: they tell the history of Rome until the invasion of the Gauls.
• Books VI – X: it continues with the narration of Roman history until the third war of the Samnites took place.
• Third decade : a book that was dedicated to narrating the events of the Second Punic War.
• Fourth decade and half of the fifth decade : the events that occurred in the submission of Macedonia are recounted.

Phrases

Some of the most recognized phrases that were mentioned by Livy are mentioned below:

• Fear always makes things look worse than they really are.
• Do not give happiness of many years for the risk of an hour.
• Let’s forget what happened, it can be regretted but it cannot be redone.
• The truth can be overshadowed but it cannot be extinguished.
• Be alert and on guard so that your opportunity passes you, nor so that you offer it to your adversary.
• Better and more certain is a certain peace than an expected victory.
• The good ones stop doing good to those who are ungrateful.
• We cannot bear neither our vices nor their remedies.
• No crime can have a reasonable basis.

Presence in popular culture

As time passed, Tito Livio became a classical writer and historian and had his peak in Italian humanism . Several books have been published to narrate his work and his writings by major publishers such as Gredos and Alianza Editorial. Titles such as The Origins of Rome, The Second Punic War, The Foundation of Rome and History of Rome since its foundation are some examples of literature that narrate its history.

Curiosities about Tito Livio

Some curious facts about Tito Livio are mentioned below:

• He was the first writer and historian to write a uchrony : Livy imagining the world if Alexander the Great had started to conquer the west and not the east of Greece.
• He was a great friend of Augustus and felt great admiration for several men who belonged to the Republic such as Pompey and Cicero , for this reason, he was called ” Pompeian ” by Augustus.
• It is said that the sources that Tito Livio used for his writings were second-hand and also of Latin origin .