Ab Urbe condita (book)

Ab Urbe Condita (book)

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Ab Urbe condita (book)

Ab Urbe condita (literally, "from the city having been founded"), written by Titus Livius (c.59 BC–AD 17

Year 17 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar....
), is a monumental history of Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, from its legendary founding ("ab Urbe condita
Ab urbe condita

Ab Urbe condita is Latin for "from founding of Rome of the City ", traditionally set in 753 BC. It was used to identify the Roman year by a few Roman historians....
") in c.753 BC (according to Marcus Terentius Varro

Marcus Terentius Varro

Marcus Terentius Varro , also known as Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus, was a Ancient Rome scholar and writer....
and most modern scholars).

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Ab Urbe condita (literally, "from the city having been founded"), written by Titus Livius (c.59 BC–AD 17

Year 17 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar....
), is a monumental history of Rome

Rome

Marcus Terentius Varro

Marcus Terentius Varro , also known as Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus, was a Ancient Rome scholar and writer....
and most modern scholars). It is often referred to as History of Rome. The first five books were published between 27 and 25 BC.

Originally written in 142 books, only 35 have survived to the present day. The first book starts with Aeneas landing in Italy and the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus and ends with Lucius Junius Brutus

Lucius Junius Brutus

Lucius Junius Brutus was the founder of the Roman Republic and traditionally one of the first Consuls in 509 BC. He was the primary ancestor of the Junius family in Ancient Rome, including Marcus Junius Brutus....
and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus

Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus

Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus is traditionally one of the first two Roman consul of Rome, together with Lucius Junius Brutus. He is also the husband of Lucretia, the noblewoman raped by Sextus Tarquinius....
being elected as consuls in 502 BC according to Livy's own chronology (509 BC according to Varro). Books II-X deal with the history of the Roman Republic to the Samnite Wars

Samnite Wars

The First, Second, and Third Samnite wars, between the early Roman Republic and the tribes of Samnium, extended over half a century, involving almost all the states of Italy, and ended in Roman domination of the Samnites....
, while books XXI-XLV tell of the Second Punic War

Second Punic War

The Second Punic War lasted from 218 BC to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. It was the second of three major wars between Carthage and the Roman Republic....
and end with the war against Perseus of Macedon

Perseus of Macedon

File:Perseus_of_Macedon BM.jpgPerseus was the last king of the Antigonid dynasty, who ruled the successor state in Macedon created upon the death of Alexander the Great....
.

The remaining books are preserved by a 4th century summary entitled Periochae, except for book 136 and 137. However, these were not compiled from Livy's original text but from an abridged edition that is now lost. In the Egyptian town Oxyrhynchus

Oxyrhynchus

Oxyrhynchus is a city in Upper Egypt, located about 160 km south-southwest of Cairo, in the governorate of Al Minya Governorate. It is also an archaeological site, considered one of the most important ever discovered....
, a similar summary of books 37-40 and 48-55 was found on a scroll of papyrus that is now in the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than 7 million Object , are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present....
. However the Oxyrhynchus Epitome is damaged and incomplete.

Books XLVI-LXX deal with the time up to the Social War in 91 BC. Book LXXXIX includes the dictatorship of Sulla in 81 BC and book CIII contains a description of Gaius Julius Caesar's first consulship. Book 142 ends with the death of Nero Claudius Drusus

Nero Claudius Drusus

Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus , born Decimus Claudius Drusus also called Drusus, Drusus I, Nero Drusus, or Drusus the Elder was a Roman Empire politician and military commander....
in 9 BC. While the first ten books concern a period of over 500 years, once Livy started writing about the 1st century BC, he devoted almost a whole book to each year.

This collection is vital to many descriptions, portrayals, histories and other projects referring to the history of the Kingdom and Republic. Although slightly biased, it contains many references to sources, and does present the general history of Rome in a good writing style which is very understandable and readable. However, the reliability of the work has often been questioned since Titus Livy was a Roman and his account of events seems to glorify the Romans. Even so, the books are invaluable in that they reflect the reactions of the people of ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
to events and their interest in various traditions. Other sources, such as Suetonius

Suetonius

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was an equestrian and a historian during the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies on the battles of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar until Domitian, entitled On the Life of the Caesars....
's Lives of the Twelve Caesars

Lives of the Twelve Caesars

De vita Caesarum commonly known as The Twelve Caesars, is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 Roman Emperor of the Roman Empire written by Suetonius....
tend to generally agree in their hintings of the periods covered by "History of Rome."

At the end of the 4th century, the politicians Nicomachus Flavianus

Nicomachus Flavianus (son)

Nicomachus Flavianus , sometimes referred to as Flavianus the younger, was a grammarian and a politician of the Roman Empire. He was the son of Virius Nicomachus Flavianus....
and Appius Nicomachus Dexter

Appius Nicomachus Dexter

Appius Nicomachus Dexter was a politician of the Western Roman Empire....
produced a corrected edition the work of Livy

Livy

Titus Livius , known as Livy in English language, was a Ancient Rome historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome, Ab Urbe Condita, from its founding through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own time....
; all of the manuscripts of the first ten books of Ab Urbe condita that were subsequently copied through the Middle Ages into modern times are derived by this single manuscript, thanks to whom those books have survived.

Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccol? di Bernardo dei Machiavelli is the philosopher, writer, and Italian politician considered the founder of modern political science. As a Renaissance Man, he was a Diplomacy, Political philosophy, musician, poet, and playwright, but, foremost, he was a Civil Servant of the Florence....
's work on republic

Republic

A republic is a state or country that is not led by a hereditary monarch but in which the people have an impact on its government. The word originates from the Latin term res publica....
s, the Discourses on Livy
Discourses on Livy

The Discourses on Livy is a work of political history and philosophy composed in the early 16th century by the famed Florentine public servant and political theorist Niccol? Machiavelli , best known as the author of The Prince....
, is presented as a commentary on the History of Rome.

Ab Urbe condita (book)

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