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115-464: Livy recounts this tale in the first book of his Ab urbe condita . During the Roman king Tullus Hostilius' war with the neighboring city of Alba Longa , it was agreed that fighting a costly war between their armies would leave the door open for an Etruscan invasion. Sabine dictator Mettius Fufetius appealed to Tullus Hostilius that the conflict should be settled by a fight to the death between

230-585: A ploughing ritual . Romulus then declared the town an asylum, permitted men of all classes to come to Rome as citizens , including criminals, runaway slaves , and freemen without distinction. To provide his citizens with wives, Romulus invited the neighbouring tribes to a festival in Rome where the Romans abducted many of their young women . After the ensuing war with the Sabines , Romulus shared Rome's kingship with

345-710: A better education . After the wars, the Senate was theoretically restored, but under the supervision of the urban prefect and other officials appointed by, and responsible to, the Eastern Roman authorities in Ravenna . However, the Pope was now one of the leading religious figures in the entire Byzantine Roman Empire and effectively more powerful locally than either the remaining senators or local Eastern Roman (Byzantine) officials. In practice, local power in Rome devolved to

460-561: A cultural and technical point of view, Etruscans had arguably the second-greatest impact on Roman development, only surpassed by the Greeks. Expanding further south, the Etruscans came into direct contact with the Greeks and initially had success in conflicts with the Greek colonists; after which, Etruria went into a decline. Taking advantage of this, Rome rebelled and gained independence from

575-515: A disastrous flood of the Tiber in 589, described by Paul the Deacon as a "swarm of snakes." This was followed by a plague in 590, which was notable for the legend of the angel seen, while the newly elected Pope Gregory I (term 590–604) was passing in procession by Hadrian's Tomb , to hover over the building and to sheathe his flaming sword as a sign that the pestilence was about to cease. The city

690-601: A furious attack on the first, least-injured Curiatius and slew him. The Roman spectators, who, moments before, had been sure of defeat, began cheering wildly as the Albans began shouting at the Curiatii to regroup in the face of Publius' onslaught. But before they could, the Horatius caught up to the second Curiatius and killed him as his brother, helpless, looked on. The final Curiatius was physically spent from his wounds and

805-504: A great host of Germanic peoples , namely Cimbri and Teutones , crossed the river Rhone and moved to Italy. Gaius Marius was consul five consecutive times (seven total), and won two decisive battles in 102 and 101 BC. He also reformed the Roman army, giving it such a good reorganisation that it remained unchanged for centuries. The first thirty years of the last century BC were characterised by serious internal problems that threatened

920-770: A manuscript of the 5th century resulted in large gaps ( lacunae ) in Books 41 and 43–45 (small lacunae exist elsewhere); that is, the material is not covered in any source of Livy's text. A fragmentary palimpsest of the 91st book was discovered in the Vatican Library in 1772, containing about a thousand words (roughly three paragraphs), and several papyrus fragments of previously unknown material, much smaller, have been found in Egypt since 1900, most recently about 40 words from Book 11, unearthed in 1986. Some passages are nevertheless known thanks to quotes from ancient authors,

1035-706: A new version, an emendation , based on the text that seems best to the editor. The latter then "subscribed" to the new MS by noting on it that he had emended it. Symmachus, probably using the authority of his office, commissioned Tascius Victorianus to emend the first decade. Books I–IX bear the subscription Victorianus emendabam dominis Symmachis , "I Victorianus emended (this) by the authority of Symmachus." Books VI–VIII include another subscription preceding it, that of Symmachus' son-in-law, Nicomachus Flavianus , and Books III–V were also emended by Flavianus' son, Appius Nicomachus Dexter , who says he used his relative Clementianus' copy. This recension and family of descendant MSS

1150-606: A pretext to send forces to Italy under his famed general Belisarius , recapturing the city next year, on 9 December AD 536. In 537–538, the Eastern Romans successfully defended the city in a year-long siege against the Ostrogothic army, and eventually took Ravenna, too. Gothic resistance revived however, and on 17 December 546, the Ostrogoths under Totila recaptured and sacked Rome . Belisarius soon recovered

1265-503: A printed edition was and is a major task. Usually variant readings are given in footnotes. All of the manuscripts (except one) of the first ten books (first decade) of Ab urbe condita , which were copied through the Middle Ages and were used in the first printed editions, are derived from a single recension commissioned by Quintus Aurelius Symmachus , consul, AD 391. A recension is made by comparing extant manuscripts and producing

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1380-509: A series of face-saving victories". Livy, did not use the libri lintei or the annales maximi kept by the pontifex maximus ; nor did he "walk around in Rome, or elsewhere, to discover inscriptions or other new documents". The difficulties of using the senate's own archives, documented in speeches by Cicero, "hint... at the possibilities of falsifying evidence" and the poor transmission of authoritative historical records. Niccolò Machiavelli 's work on republics , Discourses on Livy ,

1495-589: Is a later innovation of copyists. The second pentad did not come out until 9 or after, some 16 years after the first pentad. In Book IX Livy states that the Cimminian Forest was more impassable than the German had been recently, referring to the Hercynian Forest (Black Forest) first opened by Drusus and Ahenobarbus . There is no uniform system of classifying and naming manuscripts. Often

1610-619: Is also of dubious historical value, though the last-named kings may be historical figures. It is believed by some historians (again, this is disputed) that Rome was under the influence of the Etruscans for about a century. During this period, a bridge was built called the Pons Sublicius to replace the Tiber ford, and the Cloaca Maxima was also built; the Etruscans are said to have been great engineers of this type of structure. From

1725-432: Is archaeological evidence of human occupation of the Rome area from at least 5,000 years, but the dense layer of much younger debris obscures Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites. The evidence suggesting the city's ancient foundation is also obscured by the legend of Rome's beginning involving Romulus and Remus . The traditional date for the founding of Rome is 21 April 753 BC, following M. Terentius Varro , and

1840-441: Is better evident, as he omitted "many stories which seemed rather improbable to him". And in general, the early parts of the books are important accounts of early Rome surviving from antiquity. But while Livy did recognise "the higher reliability of older contemporary authors compared to younger ones", he did little to ensure that his history was internally consistent or follow his own insights on unreliability regularly, preferring

1955-609: Is called the Nicomachean, after two of the subscribers. From it several MSS descend (incomplete list): Epigraphists go on to identify several hands and lines of descent. A second family of the first decade consists of the Verona Palimpsest , reconstructed and published by Theodore Mommsen , 1868; hence the Veronensis MSS. It includes 60 leaves of Livy fragments covering Books III-VI. The handwriting style

2070-627: Is dated to the 4th century, only a few centuries after Livy. During the Middle Ages, there were constant rumours that the complete books of the History of Livy lay hidden in the library of a Danish or German Monastery. One individual even affirmed under oath in the court of Martin V that he had seen the whole work, written in Lombardic script, in a monastery in Denmark. All of these rumours were later found to be unsubstantiated. The orthodox view

2185-743: Is generally associated with the beginning of the decline of the Western Roman Empire. Rome's population was only a fraction of its peak when the Aurelian Wall was completed in AD 273 (in that year its population was only around 500,000). Starting in the early 3rd century, matters changed. The " Crisis of the Third Century " defines the disasters and political troubles for the Empire, which nearly collapsed. The new feeling of danger and

2300-474: Is presented as a commentary on the History of Rome . The first complete rendering of Ab urbe condita into English was Philemon Holland 's translation published in 1600. According to Considine, "it was a work of great importance, presented in a grand folio volume of 1,458 pages, and dedicated to [Queen Elizabeth I ]". A notable translation of Livy titled History of Rome was made by B.O. Foster in 1919 for

2415-548: Is said by the ancient literary sources to be the son of a Greek refugee and an Etruscan mother.) Their names refer to the Etruscan town of Tarquinia . Livy , Plutarch , Dionysius of Halicarnassus , and others claim that Rome was ruled during its first centuries by a succession of seven kings. The traditional chronology, as codified by Varro , allots 243 years for their reigns, an average of almost 35 years, which has been generally discounted by modern scholarship since

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2530-428: Is that "Livy was a very poor historian indeed, whether by ancient or modern standards". This is rooted in a few major reasons. He did "no primary research", relying "exclusively on earlier histories". His understanding of those sources was poor: with Livy relating the same event twice on multiple occasions. Moreover, "there are clear signs that his Greek was not good enough to understand properly one of his major sources,

2645-729: The Altar of Victory in the Senate House, as asked by remaining pagan Senators. The Empire's conversion to Christianity made the Bishop of Rome (later called the Pope) the senior religious figure in the Western Empire, as officially stated in 380 by the Edict of Thessalonica . In spite of its increasingly marginal role in the Empire, Rome retained its historic prestige, and this period saw

2760-585: The Etruscans and other ancient Italic peoples were admitted as citizens as well. The Sabines—considered to be Gaulish along with the other Umbri peoples of central Italy— were first mentioned in Dionysius's account for having captured the city of Lista by surprise, which was regarded as the mother-city of the Aborigines. The Italic speakers in the area included Latins (in the west), Sabines (in

2875-536: The First Punic War brought the first two provinces outside the Italian peninsula, Sicily and Sardinia . Parts of Spain ( Hispania ) followed, and in the beginning of the 2nd century the Romans got involved in the affairs of the Greek world. By then all Hellenistic kingdoms and the Greek city-states were in decline, exhausted from endless civil wars and relying on mercenary troops. The Romans looked upon

2990-577: The Forum of Augustus and the Ara Pacis . He is said to have remarked that he found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble ( Urbem latericium invenit, marmoream reliquit ). Augustus's successors sought to emulate his success in part by adding their own contributions to the city. In AD 64, during the reign of Nero , the Great Fire of Rome left much of the city destroyed, but in many ways it

3105-568: The Gauls under their leader Brennus in 387 BC. The sacking of 410 is seen as a major landmark in the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire . St. Jerome , living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote that "The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken." These sackings of the city astonished all the Roman world. In any case, the damage caused by the sackings may have been overestimated. The population already started to decline from

3220-577: The Loeb Classical Library . A partial translation by Aubrey de Sélincourt was printed in 1960–1965 for Penguin Classics . The version of Livy available on Wikisource is that from the 1905 translation of Reverend Canon Roberts for Everyman's Library. History of ancient Rome The history of Rome includes the history of the city of Rome as well as the civilisation of ancient Rome . Roman history has been influential on

3335-556: The Oppian Hill , which was called the Sororium Tigillum (Sister's Beam). It symbolized a yoke, under which Publius the younger was made to pass. It remained standing long after his death. All based on Pierre Corneille 's Horace_(play) (1640) Ab urbe condita (Livy) The History of Rome , perhaps originally titled Annales , and frequently referred to as Ab Urbe Condita (English: From

3450-537: The Ostrogoths continued, like the last emperors, to rule Italy as a virtually independent realm from Ravenna . Meanwhile, the Senate, even though long since stripped of wider powers, continued to administer Rome itself, with the Pope usually coming from a senatorial family. This situation continued until Theodahad murdered Amalasuntha , a pro-imperial Gothic queen, and usurped the power in 535. The Eastern Roman emperor , Justinian I (reigned 527–565), used this as

3565-728: The Plebeians (commoners) and Patricians (aristocrats) of the ancient Roman Republic , in which the Plebeians sought political equality with the Patricians. It played a major role in the development of the Constitution of the Roman Republic . It began in 494 BC, when, while Rome was at war with two neighbouring tribes, the Plebeians all left the city (the first Plebeian Secession ). The result of this first secession

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3680-559: The Sabines . Winning the Battle of Lake Regillus in 493 BC, Rome established again the supremacy over the Latin countries it had lost after the fall of the monarchy. After a lengthy series of struggles, this supremacy became fixed in 393, when the Romans finally subdued the Volsci and Aequi . In 394 BC, they also conquered the menacing Etruscan neighbour of Veii . The Etruscan power

3795-453: The 10th century BC. The site of Sant'Omobono Area is crucial for understanding the related processes of monumentalisation, urbanisation , and state formation in Rome in the late Archaic period. The Sant'Omobono temple site dates to 7th–6th century BC, making these the oldest known temple remains in Rome. The city's name was long credited to the legendary culture hero Romulus . It was said that Romulus and his twin brother Remus were

3910-832: The 91st book Barthold Georg Niebuhr says "repetitions are here so frequent in the small compass of four pages and the prolixity so great, that we should hardly believe it to belong to Livy...." Niebuhr accounts for the decline by supposing "the writer has grown old and become loquacious...", going so far as to conjecture that the later books were lost because copyists refused to copy such low-quality work. However, Livy also employed repetitive and formulaic wording in description of repetitive military affairs, described by Ogilvie as "mechanical and careless". Modern readers, however, view Livy's repetitive prose more positively at least in performance of prayers, blessings, and public religious rituals. A digression in Book 9, Sections 17–19, suggests that

4025-532: The Aequi, and of course the Etruscans. As years passed and military successes increased Roman territory, new adversaries appeared. The fiercest were the Gauls , a loose collective of peoples who controlled much of Northern Europe including what is modern North and Central-East Italy. In 387 BC, Rome was sacked and burned by the Senones coming from eastern Italy and led by Brennus , who had successfully defeated

4140-539: The Alban's throat and took the armor of his slain enemies as the spoils of his victory. Afterwards, the Alban dictator Mettius honored the treaty and Alba Longa briefly accepted Roman rule, before provoking a war with the Fidenates and betraying Rome. The victorious Horatius returned to a hero's welcome. Before the war had broken out, Publius' sister, Camilla, had been engaged to one of the Alban triplets. When she saw

4255-525: The Empire. Later, western emperors ruled from Milan or Ravenna , or cities in Gaul . In 330, Constantine I established a second capital at Constantinople . Christianity reached Rome during the 1st century AD. For the first two centuries of the Christian era , Imperial authorities largely viewed Christianity simply as a Jewish sect rather than a distinct religion. No emperor issued general laws against

4370-526: The Etruscan origin of some of the mythical Roman kings. Historians have no literature, nor texts of religion or philosophy; therefore, much of what is known about this civilisation is derived from grave goods and tomb findings. The Greeks had founded many colonies in Southern Italy between 750 and 550 BC (which the Romans later called Magna Graecia ), such as Cumae , Naples , Reggio Calabria , Crotone , Sybaris , and Taranto , as well as in

4485-416: The Etruscans around 500 BC. It also abandoned monarchy in favour of a republican system based on a Senate , composed of the nobles of the city, along with popular assemblies which ensured political participation for most of the freeborn men and elected magistrates annually. The Etruscans left a lasting influence on Rome. The Romans learned to build temples from them, and the Etruscans may have introduced

4600-689: The Founding of the City ), is a monumental history of ancient Rome , written in Latin between 27 and 9 BC by the Roman historian Titus Livius, better known in English as " Livy ". The work covers the period from the legends concerning the arrival of Aeneas and the refugees from the fall of Troy , to the city's founding in 753 BC, the expulsion of the Kings in 509 BC, and down to Livy's own time, during

4715-523: The Greek civilisation with great admiration. The Greeks saw Rome as a useful ally in their civil strifes, and it was not long before the Roman legions were invited to intervene in Greece. In less than 50 years the whole of mainland Greece was subdued. The Roman legions crushed the Macedonian phalanx twice, in 197 and 168 BC; in 146 BC the Roman consul Lucius Mummius razed Corinth , marking

Horatii and Curiatii - Misplaced Pages Continue

4830-418: The Greek historian Polybius", which he followed closely for events in the east in books 31 to 45. Livy also did not intend to produce a history in terms of cataloguing and understanding the past, but rather, in terms of preserving a "memory ... [that] equips the reader with a sense of wrong and right as determined or exemplified by the actions of one's predecessors". Moreover, the work was also written "under

4945-646: The Italian peninsula. In the 3rd century BC, Rome brought the Greek poleis in the south under its control as well. Amidst the never-ending wars (from the beginning of the Republic up to the Principate, the doors of the temple of Janus were closed only twice—when they were open it meant that Rome was at war), Rome had to face a severe major social crisis, the Conflict of the Orders , a political struggle between

5060-455: The Jews during Nero's reign, which so destabilised the empire that it led to civil war and Nero's suicide, provided an additional rationale for suppression of this 'Jewish' sect. Diocletian undertook what was to be the most severe and last major persecution of Christians , lasting from 303 to 311. Christianity had become too widespread to suppress, and in 313, the Edict of Milan made tolerance

5175-658: The Pagan god or hero to a corresponding Christian saint or martyr. In this way, the Temple of Romulus and Remus became the basilica of the twin saints Cosmas and Damian . Later, the Pantheon , Temple of All Gods, became the church of All Martyrs. In 480, the last Western Roman emperor, Julius Nepos , was murdered and a Roman general of barbarian origin, Odoacer , declared allegiance to Eastern Roman emperor Zeno . Despite owing nominal allegiance to Constantinople , Odoacer and later

5290-741: The Palatine Hill, and Titientes on the Quirinal Hill, backed by the Luceres living in the nearby woods. These were simply three of numerous Italic-speaking communities that existed in Latium , a plain on the Italian peninsula, by the 1st millennium BC. The origins of the Italic peoples lie in prehistory and are therefore not precisely known, but their Indo-European languages migrated from

5405-461: The Pope and, over the next few decades, both much of the remaining possessions of the senatorial aristocracy and the local Byzantine Roman administration in Rome were absorbed by the Church . The reign of Justinian's nephew and successor Justin II (reigned 565–578) was marked from the Italian point of view by the invasion of the Lombards under Alboin (568). In capturing the regions of Benevento , Lombardy , Piedmont , Spoleto and Tuscany ,

5520-407: The Republic, but its champions, Marcus Junius Brutus (descendant of the founder of the republic) and Gaius Cassius Longinus were defeated by Caesar's lieutenant Marcus Antonius and Caesar's nephew, Octavian . The years 44–31 BC mark the struggle for power between Marcus Antonius and Octavian (later known as Augustus). Finally, on 2 September 31 BC, in the Greek promontory of Actium ,

5635-408: The Roman Horatii triplets and their Alban counterparts, known as the Curiatii. They met on the battlefield between the lines as the two armies and their countrymen looked on. With so much at stake, both sides fought bravely. The Horatii had wounded all three Curiatii, but two of the Romans were killed in the process. That left their brother Publius alone and surrounded by the three Albans. Though he

5750-499: The Roman army at the Battle of the Allia in Etruria . Multiple contemporary records suggest that the Senones hoped to punish Rome for violating its diplomatic neutrality in Etruria. The Senones marched 130 kilometres (81 mi) to Rome without harming the surrounding countryside; once they had sacked the city, the Senones withdrew from Rome. Brennus was defeated by the dictator Furius Camillus at Tusculum soon afterwards. After that, Rome hastily rebuilt its buildings and went on

5865-423: The Romans would have beaten Alexander the Great if he had lived longer and had turned west to attack the Romans, making this digression one of the oldest known written alternate history scenarios. The first five books were published between 27 and 25 BC. The first date mentioned is the year Augustus received that eponymous title: twice in the first five books Livy uses it. For the second date, Livy lists

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5980-450: The Sabine king Titus Tatius . Romulus selected 100 of the most noble men to form the Roman Senate , initially serving as his advisory council. These men he called fathers ( Latin : patres ), and their descendants became the patricians . He created three centuries of equites : Ramnes (meaning Romans), Tities (after the Sabine king), and Luceres (Etruscans). He also divided the general populace into thirty curiae , named after thirty of

6095-440: The Sabine women who had intervened to end the war between Romulus and Tatius. The curiae formed the voting units in the Comitia Curiata . Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill and surrounding hills approximately 30 km (19  mi ) from the Tyrrhenian Sea on the south side of the Tiber . The Quirinal Hill was probably an outpost for the Sabines , another Italic -speaking people. At this location,

6210-429: The Tiber River. Its further etymology remains unknown, as with most Etruscan words. Thomas G. Tucker 's Concise Etymological Dictionary of Latin (1931) suggests that the name is most probably from *urobsma (cf. urbs , robur ) and otherwise, "but less likely" from *urosma "hill" (cf. Skt. varsman- "height, point," Old Slavonic врьхъ "top, summit", Russ. верх "top; upward direction", Lith. virsus "upper"). There

6325-411: The Tiber forms a Z-shaped curve that contains an island where the river can be forded. Because of the river and the ford, Rome was at a crossroads of traffic following the river valley and of traders travelling north and south on the west side of the peninsula . Archaeological finds have confirmed that there were two fortified settlements in the 8th century BC, in the area of the future Rome: Rumi on

6440-434: The Tiber's embankments fell into disrepair in the course of the latter half of the 6th century. Here, malaria developed. The aqueducts , except for one, were not repaired. The population, without imports of grain and oil from Sicily, shrank to less than 50,000 concentrated near the Tiber and around the Campus Martius , abandoning those districts without water supply. There is a legend, significant though untrue, that there

6555-402: The advice of a jurist named Tullus Hostilius (also the king at the time), Publius appealed to one of the popular assemblies . In defense of his son, the Horatius' father, also Publius, spoke of the recent victory and entreated them to spare his last surviving son (his fourth son, a brother of the Horatii, had also died). The assembly was persuaded and Publius' sentence was commuted. This may be

6670-565: The censor, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi , Lucius Cassius Hemina , Gnaeus Gellius , Vennonius, Valerius Antias , Licinius Macer , Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius , and Quintus Aelius Tubero . The last three annalists (operating in the first century BC) are, however, "widely believed to have been less scrupulous than their second-century predecessors", supplying stories about the archaic period "from their own imaginations". However, as to certain elements of his narrative, Livy may have relied on "unscrupulous annalists" who "did not hesitate to invent

6785-424: The chase. His hope had been crushed by watching both of his brothers die. He managed to unsteadily stand his ground and faced the Horatius, who was heartened by his wildly successful strategy and confident of his imminent victory. Publius declared that he had killed the first two Curiatii for his fallen brothers. He would kill this last one for the Roman cause and their rule over the Albans. He thrust his sword down

6900-427: The city and surrounding region of Latium has continued to be inhabited with little interruption since around that time. Excavations made in 2014 have revealed a wall built long before the city's official founding year. Archaeologists uncovered a stone wall and pieces of pottery dating to the 9th century BC and the beginning of the 8th century BC, and there is evidence of people arriving on the Palatine hill as early as

7015-436: The city, but the Ostrogoths retook it in 549. Belisarius was replaced by Narses , who captured Rome from the Ostrogoths for good in 552, ending the so-called Gothic Wars which had devastated much of Italy. The continual war around Rome in the 530s and 540s left it in a state of total disrepair – near-abandoned and desolate with much of its lower-lying parts turned into unhealthy marshes as the drainage systems were neglected and

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7130-400: The cloak that she herself had woven and given to the Curiatius on her brother's shoulder, now stained with his blood, she realized that her betrothed had been slain. Camilla was overcome with grief and began wailing and crying out his name. Proclaiming that no Roman woman should mourn Rome's fallen enemies, Publius killed his sister on the spot. For his crime, he was condemned to death. On

7245-434: The closings of the temple of Janus but omits that of 25 (it had not happened yet). Livy continued to work on the History for much of the rest of his life, publishing new material by popular demand. This explains why the work falls naturally into 12 packets, mainly groups of 10 books, or decades, sometimes of 5 books (pentads or pentades) and the rest without any packet order. The scheme of dividing it entirely into decades

7360-418: The death of Drusus (9). Livy wrote in a mixture of annual chronology and narrative . This emerged from his decision to organise his narrative on a year-by-year scheme with regular announcements of elections of "consuls, prodigies, temple dedications, triumphs, and the like". This kind of year-by-year list of events is termed "annalistic history". Livy employed annalistic features to associate his history with

7475-481: The dominant traditional of Roman history, which was to write these annalistic chronicles; in so doing, he "imbued his history with an aura of continuity and stability" along with "pontifical authority". The first and third decades (see below) of Livy's work are written so well that Livy has become a sine qua non of curricula in Golden Age Latin. Some have argued that subsequently the quality of his writing began to decline, and that he becomes repetitious and wordy. Of

7590-421: The early part of the Republic (before roughly 300 BC, when Old Latin inscriptions and Greek histories about Rome provide more concrete evidence of events) are generally considered to be legendary, their historicity being a topic of debate among classicists. The Roman Republic traditionally dates from 509 BC to 27 BC. After 500 BC, Rome is said to have joined with the Latin cities in defence against incursions by

7705-429: The east in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus , many Roman historians—including Cato and Sempronius —considered the Italian aborigines to have been prehistoric Greek colonists . The Romans then considered themselves a mix of these people, the Albans , and the other Latins , considered a blend of Pelasgians , Arcadians , Epeans , and refugee Trojans . Over time,

7820-510: The eastern two-thirds of Sicily . After 650 BC, the Etruscans became dominant in Italy and expanded into north-central Italy. Roman tradition claimed that Rome had been under the control of seven kings from 753 to 509 BC beginning with the mythical Romulus who was said to have founded the city of Rome along with his brother Remus . The last three kings were said to be Etruscan (at least partially)—namely Tarquinius Priscus , Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Superbus . (Priscus

7935-489: The end of a long line of historians ... conventionally known as the 'annalistic tradition'". Where he relied on these sources (along with other narrative sources available in his day) his principle was similar to that of Herodotus': "tell what he had been told". Roman historiography goes back to Quintus Fabius Pictor who wrote c.  200 BC , heavily influenced by Greek historiographical canons and methods. Other annalists included Quintus Ennius , Marcius Porcius Cato

8050-403: The end of free Greece. The same year Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus , the son of Scipio Africanus , destroyed the city of Carthage , making it a Roman province. In the following years, Rome continued its conquests in Spain with Tiberius Gracchus , and it set foot in Asia, when the last king of Pergamum gave his kingdom to the Roman people. The end of the 2nd century brought another threat, when

8165-431: The end. Livy, in his preface on discussing the early history of Rome, noted the difficulties of interpreting or reconciling the sources in his own day: So many chronological errors, magistrates appearing differently in different authors, suggest ... you cannot tell which consuls came after which or what belonged [to] any one year... It is not easy to prefer one thing over the other or one author over another. I think that

8280-562: The existence of the Republic. The Social War , between Rome and its allies, and the Servile Wars (slave uprisings) were hard conflicts, all within Italy, and forced the Romans to change their policy with regards to their allies and subjects. By then Rome had become an extensive power, with great wealth which derived from the conquered people (as tribute, food or manpower, i.e. slaves). The allies of Rome felt bitter since they had fought by

8395-460: The extraordinary commands of Pompey Magnus , and the first triumvirate made that clear. In January 49 BC, Julius Caesar the conqueror of Gaul, crossed the Rubicon with his legions, occupying Rome and beginning a civil war with Pompey. In the following years, he vanquished his opponents, and ruled Rome for four years. After his assassination in 44 BC, the Senate tried to reestablish

8510-539: The faith or its Church, and persecutions, such as they were, were carried out under the authority of local government officials. A surviving letter from Pliny the Younger , governor of Bythinia, to the emperor Trajan describes his persecution and executions of Christians; Trajan notably responded that Pliny should not seek out Christians nor heed anonymous denunciations, but only punish open Christians who refused to recant. Suetonius mentions in passing that during

8625-789: The final battle took place in the sea. Octavian was victorious, and became the sole ruler of Rome (and its empire). That date marks the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Principate . By the end of the Republic, the city of Rome had achieved a grandeur befitting the capital of an empire dominating the whole of the Mediterranean . It was, at the time, the largest city in the world. Estimates of its peak population range from 450,000 to over 3.5 million people with estimates of 1 to 2 million being most popular with historians. This grandeur increased under Augustus , who completed Caesar's projects and added many of his own, such as

8740-514: The first great basilica, the old St. Peter's Basilica . Still Rome remained one of the strongholds of paganism, led by the aristocrats and senators. However, the new walls did not stop the city being sacked first by Alaric on 24 August 410, by Geiseric on 2 June 455, and even by general Ricimer 's unpaid Roman troops (largely composed of barbarians) on 11 July 472. This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to an enemy. The previous sack of Rome had been accomplished by

8855-399: The foundation of the city or whilst it was being built, are more fitted to adorn the creations of the poet than the authentic records of the historian". The first book has been one of the most significant sources of the various accounts of the traditional legend of Romulus and Remus . However, when comparing Livy's account of the kingdom to that of Dionysius of Halicarnassus , his scepticism

8970-440: The great Mediterranean empire of Carthage (264–146 BC), Rome's stature increased further as it became the capital of an overseas empire for the first time. Beginning in the 2nd century BC, Rome went through a significant population expansion as Italian farmers, driven from their ancestral farmlands by the advent of massive, slave-operated farms called latifundia , flocked to the city in great numbers. The victory over Carthage in

9085-407: The hills around Rome's later Forum Boarium , an important river port connected in Roman myth with Hercules 's tenth labour , capturing the cattle of Geryon . Disputing some point of the founding or its related auguries , Remus was murdered by Romulus or one of his supporters. Romulus then established a walled and roughly square settlement , whose sacred boundary and gates were established by

9200-434: The invaders effectively restricted Imperial authority to small islands of land surrounding a number of coastal cities, including Ravenna , Naples , Rome and the area of the future Venice . The one inland city continuing under Eastern Roman control was Perugia , which provided a repeatedly threatened overland link between Rome and Ravenna. In 578 and again in 580, the Senate, in some of its last recorded acts, had to ask for

9315-669: The landing of Aeneas in Italy and the founding of the city by Romulus), the period of the kings , and the early republic down to its conquest by the Gauls in 390 BC. Books 6–10 – Wars with the Aequi , Volsci , Etruscans , and Samnites , down to 292 BC. Books 11–20 – The period from 292 to 218, including the First Punic War (lost). Books 21–30 – The Second Punic War , from 218 to 202. Books 31–45 – The Macedonian and other eastern wars from 201 to 167. Books 46 to 142 are all lost: Books 46–70 – The period from 167 to

9430-528: The last wave of construction activity: Constantine's predecessor Maxentius built buildings such as its basilica in the Forum , Constantine himself erected the Arch of Constantine to celebrate his victory over Maxentius, and Diocletian built the greatest baths of all. Constantine was also the first patron of official Christian buildings in the city. He donated the Lateran Palace to the Pope, and built

9545-469: The late 4th century onward, although around the middle of the fifth century it seems that Rome continued to be the most populous city of the two parts of the Empire, with a population of no fewer than 650,000 inhabitants. The decline greatly accelerated following the capture of Africa Proconsularis by the Vandals . Many inhabitants now fled as the city no longer could be supplied with grain from Africa from

9660-461: The menace of barbarian invasions was clearly shown by the decision of Emperor Aurelian , who at year 273 finished encircling the capital itself with a massive wall which had a perimeter that measured close to 20 km (12 mi). Rome formally remained capital of the empire , but emperors spent less and less time there. At the end of 3rd century Diocletian 's political reforms, Rome was deprived of its traditional role of administrative capital of

9775-429: The mid-5th century onward. At the end of the 6th century Rome's population had reduced to around 30,000. Many monuments were being destroyed by the citizens themselves, who stripped stones from closed temples and other precious buildings, and even burned statues to make lime for their personal use. In addition, most of the increasing number of churches were built in this way. For example, the first Saint Peter's Basilica

9890-516: The modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church , and Roman law has influenced many modern legal systems . Roman history can be divided into the following periods: Attempts have been made to find a linguistic root for the name Rome. Possibilities include derivation from the Greek Rhṓmē ( Ῥώμη ), meaning "bravery" or "courage"; Compare also Rumon , former name of

10005-491: The most famous being on the death of Cicero , quoted by Seneca the Elder . Livy was abridged, in antiquity, to an epitome , which survives for Book 1, but was itself abridged in the fourth century into the so-called Periochae , which is simply a list of contents. The Periochae survive for the entire work, except for books 136 and 137. In Oxyrhynchus , a similar summary of books 37–40, 47–55, and only small fragments of 88

10120-422: The offensive, conquering the Etruscans and seizing territory from the Gauls in the north. After 345 BC, Rome pushed south against other Latins. Their main enemy in this quadrant were the fierce Samnites , who outsmarted and trapped the legions in 321 BC at the Battle of Caudine Forks . In spite of these and other temporary setbacks, the Romans advanced steadily. By 290 BC, Rome controlled over half of

10235-548: The official policy. Constantine I (sole ruler 324–337) became the first Christian emperor, and in 380 Theodosius I established Christianity as the official religion. Under Theodosius , visits to the pagan temples were forbidden, the eternal fire in the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum extinguished, the Vestal Virgins disbanded, auspices and witchcraft punished. Theodosius refused to restore

10350-527: The offspring of the rape of an Alban princess by the war god Mars and, via their mother, were further descended from the Trojan prince Aeneas , supposed son of the Greek love goddess Aphrodite . Exposed on the Tiber , they were suckled by a she-wolf and raised by a shepherd and his wife . Avenging themselves on their usurping grand-uncle and restoring their grandfather Numitor to Alba Longa 's throne , they were ordered or decided to settle

10465-589: The outbreak of the Social War in 91. Books 71–90 – The civil wars between Marius and Sulla , to the death of Sulla in 78. Books 91–108 – From 78 BC through the end of the Gallic War, in 50. Books 109–116 – From the Civil War to the death of Caesar (49–44). Books 117–133 – The wars of the triumvirs down to the death of Antonius (44–30). Books 134–142 – The rule of Augustus down to

10580-471: The possibility that annalists knew how to invent probable stories. Furthermore, rarely did Livy provide the names of his sources, especially in the long passages where he followed one major source with infrequent comparisons to other sources to correct errors. Fortunately, Livy's goal in telling existing narratives with "better style and arrangement" means he seemingly did not introduce into his history "invented episodes of exaggerations". Livy's work "came at

10695-465: The reign of Nero "punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition " ( superstitionis novae ac maleficae ). He gives no reason for the punishment. Tacitus reports that after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, some among the population held Nero responsible and that the emperor attempted to deflect blame onto the Christians. The war against

10810-513: The reign of the emperor Augustus . The last event covered by Livy is the death of Drusus in 9 BC. 35 of 142 books, about a quarter of the work, are still extant. The surviving books deal with the events down to 293 BC (books 1–10), and from 219 to 166 BC (books 21–45). The History of Rome originally comprised 142 "books", 35 of which—Books 1–10 with the Preface and Books 21–45—still exist in reasonably complete form. Damage to

10925-440: The relationship of one manuscript (MS) to another remains unknown or changes as perceptions of the handwriting change. Livy's release of chapters by packet diachronically encouraged copyists to copy by decade. Each decade has its own conventions, which do not necessarily respect the conventions of any other decade. A family of MSS descend through copying from the same MSS (typically lost). MSS vary widely; to produce an emendation or

11040-419: The same approach he took for later periods of the republic or his own time, where he would have needed "to do his own research using contemporary testimonies from eyewitnesses[,] the records of the senate and the assemblies[, and records of the] speeches of the great orators". The details of Livy's History vary from the legendary and mythical stories at the beginning to detailed accounts of real events toward

11155-552: The shadow of the new emperor" with the goal of supporting "the idea that the Augustan principate was the culmination of Roman history". While other sources have attempted to rehabilitate Livy's history in terms of its literary quality (for example, DS Levene's Livy on the Hannibalic War ), this is not a defence of the history's historicity. Modern criticism of Livy also goes into the "inaccuracy of his battle accounts,

11270-598: The side of the Romans, and yet they were not citizens and shared little in the rewards. Although they lost the war, they finally got what they asked, and by the beginning of the 1st century AD practically all free inhabitants of Italy were Roman citizens. However, the growth of the Imperium Romanum (Roman power) created new problems, and new demands, that the old political system of the Republic, with its annually elected magistrates and its sharing of power, could not solve. Sulla's civil war and his later dictatorship,

11385-456: The source of the Roman tradition of allowing the condemned to appeal their sentences to the populace. Publius the elder was required to offer a sacrifice to atone for his son's crime and from that time forward, the Horatia family made it a tradition to offer the same. The spoils of the victory were hung in a place that became known as Pila Horatia. A wooden beam was erected on the slope of

11500-447: The story of his chosen choice without changes, "even if he afterward detected capital errors". Livy's treatment of his own sources was more in terms of arranging material and synthesising a narrative rather than engaging in original research into official documents; in doing so, he "did little more than [trying] to reconcile discrepancies in his sources by using arguments from probability". However, Livy did not substantially grapple with

11615-531: The support of Tiberius II Constantine (reigned 578–582) against the approaching Dukes, Faroald I of Spoleto and Zotto of Benevento . Maurice (reigned 582–602) added a new factor in the continuing conflict by creating an alliance with Childebert II of Austrasia (reigned 575–595). The armies of the Frankish King invaded the Lombard territories in 584, 585, 588 and 590. Rome had suffered badly from

11730-473: The tradition has been contaminated... since various families have fraudulently arrogated to themselves the repute of deeds and offices. As a result, both individuals' deeds and the public records of events have certainly been thrown into confusion. Nor is there any writer contemporary with those times who could serve as a reliable standard. Livy too recognised that the early years of Rome were profoundly ahistorical, saying "the traditions of what happened prior to

11845-739: The upper valley of the Tiber ), Umbrians (in the north-east), Samnites (in the South), Oscans , and others. In the 8th century BC, they shared the peninsula with two other major ethnic groups: the Etruscans in the North and the Greeks in the south. The Etruscans ( Etrusci or Tusci in Latin ) are attested north of Rome in Etruria (modern northern Lazio, Tuscany and part of Umbria ). They founded cities such as Tarquinia , Veii , and Volterra and deeply influenced Roman culture, as clearly shown by

11960-447: The vagueness of his geography, ... the excessive partiality shown to one or [an]other of his 'heroes', and in general the highly rhetorical nature of not only his speeches but also of his dramatic narrations". However, judgement on Livy's whole work ought to be withheld insofar as only the first third of Ab urbe condita survives; the portions of Livy that survive, heavily relying on an uncritical repetition of earlier sources, may not be

12075-459: The work of Barthold Georg Niebuhr . The Gauls destroyed much of Rome's historical records when they sacked the city after the Battle of the Allia in 390 BC (according to Polybius, the battle occurred in 387/386) and what was left was eventually lost to time or theft. With no contemporary records of the kingdom existing, all accounts of the kings must be carefully questioned. The list of kings

12190-527: The worship of a triad of gods— Juno , Minerva , and Jupiter —from the Etruscan gods : Uni , Menrva , and Tinia . However, the influence of Etruscan people in the development of Rome is often overstated. Rome was primarily a Latin city. It never became fully Etruscan. Also, evidence shows that Romans were heavily influenced by the Greek cities in the South, mainly through trade. The commonly held stories of

12305-426: Was a moment where no one remained living in Rome. Justinian I provided grants for the maintenance of public buildings, aqueducts and bridges—though, being mostly drawn from an Italy dramatically impoverished by the recent wars, these were not always sufficient. He also styled himself the patron of its remaining scholars , orators , physicians and lawyers in the stated hope that eventually more youths would seek

12420-495: Was erected using spoils from the abandoned Circus of Nero . This architectural cannibalism was a constant feature of Roman life until the Renaissance . From the 4th century, imperial edicts against stripping of stones and especially marble were common, but the need for their repetition shows that they were ineffective. Sometimes new churches were created by simply taking advantage of early Pagan temples, while sometimes changing

12535-545: Was found on a roll of papyrus that is now in the British Museum classified as P.Oxy.IV 0668. There is another fragment, named P.Oxy.XI 1379, which represents a passage from the first book (I, 6) and that shows a high level of correctness. However, the Oxyrhynchus Epitome is damaged and incomplete. The entire work covers the following periods: Books 1–5 – The legendary founding of Rome (including

12650-584: Was mostly paid by taxes that were levied by the Roman government. If it had not been subsidised, Rome would have been significantly smaller. Rome's population declined after its apex in the 2nd century. At the end of that century, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius , the Antonine Plague killed 2,000 people a day. Marcus Aurelius died in 180, his reign being the last of the " Five Good Emperors " and Pax Romana . His son Commodus , who had been co-emperor since AD 177, assumed full imperial power, which

12765-520: Was now limited to Etruria itself, and Rome was the dominant city in Latium. A formal treaty was agreed with the city-state of Carthage in 509 BC which defined the spheres of influence of each city and regulated trade between them. At the same time, Heraclides stated that 4th-century Rome was a Greek city (Plut. Cam. 22). Rome's early enemies were the neighbouring hill tribes of the Volscians,

12880-483: Was safe from capture at least. Agilulf , however, the new Lombard King (reigned 591 to c. 616), managed to secure peace with Childebert , reorganised his territories and resumed activities against both Naples and Rome by 592. With the Emperor preoccupied with wars in the eastern borders and the various succeeding Exarchs unable to secure Rome from invasion, Gregory took personal initiative in starting negotiations for

12995-463: Was the creation of the office of Plebeian Tribune , and with it the first acquisition of real power by the Plebeians. According to tradition, Rome became a republic in 509 BC. However, it took a few centuries for Rome to become the great city of popular imagination. By the 3rd century BC, Rome had become the pre-eminent city of the Italian peninsula. During the Punic Wars between Rome and

13110-450: Was uninjured, Publius realized he stood no chance against all three of his enemies together. So he began to run across the battlefield instead. The Albans pursued him, each as fast as their individual injuries permitted. This was exactly what he had hoped they would do, and after they had gone far enough, he saw that the Curiatii had become staggered and were separated from each another. His plan had worked perfectly. He turned and launched

13225-403: Was used as an excuse for new development. Rome was a subsidised city at the time, with roughly 15 to 25 percent of its grain supply being paid by the central government. Commerce and industry played a smaller role compared to that of other cities like Alexandria . This meant that Rome had to depend upon goods and production from other parts of the Empire to sustain such a large population. This

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