Livy: Stories of Rome

by Livy, Roger Nichols (Translator)

Accessible translations for GCSE students. The translated extracts in Livy: Stories of Rome are linked by commentaries which continue the narrative and discuss points in the text needing explanation.

100 pages, Paperback

First published February 26, 1982

About the author

Titus Livius (Patavinus) (64 or 59 BC – AD 17)—known as Livy in English, and Tite-Live in French—was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people – Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Books from the Foundation of the City) – covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional foundation in 753 BC through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own time. He was on familiar terms with the Julio-Claudian dynasty, advising Augustus's grandnephew, the future emperor Claudius, as a young man not long before 14 AD in a letter to take up the writing of history. Livy and Augustus's wife, Livia, were from the same clan in different locations, although not related by blood.

Reviews

[Ace Rockman · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with any Roman historian you've got to take what Livy says with a pinch of salt, but I think it's much more entertaining to read Livy's de urbe condito as a folk history of Rome rather than a historically accurate piece of literature.

Like Tacitus, Livy provides a range of timeless sententiae (opinions)

"Your proud kings treat you like dirt. You've obviously forgotten what freedom's like. Otherwise you wouldn't be here trying to crush ours"