Status Updates From The Early History of Rome: ...

Well into Book IV, I think I've given Livy's "Early History" a very fair reading, and I'm finding it increasingly boring. It seems that early Roman history, probably like all groups then, is just a repetitious cycle of petty scurmishes interrupted by civil unrest. It is interesting to learn the transition from monarchy to electoral government, but thereafter only the names of the protagonists change.

So, halfway thru, I can say I enjoy Livy's translated style, but his story is just one long loop of: political upheaval between the consuls/patricians and the tribunes/rabble interrupted at apex by attacks from neighboring tribes. Routinely. Predictably. Embellished by impressive lists of Latin names from consular election to the next. Not great reading, actually.

Judging by this translation, Livy is a quite readable and entertaining historian.