Titus Livius (59 BC – AD 17), known as
Livy in
English, was a
Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people,
Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well 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 family, advising Augustus' grandnephew, the future emperor
Claudius, as a young man not long before 14 AD in a letter to take up the writing of history.
[1] Livy and Augustus' wife,
Livia, were from the same clan in different locations, although not related by blood.
The authority supplying the information from which possible vital data on Livy can be deduced is Eusebius of Caesaria, an early Christian-era bishop. One of his works was an epitome (or summary) of world history in ancient Greek, termed the Chronikon, dating from the early 4th century. This work was lost except for fragments (mainly excerpts), but not before it had been translated in whole and in part by various authors such as St. Jerome. The entire work survives in Armenian. St. Jerome wrote in Latin. Fragments in Syriac exist.[2]
Eusebius' work consists of two books, the Chronographia, a summary of history in annalist form, and the Chronikoi Kanones, tables of years and events. St. Jerome translated the tables into Latin as the Chronicon, probably adding some information of his own from unknown sources. Livy's dates appear in Jerome's Chronicon.
The main problem with the information given in the MSS is that between them they often give different dates for the same events or different events, do not include the same material entirely and reformat what they do include. A date may be in AUC or in Olympiads or in some other form, such as age. These variations may have occurred through scribal error or scribal license. Some material has been inserted under the aegis of Eusebius.
