X-Nico

10 unusual facts about Livy


Ancus Marcius

According to Livy, his first act as king was to order the Pontifex Maximus to copy the text concerning the performance of public ceremonies of religion from the commentaries of Numa Pompilius to be displayed to the public, so that the rites of religion should no longer be neglected or improperly performed.

Benediktbeuern Abbey

In 1700 the source-critical method of historiography was used for the first time in South Germany in exemplary fashion by Dom Karl Meichelbeck, the "Livy of Bavaria" (1669–1734), librarian and archivist from 1696 until his death.

François Noël

Noël translated Catullus and Gallus (1803, 2 vol. in-8°), and (with Dureau de La Malle's son) completed the translation of Livy by Dureau de La Malle (1810–1824, 17 vol. in-8°).

Frosolone

There are remnants of cyclopean walls built by the Samnites, locally called "Civitelle." As the name implies, they were likely part of a small fortress destroyed by the Roman Army in 293 BC; the historian Livy describes the march of two Roman armies, headed by Spurius Carvilius Maximus and Lucius Papirius Cursor, which met at the Civitelle.

Jean-Baptiste Dureau de la Malle

His translation of Livy was incomplete on his death and was completed by his son and by François Noël and published posthumously in 15 volumes from 1810 to 1815.

Limoux wine

Records show that Livy traded in non-sparkling white wines from Limoux as far back as the Roman occupation of the region.

Livy

The poet Beccadelli sold a country home for funding to purchase one manuscript copied by Poggio.

Marcus Postumius Pyrgensis

Marcus Postumius, surnamed Pyrgensis, is described by Livius as a "farmer of the taxes" during the Second Punic War, whose character for avarice and fraud were equaled only by Titus Pomponius Veientanus.

Sthenius and Pacuvius Ninnius Celer

Due to ambiguities in some manuscripts of Livius, Pacuvius Ninnius is sometimes confused with Pacuvius Calavius, the chief magistrate of Capua, and for this reason, Sthenius is described as Sthenius Calavius in some sources.

Tarquinia

Although the Roman army was victorious, it is recorded by Livy that the forces of Tarquinii fought well on the right wing, initially pushing back the Roman left wing.


Annalists

Livy regards him as a less trustworthy authority than Fabius Pictor, and Niebuhr considers him the first to introduce systematic forgeries into Roman history.

Battle of Magnesia

Next to the agema, he placed a cavalry corps Livy calls argyraspides, 200 or 1,200 Dahae horse archers, 3,000 Cretan and Trallean light infantry, 2,500 Mysian bowmen, Cyrtian slingers and Elymaean archers.

Battle of Mount Gaurus

The battle is described by the Roman historian Livy (59 BC – AD 17) as part of the Book Seven of his history of Rome, Ab Urbe Condita where he narrates how the Roman consul Marcus Valerius Corvus won a hard-fought battle against the Samnites at Mount Gaurus, near Cumae, in Campania.

Capitoline Triad

Polybius Hist. III 25, 6 in occasion of a treaty stipulated by the fetials between Rome and Carthage; Livy VIII 9, 6 in the formula of the devotio of Decius Mus; Festus s.v. spolia opima, along with Plutarch Marcellus 8, Servius ad Aeneidem VI 860 on the same topic.

Domestic goose

The geese in the temple of Juno on the Capitoline Hill were said by Livy to have saved Rome from the Gauls around 390 BC when they were disturbed in a night attack.

Eve's Diary

The book may have been written as a posthumous love-letter to Mark Twain's wife Olivia Langdon Clemens, or Livy, who died in June 1904, just before the story was written.

Faunus

The Christian writer Justin Martyr identified him as Lupercus ("he who wards off the wolf"), the protector of cattle, following Livy, who named his aspect of Inuus as the god who was originally worshiped at the Lupercalia, celebrated on the anniversary of the founding of his temple, February 15, when his priests (Luperci) wore goat-skins and hit onlookers with goat-skin belts.

First secessio plebis in 494 BC

Livy records that a former army officer, now advanced in years, threw himself into the forum.

Gabriele Faerno

He also worked on the conflicting manuscripts of the historian Livy and Faerno's contemporary, Latino Latini, has left a note on the scrupulous care with which he approached the subject.

Gaius Fulcinius

According to Livy, the leaders of Fidenae sent an urgent message to Lars Tolumnius, the king of Veii, asking what they should do.

Gnaeus Manlius Vulso

Florus has the senate turn down his application, but Livy describes his triumphal procession in elaborate detail.

Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus

Trogus began with a legendary Ninus, founder of Nineveh, and ended at about the same point as Livy (AD 9).

Hybla Gereatis

During the Second Punic War, Livy mentions Hybla as one of the towns that were induced to revolt to the Carthaginians in 211 BCE, but were quickly recovered by the Roman praetor M. Cornelius.

Lucius Alienus

According to the Roman historian Livy, he accused Gaius Veturius Cicurinus, the consul of the previous year, of illegally selling the plunder which had been gained in war (instead of distributing it among the soldiery), and placing the amount in the Aerarium.

Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus

Livy records that the quaestor Lucius Cornelius Scipio was sent to meet King Prusias II of Bithynia and conduct him to Rome, when this monarch visited Italy in 167 BC.

Ludi Romani

In all his other books, however, Livy observes a distinction which has been pointed out by Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl (Parerga zu Plautus, &c. p. 290), that ludi magni is the term applied to extraordinary games originating in a vow (ludi votivi), while ludi Romani is that applied to the games when they were established as annual (ludi stati).

Montesarchio

It is first mentioned during the Second Samnite War, 321 BCE, when the Samnite army under Gaius Pontius encamped there, previous to the great disaster of the Romans in the neighbouring pass known as the Caudine Forks (Livy ix. 2); and again, a few years later, as the head-quarters occupied by the Samnites, with a view of being at hand to watch the movements of the Campanians.

Notker the Stammerer

regardless of historical verisimilitude (Pepin the Hunchback, for example, is supposed to have been sent to Saint Gall as punishment for his rebellion, and – in a trope owed to Livy's tale of Tarquin and the poppies – earns a promotion to rich Prüm Abbey after advising Charlemagne through an implicit parable of hoeing thistles to execute another group of rebels).

Promunturium Lacinium

Remains of marble roof-tiles have been seen on the spot (Livy xlii.3) and architectural fragments were excavated in 1886-1887 by the Archaeological Institute of America.

Roman-Etruscan Wars

According to Livy the leading men of all of Etruria gathered at the sanctuary of Voltumna to form a hostile alliance against Rome.

Silva Arsia

near Rome where Romans heard the prophetic voice of Silvanus in 509 BCE, foretelling their defeat of the Etruscans (Livy), 2.7.2).

Translation and Literature

Articles and notes have included: Surrey and Marot, Livy and Jacobean drama, Virgil in Paradise Lost, Pope’s Horace, Fielding on translation, Browning’s Agamemnon, and Brecht in English.

Valerius Antias

The second book told about the legendary Roman king Numa Pompilius, the twenty-second book about the capitulation of Gaius Hostilius Mancinus in 136 BC (this event Livy only reports in book 55 of his history).