Livy
Roman historianWikipedia
807
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147
EPISODES
128
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Search complete. 807 mentions across 147 episodes found for "Livy".
Sep 18, 2026
speaker_4NARRATOR
This first kind of reflective history is most nearly akin to the preceding when it has no farther aim than to present the annals of a country complete.
speaker_4NARRATOR
Such compilations, among which may be reckoned the works of Livy, Diodorus Siculus, Johannes von Müller's History of Switzerland, are, if well performed, highly meritorious.
speaker_4NARRATOR
Among the best of the kind may be reckoned such analysts as approach those of the first class, who give so vivid a transcript of events that the reader may well fancy himself listening to contemporaries and eyewitnesses.
speaker_4NARRATOR
But it often happens that the individuality of tone which must characterize a writer belonging to a different culture is not modified in accordance with the period such a record must traverse.
speaker_4NARRATOR
the spirit of the writer is quite other than that of the times of which he treats.
speaker_4NARRATOR
Thus, Livy puts into the mouths of the old Roman kings, consuls, and generals such orations as would be delivered by an accomplished advocate of the Livyan era, and which strikingly contrast with the genuine traditions of Roman antiquity.
speaker_4NARRATOR
For example, the fable of Menenius Agrippa, in the same way he gives us descriptions of battles as if he had been an actual spectator, but whose features would serve well enough for battles in any period, and whose distinctness contrasts, on the other hand, with the want of connection and the inconsistency that prevail elsewhere, even in his treatment of chief points of interest.
speaker_4NARRATOR
The difference between such a compiler and an original historian may be best seen by comparing Polybius himself with the style in which Livy uses, expands, and abridges his annals in those period, of which Polybius's account has been preserved.
Simon WhistlerHOST
If records from these times did exist at some point, they would have likely been destroyed in 390 BC, when the city of Rome was sacked for the first time.
Simon WhistlerHOST
Our main source for the Roman Kingdom is the historian Livy, whose book The History of Rome covers… well, it covers the history of Rome, since its founding to the birth of the Empire under Augustus.
Simon WhistlerHOST
Even he lived almost 500 years after the last king was overthrown, so he certainly relied on a lot of hearsay and legends.
Simon WhistlerHOST
Other historians who covered this time period include Cassius Dio and Diodorus Silas, but their works have not survived in their entirety, so we only get fragments about the reign of Tarquin from them.
Simon WhistlerHOST
He was the son of the fifth king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, who retroactively became known as Tarquin the Elder, while his son was referred to as Tarquin the Proud to help distinguish them.
Simon WhistlerHOST
His mother was named Taniquil, and neither her nor her husband were born in Rome.
Simon WhistlerHOST
According to Livy, they were both Etruscans, an ancient Italian civilization that predated the Romans, and came from Etruria, which was a region that mainly corresponds to Tuscany today, plus parts of Umbria and Lazio.
Simon WhistlerHOST
Priscus and Tanaquil had married, back home in Arturia.
speaker_4NARRATOR
This first kind of reflective history is most nearly akin to the preceding when it has no farther aim than to present the annals of a country complete.
speaker_4NARRATOR
Such compilations, among which may be reckoned the works of Livy, Diodorus Siculus, Johannes von Müller's History of Switzerland, are, if well performed, highly meritorious.
speaker_4NARRATOR
Among the best of the kind may be reckoned such analysts as approach those of the first class, who give so vivid a transcript of events that the reader may well fancy himself listening to contemporaries and eyewitnesses.
speaker_5NARRATOR
But it often happens that the individuality of tone which must characterize a writer belonging to a different culture is not modified in
speaker_4NARRATOR
accordance with the period such a record must traverse.
speaker_4NARRATOR
the spirit of the writer is quite other than that of the times of which he treats.
speaker_4NARRATOR
Thus, Livy puts into the mouths of the old Roman kings, consuls, and generals such orations as would be delivered by an accomplished advocate of the Livyan era, and which strikingly contrast with the genuine traditions of Roman antiquity.
speaker_4NARRATOR
For example, the fable of Menenius Agrippa, in the same way he gives us descriptions of battles as if he had been an actual spectator, but whose features would serve well enough for battles in any period, and whose distinctness contrasts, on the other hand, with the want of connection and the inconsistency that prevail elsewhere, even in his treatment of chief points of interest.
Kenneth CalvertGUEST
The Roman Republic ended to a great extent.
Kenneth CalvertGUEST
You find this in Livy and you find in the descriptions of the end of the Roman Republic that it was really a revolutionary period.
Kenneth CalvertGUEST
dissolution of the Republic into chaos and bloodshed.
Kenneth CalvertGUEST
That's what ended the Roman Republic.
Nick TawilHOST
Well, I'm not going to hold you to anything, but I want to, I want to, I want to know.
Nick TawilHOST
Livy's history of
Brent SealesGUEST
Rome, for example, would be, you know, this would be for Alex Petkus, right? Because he knows, he knows everything that's lost and found.
Brent SealesGUEST
Cost of glory, great podcast.
Brent SealesGUEST
Yeah.
Brent SealesGUEST
But on the other hand, it's fun to think about what could be there.
Brent SealesGUEST
The lost books of the history of Rome by Livy would give us a window into so many other events that would be better than just a philosophical tome.
Brent SealesGUEST
So rather than somebody talking about what what it means to live a pleasurable life, like an Epicurean, you could have somebody telling you about all of the events that happened as Rome, you know, rose and fell.
speaker_3NARRATOR
This first kind of reflective history is most nearly akin to the preceding when it has no farther aim than to present the annals of a country complete.
speaker_3NARRATOR
Such compilations, among which may be reckoned the works of Livy, Diodorus Siculus, Johannes von Müller's History of Switzerland, are, if well performed, highly meritorious.
speaker_3NARRATOR
Among the best of the kind may be reckoned such analysts as approach those of the first class, who give so vivid a transcript of events that the reader may well fancy himself listening to contemporaries and eyewitnesses.
speaker_3NARRATOR
But it often happens that the individuality of tone which must characterize a writer belonging to a different culture is not modified in accordance with the period such a record must traverse.
speaker_3NARRATOR
the spirit of the writer is quite other than that of the times of which he treats.
speaker_3NARRATOR
Thus, Livy puts into the mouths of the old Roman kings, consuls, and generals such orations as would be delivered by an accomplished advocate of the Livyan era, and which strikingly contrast with the genuine traditions of Roman antiquity.
speaker_3NARRATOR
For example, the fable of Menenius Agrippa, in the same way he gives us descriptions of battles as if he had been an actual spectator, but whose features would serve well enough for battles in any period, and whose distinctness contrasts, on the other hand, with the want of connection and the inconsistency that prevail elsewhere, even in his treatment of chief points of interest.
speaker_3NARRATOR
The difference between such a compiler and an original historian may be best seen by comparing Polybius himself with the style in which Livy uses, expands, and abridges his annals in those period, of which Polybius's account has been preserved.
speaker_1NARRATOR
This first kind of reflective history is most nearly akin to the preceding when it has no farther aim than to present the annals of a country complete.
speaker_1NARRATOR
Such compilations, among which may be reckoned the works of Livy, Diodorus Siculus, Johannes von Muller's History of Switzerland, are, if well performed, highly meritorious.
speaker_1NARRATOR
Among the best of the kind may be reckoned such annalists as approach those of the first class, who give so vivid a transcript of events that the reader may well fancy himself listening to contemporaries and eyewitnesses.
speaker_1NARRATOR
But it often happens that the individuality of tone which must characterize a writer belonging to a different culture is not modified in accordance with the period such a record must traverse.
speaker_1NARRATOR
The spirit of the writer is quite other than that of the times of which he treats.
speaker_1NARRATOR
Thus, Livy puts into the mouths of the old Roman kings, consuls, and generals such orations as would be delivered by an accomplished advocate of the Livian era, and which strikingly contrast with the genuine traditions of Roman antiquity.
speaker_1NARRATOR
For example, the fable of Menenius Agrippa.
speaker_1NARRATOR
In the same way, he gives us descriptions of battles as if he had been an actual spectator, but whose features would serve well enough for battles in any period, and whose distinctness contrasts, on the other hand, with the want of connection and the inconsistency that prevail elsewhere, even in his treatment of chief points of interest.
speaker_5NARRATOR
For he who has been faithful and honest as I have cannot change his nature, and my poverty is a witness to my honesty.
speaker_5NARRATOR
Before Machiavelli had got The Prince off his hands, he commenced his Discourse on the First Decade of Titus Livius, which should be read concurrently with The Prince.
speaker_5NARRATOR
These and several minor works occupied him until the year 1518, when he accepted a small commission to look after the affairs of some Florentine merchants in Genoa.
speaker_5NARRATOR
In 1519, the Medicean rulers of Florence granted a few political concessions to her citizens, and Machiavelli, with others, was consulted upon a new constitution under which the Great Council was to be restored, but on one pretext or another it was not promulgated.
speaker_0NARRATOR
This first kind of reflective history is most nearly akin to the preceding when it has no farther aim than to present the annals of a country complete.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Such compilations, among which may be reckoned the works of Livy, Diodorus Siculus, Johannes von Müller's History of Switzerland, are, if well performed, highly meritorious.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Among the best of the kind may be reckoned such analysts as approach those of the first class, who give so vivid a transcript of events that the reader may well fancy himself listening
speaker_1NARRATOR
to contemporaries and eyewitnesses.
speaker_0NARRATOR
period such a record must traverse.
speaker_0NARRATOR
the spirit of the writer is quite other than that of the times of which he treats.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Thus, Livy puts into the mouths of the old Roman kings, consuls, and generals such orations as would be delivered by an accomplished advocate of the Livyan era, and which strikingly contrast with the genuine traditions of Roman antiquity.
speaker_0NARRATOR
For example, the fable of Menenius Agrippa, in the same way he gives us descriptions of battles as if he had been an actual spectator, but whose features would serve well enough for battles in any period, and whose distinctness contrasts, on the other hand, with the want of connection and the inconsistency that prevail elsewhere, even in his treatment of chief points of interest.
Larry WilsonNARRATOR
I have enriched it after the manner of Sallust with various characters of ancient worthies, drawn at full length and faithfully colored.
Larry WilsonNARRATOR
I have seasoned it with profound political speculations like Thucydides, sweetened it with the graces of sentiment like Tacitus, and infused into the whole the dignity, the grandeur, and magnificence of Livy.
Larry WilsonNARRATOR
I am aware that I shall incur the censure of numerous very learned and judicious critics for indulging too frequently in the bold, excursive manner of my favorite Herodotus.
Larry WilsonNARRATOR
And to be candid I have found it impossible always to arrest the allurements of those pleasing episodes which like flowery banks and fragrant bowers beset the dusty road of the historian, and entice him to turn aside and refresh himself from his wayfaring.
137 more episodes mention Livy.
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