author
Livy
-58–16
A master storyteller of ancient Rome, this historian turned the city’s legendary beginnings and hard-won triumphs into one sweeping narrative. His great history shaped how generations imagined Rome’s past, even though only part of it survives today.
5 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in Patavium, the Roman city now called Padua, Livy (Titus Livius) lived from 59 BC to AD 17 and became one of Rome’s most important historians. Ancient sources preserve only a little about his personal life, but he is strongly associated with the age of Augustus and is remembered for writing on a grand scale.
His major work, Ab Urbe Condita (From the Founding of the City), originally covered Rome’s story from its legendary beginnings to Livy’s own time in 142 books. Only 35 books survive in full, yet those surviving sections remain a central source for early Roman history and for famous episodes such as the stories of Lucretia, Cincinnatus, and Hannibal’s war with Rome.
Livy was admired not just for collecting the past, but for bringing it vividly to life. His history blends moral reflection, dramatic storytelling, and patriotic interest in Rome’s character, which helps explain why he has remained widely read for centuries.