Book
25 BCE
The History of Rome
Livy
A moralised history of Rome from its mythical founding, arguing the Republic's early virtues were the source of its greatness and their decline the cause of the civil wars Livy had lived through.
Read itBefore you start
- This edition
- The scan also carries Florus's epitome and Freinsheim's supplements, which are later authors filling in Livy's lost books. They read continuously with the text and are not Livy.
- This translation
- Philemon Holland's, first printed 1600; the linked scan is the 1659 printing. Jacobean English, and genuinely fine prose — but four centuries old, and the usual reason readers bounce off Livy rather than anything Livy did.
FreeIntermediatelink checked 17 Sept 2026
Filed under Ancient Rome in History.