Validating Livy’s History of Rome: Examining the Ancient World Using Modern Historical Methods (original) (raw)
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Tacitean scholars have noticed allusions to Livy by Tacitus since at least the end of the nineteenth century. Ever since, many works have attempted to identify and explain Tacitus’ interest in Livy’s history of Rome, generally focusing on comparisons regarding how these authors describe military events and Senate debates . The prevalent idea sustains that Tacitus alluded to Livy not only as a means to emulate him, but also to establish a contrast between past and present, demonstrating discontinuities and similarities between the monarchic and Republican past and the Principate . In this sense, Tacitus represented the past under the Principate as well as offered a political interpretation of that regime, establishing his authority as a historian . In this article, I follow this line of analysis, inquiring the dialogue established by Tacitus with Livy’s work about a specific theme: the question of loyalty (fides) within the context of Roman slave society. Although there are many references to slavery in both authors , little has been asked about the possibilities of intertextuality concerning the episodes involving masters and slaves, and freedmen and patrons. The relationship between slavery, manumission and citizenship is a common concern of Livy and Tacitus, even though they wrote at different moments of state regulation of slavery. I wish to point out a probable connection between the way in which Livy describes the origin of manumissio uindicta, through the story of the slave Vindicius, who exposed a conspiracy denouncing his master’s involvement (Liv. 2.4.6-5.10), and how Tacitus told the story of the freedman Milichus, who also denounced his patron because he took part in the Pisonian conspiracy against Nero (Ann., 15.54-55).
От мифологии к истории: происхождение римской историографии
From mythology to history: the origins of Roman historiography by Aleksandr Koptev Lap Lambert Academic Publishing, 2023, 554 p. Content: Foreword Introduction. From mythology to early historical narratives Chapter 1. Chronicle of the Supreme Pontiff 1.1. Supreme pontiff in early Rome 1.2. From the tabula dealbata to the annales maximi: an ancient concept 1.3. Chronicle of the Supreme Pontiff and the stages of its editing 1.4. The annales maximi in scholarship from K.J. Beloch to B. Frier 1.5. From the annales maximi to the tabula dealbata: hypotheses of J. Rüpke and J. Scheid Chapter 2. Greek historiography about early Rome 2.1. Evidence for Italy in early poetry and the first historians 2.2. Aeneas and his journey to Hesperia 2.3. Early evidence for Rome: mythology of foundation 2.4. Aeneas in Italy according to Timaeus and Lycophron 2.5. Evidence for Rome in the fourth-century Greek historians 2.6. Timaeus of Tauromenium and the chronology of Roman history Chapter 3 Chronology and the early list of consuls 3.1. The beginning of the consulate and the problem of the first consuls 3.2. The origin of the Decemvirates of 451-449 BC 3.3. Livy´s two versions for the admission of plebeians to the consulate 3.4. The consular tribunate in 444-367 BC 3.5. Counting chronology and the Saecular Games of 249 BC 3.6. The initial structure of the consular list Chapter 4 Mythologems of early Roman history 4.1. The Roman myth of foundation 4.2. Cacus and Hercules 4.3. Two founders: Romulus and Remus 4.4. Triadism in ritual and mythology 4.5. The Roman kings´ list and Indo-European mythology 4.6. The mythology of the "last battle" and the Roman kingship´s dissolution Conclusion. Changing the paradigm of the memory of the past The list of ancient authors in Russian translation Bibliography Abbreviations
[ARTIGO] Exemplary History: Competition in Roman Historiography
História da Historiografia: International Journal of Theory and History of Historiography, 2019
A great part of the perceived value of history in the ancient world was connected with its educational function. In one way or another, it was regarded as a beneficial guide to conduct or as magistra vitae (Cicero, De Oratore II, 36). To give political instruction and advice on the one hand (Polybius, I, 1, 2), and to provide exempla, were two major aims of history. This paper will argue that by narrating the history of the past, historians not only judged past actions or people, and provided useful moral examples to their contemporaries, but also stimulated a type of competition between past and present times. By recording good examples to be imitated and bad ones to be avoided, the Roman historians promoted the code of values of the maiores for their own time, fostered action and, to a certain extent, became significant indicators to Roman society. This competitive aspect of Roman historiography is illustrated here in three distinct categories, analysing the work of major Roman historians: Sallust, Livy and Tacitus. https://www.historiadahistoriografia.com.br/revista/article/view/1398/788
Structuring Roman history: the consular year and the Roman historical tradition
Histos, 2011
This article is concerned with the shaping of the annual narrative in historical writers working in the Roman annalistic tradition and contests the view that Livy and his predecessors conformed to a standard pattern from which Tacitus departed. It is true that Livy in Books - employs a regular internal-external-internal pattern based on the consuls' movements between Rome and their provinces, with copious details on routine matters in the opening and closing domestic sections. However, Livy manipulates this framework freely for his own purposes, especially when incorporating Polybian material. Moreover, the pattern is characteristic only of his account of the Middle Republic: the annual narratives of Books - do not conform to it, and Livy probably abandoned it when dealing with events from the Social War on. It seems likely that the annual narratives of most of Livy's predecessors were varied and informal, like those of Livy Books -, and this is corroborated by fragments of Claudius Quadrigarius and Sallust's Histories. Livy probably derived his mid-republican pattern from Valerius Antias: it will have been an innovatory feature of his work, based on documentary research, especially in the archives of the senate. Assessment of Tacitus' handling of his annual narratives should take account of the wide range of models available to him within the annalistic tradition.