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lukerik's review
informative
fast-paced
4.0
This first volume covers the first 286 years of Rome down to 468 BC. It opens with myth and shades down through legend and finally into history.
“Such traditions as belong to the time before the city was founded, or rather was presently to be founded, and are rather adorned with poetic legends than based upon trustworthy historical proofs, I purpose neither to affirm nor to refute”.
Personally I enjoyed the myths the best. There are some jaw-dropping similarities to the Judeo-Christian tradition and if I didn’t have some idea how myth works I would have thought that someone had been copying.
Also particularly interesting is when the plebs go on strike. I previously read Dionysius of Halicarnassus: a Greek writing for the newly conquered Greeks to introduce them to their new masters. Here Livy is writing for upper class Romans and the differences in the way these events are told is quite striking. Dionysius doesn’t pull his punches. The societal dysfunction in the early Roman state was so pronounced that rich people were literally enslaving their own countrymen and using them as a military barrier to protect their riches from the surrounding city states. Now, Livy is quite honest in recounting the behavioural problems displayed by some of the Senators, but there’s a subtle use of language when he discusses the behaviour of the plebs that reinforces the idea they’re being unreasonable. If your politics are left of centre you might enjoy Dionysius on these points more.
Excellent introduction. I can’t find it now, but I think the word the translator used to describe the Latin was ‘creamy’. I could well believe it. The English is rich and flowing and clear. Very readable.
One thing I particularly enjoyed were the Roman names. Silius Italicus... Furius Sextus, who appears in the index as Furius, Sex. which must have given the translator incredible pleasure to write. Some of these men wanked as high as anyone in Wome.
“Such traditions as belong to the time before the city was founded, or rather was presently to be founded, and are rather adorned with poetic legends than based upon trustworthy historical proofs, I purpose neither to affirm nor to refute”.
Personally I enjoyed the myths the best. There are some jaw-dropping similarities to the Judeo-Christian tradition and if I didn’t have some idea how myth works I would have thought that someone had been copying.
Also particularly interesting is when the plebs go on strike. I previously read Dionysius of Halicarnassus: a Greek writing for the newly conquered Greeks to introduce them to their new masters. Here Livy is writing for upper class Romans and the differences in the way these events are told is quite striking. Dionysius doesn’t pull his punches. The societal dysfunction in the early Roman state was so pronounced that rich people were literally enslaving their own countrymen and using them as a military barrier to protect their riches from the surrounding city states. Now, Livy is quite honest in recounting the behavioural problems displayed by some of the Senators, but there’s a subtle use of language when he discusses the behaviour of the plebs that reinforces the idea they’re being unreasonable. If your politics are left of centre you might enjoy Dionysius on these points more.
Excellent introduction. I can’t find it now, but I think the word the translator used to describe the Latin was ‘creamy’. I could well believe it. The English is rich and flowing and clear. Very readable.
One thing I particularly enjoyed were the Roman names. Silius Italicus... Furius Sextus, who appears in the index as Furius, Sex. which must have given the translator incredible pleasure to write. Some of these men wanked as high as anyone in Wome.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Rape, Slavery, Violence, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
darwin8u's review
4.0
"Look, that you may see how cheap they hold their bodies whose eyes are fixed upon renown!"
- Livy, Book II, xii 13
Book 1 (Rome Under the Kings)
&
Book 2 (The Beginnings of the Republic)
This might be the first book to bankrupt me. Or rather books. I own several versions of Livy (Folio, The first Penguin (Books 1-10), and the first four volumes of the Loeb's History of Rome by Livy). I've decided to track and read through the Loeb, but that is going to require me to buy another 10 volumes. The good to that is, well, ten more little red books. The bad? Well, these little books retail for $26 (although you can usually find either really good used copies or new copies for $12-$18). So I'm looking at almost $200 to finish purchasing these books and I've already spent about $60. So, why read the Loeb version?
Quod est in Latinam verso | Because Latin is on the left
Et lingua mea sedenti in recto | And English sits on the right *
Now those who know me, KNOW I don't read or speak Latin. So, why is having Livy in Latin and English that important? Because some day I DO want to read Latin. Because it pleases me. Because if I read on the recto side a phrase that strikes my fancy, like:
"Their name was irksome and a menace to liberty."
- Livy, Book II. ii. 4
I can go almost straight across and discover what that was in Latin:
"Non placere nomen, periculosum libertati esse."
It delights me. I know that probably sounds a bit affected and effete, but hell it entertains me. I don't complain that American consumers spend more than $25.3 billion a year on video games. So, let me have my 14 little red books. I'm not sure how fast I'll get through all of them. I think for my family's financial stability I'll drip and drab these out through-out the year.
* I kill me.
- Livy, Book II, xii 13
Book 1 (Rome Under the Kings)
&
Book 2 (The Beginnings of the Republic)
This might be the first book to bankrupt me. Or rather books. I own several versions of Livy (Folio, The first Penguin (Books 1-10), and the first four volumes of the Loeb's History of Rome by Livy). I've decided to track and read through the Loeb, but that is going to require me to buy another 10 volumes. The good to that is, well, ten more little red books. The bad? Well, these little books retail for $26 (although you can usually find either really good used copies or new copies for $12-$18). So I'm looking at almost $200 to finish purchasing these books and I've already spent about $60. So, why read the Loeb version?
Quod est in Latinam verso | Because Latin is on the left
Et lingua mea sedenti in recto | And English sits on the right *
Now those who know me, KNOW I don't read or speak Latin. So, why is having Livy in Latin and English that important? Because some day I DO want to read Latin. Because it pleases me. Because if I read on the recto side a phrase that strikes my fancy, like:
"Their name was irksome and a menace to liberty."
- Livy, Book II. ii. 4
I can go almost straight across and discover what that was in Latin:
"Non placere nomen, periculosum libertati esse."
It delights me. I know that probably sounds a bit affected and effete, but hell it entertains me. I don't complain that American consumers spend more than $25.3 billion a year on video games. So, let me have my 14 little red books. I'm not sure how fast I'll get through all of them. I think for my family's financial stability I'll drip and drab these out through-out the year.
* I kill me.