Roman historian with the distinction of being the first known professional historian.
Born in Patavium (modern Padua), Livy (Titus Livius) moved to Rome when he was 30 and began a career of investigation and synthesis that resulted in his massive History of Rome (Ab Urbe Condita) covering some 744 years of the city's and empire's history in 142 books. Sadly, only 35 of them have survived, those covering the years 753-243 BC and 210-167 BC. Livy's methods, however, have been questioned and many scholars—both ancient and modern—do not see him as a serious historian, dismissing him rather as a mythographer. Modern research, both epigraphical and archaeological, has proven him to be more accurate than was once imagined.
©ALBERITH
260519lch