"With regard to the traditions of times before the city was founded or its foundation contemplated—traditions adorned by the fables of the poet rather than based upon the incorruptible monuments of history—I have no intention either to affirm them or to refute. Antiquity is allowed the privilege of mingling human things with divine in order to render the first beginnings of cities more august. And, if it should be permitted to any people to hallow their origins and refer them to the authorship of the gods, such is the warlike glory of the Roman people that, though they chiefly avow Mars to be their parent and the parent of their founder, even this vaunt the nations of mankind tolerate with the same equanimity with which they tolerate the Roman rule.
"But these and such-like matters, however they may be re garded or esteemed, I shall hold of small moment. The things to which I would have everyone for himself bend his keen attention are these : what Roman life and character have been ; through what men and by what arts, at home or in the field, the empire was won and extended; then let him follow with attention how, as discipline gradually relaxed, character first, as it were, declined, then lapsed more and more, then began to go headlong, until we reached these last days when we can endure neither our vices nor their remedies. Here is that supremely salutary and fruitful thing in the study of history—that you should behold examples of every pattern placed upon a conspicuous monument and there from, for yourself and for your country, take what you should imitate, and therefrom see what—foul in inception and foul in issue—you should avoid.
"For the rest, either my love for the task which I have under taken deceives me, or there has never been a state either greater or holier or richer in good examples ; no state into which avarice and luxury made their entrance so late ; none where poverty and thrift were honoured so much and so long—nay, the less wealth, the less cupidity. Of late riches have introduced avarice, abun dance of pleasures has brought to men the desire by way of luxury and lust to ruin themselves and to ruin all.
"But complaints will never be pleasing, not even when they are perhaps necessary : from the beginning at least of this great business on which I am embarking, let them be absent. Rather would I commence—were it the custom for historians as it is for poets—with good omens and vows and prayers to gods and god desses to grant a happy issue to the great task now begun." Livy thus had two main purposes in writing his history—apart from the personal solace which it afforded him by diverting his mind from the troubles of his own time—(I) to preserve the memory of the great deeds of the Roman people; and (2), which he regards as still more important, to teach by conspicuous examples what is worthy of imitation and what is to be avoided. His first purpose is thus identical with that of Herodotus (i. I) who wrote his history in order that the story of the past might not be obliterated by lapse of time, and that the great and mar vellous deeds performed by Greeks and barbarians might not lose their fame. His second purpose reminds us of Thucydides (i. 22) who, writing in the belief that history tends more or less to repeat itself, aims at making his work a true record of the past and thus a safe guide to the future. The only difference is that
Livy's educational purpose is more ethical than political. The same sort of two-fold object is indicated also by Polybius (i. I) as having been the purpose of almost all his predecessors (and, apparently, he adopts it as his own purpose), who declare that "the knowledge of history is the truest education and gymnastic for political affairs, and the clearest and, indeed, the only teacher of the power to support the changes of fortune nobly is the memory of the vicissitudes of others." Sources.—The question of the literary sources used by Livy has been the subject of much discussion and research. The chief difficulty arises from the somewhat haphazard way in which he refers to his authorities. Explicit reference to his authority for specific statements is rare : xxii. 7 "The number of the slain on both sides is multiplied by other authorities. For myself, apart from the fact that I would have nothing drawn from idle rumour, I have taken as my authority, Fabius, a contemporary of this war." xxxiii. 10 "On that day there were slain 8,000 of the enemy, 5,000 taken captive. . . . If one were to believe Valerius, who extravagantly exaggerates the number of everything, 40,000 of the enemy were slain, the captives—a more modest falsehood— were 5,700. . . . Claudius, too, writes that 32,000 of the enemy were slain, while the captured were 4,300. We have not accepted the smaller numbers by preference, but have followed Polybius, no uncertain authority for all Roman affairs, but especially for those carried out in Greece." More often the reference is quite vague : x. 25 "whether of his own will . . . or summoned by de cree of the senate : for there are authorities for both statements" (in utrumque auctores sunt). Often we have no reference to authorities at all. So far, however, as can be ascertained, his chief authorities in the different decades may be enumerated as follow : In the first decade he depended chiefly on the earlier and later annalists. Q. Fabius Pictor, the earliest of all, who served in the Second Punic War, is referred to in i. 44 (scriptorum anti quissimus) ; i. 55 "I would, therefore, rather believe Fabius, apart from his greater antiquity . . . than Piso"; ii. 4o, Coriolanus "is said to have perished, but authorities differ as to the manner of his death. In Fabius, by far the most ancient authority, I find that he lived to old age"; also in viii. 3o, x. 57. L. Calpurnius Piso, consul in 133 B.C., who "reliquit . . . annales sane exiliter scriptos" (Cic. Brut. 27) , is cited in i. 55, ii. 58, ix. 44, x. 9; Q. Valerius Antias (early in 1st century B.c.) in iii. 5; C. Licinius Macer (born circ. lio B.c.) in iv. 7, iv. 20, iv. 23, vii. 9, X. 9; Q. Claudius Quadrigarius (about the same date), whose Annales (Aul. Gell. i. 25, etc.) began from the sacking of Rome by the Gauls (390 B.c.), in viii. 19, ix. 5; Q. Aelius Tubero (1st cent. B.c.) in iv. 23, x. 29. There is a single reference to L. Cincius Alimentus (who served in the Second Punic War), the celebrated annalist and antiquary (vii. 3, diligens talium monumentorum auctor Cincius).