The one great prose writer of the Augustan period was Titus Li V (n.c. 59-A.D. 17). of Patavimn (Padua), author of a history of Rome 1.1b rrbv (ondi ta Libri) from the arrival of .Incas in Italy down to Livy's own times. This great work was in 142 book:, carrying the story as far as the death of Drusus in n.c. 9. Livy prnbalily intended to complete 150 hooks, but death prevented its consummation. Only about a quarter of the work (i.e. hooks i.-x. and xxi. to xl•.) is extant, hut we have periochir, or out lines, of the rest. Livy has fairly been called the most eloquent of historians, but he is wholly uncritical. Ile troubled himself little with origi nal research, and had small knowledge of consti tutional or military affairs; and his idea of the philosophy of history and of the significance of cause and effect \vas of the vaguest possible sort. But in the art of expression mid of telling a story in a fascinating style he surpasses all his countrymen. llis langnage is unconventional, though carefully chosen. and forms the first transition to the so-called 'silver' Latinity.
Aiming the minor writers of this epoch, several deserve a brief mention. Pompeius Trogus wrote a universal history with the title II ist orig. Phi
lippie«, in 44 books. Thi: work was abridged in the second eentury by .1ustinus, and the abridg ment, which is extant. effused the loss of the original. The learned N. Verrius Flaccus met the same fate as Trogu:, and for the same reason. His encyclopedic lexicon entitled I)' Err born at, .Sionifica to was abridged by Sextus Pompeius Pest us in the second century, and this in its turn by Paulus Diaconus in the time of Charlemagne. All of the original work and most of the first abridgment are therefore lost. C. Julius Ily ginus (c.04 n.c.-17 A.D.), another learned writer, was a freedman of Augustus, who placed him in charge of the Palatine Library. Ilis works treated of many subjects, literary and scientific; but all are lost except two books of Fabala. (a school text-book of mythology), nail four on astrology. and these, in the form in which we have them are later abridgments. We are more fortunate in the case of the architect Vi t•uvius Pollio, whose work Dr .1 reli i ect ora, in ten hooks, is of the greatest value to students of classical architeeture, but, like all the lesser works just mentioned, is quite without real lit erary