LIVS, or LIVO'NIANS. A Finnish tribe, formerly living in Esthonia and North Livonia, now nearly extinct, holding only a narrow strip of forest land along the Baltic at the north point of Courland. They were supplanted by the Letts (q.v.). They are classed with the Baltic Finns and number 2000. Their language has nearly disappeared, and the people speak a Lettish patois.
LIVY, (n.c. 59-A.D. IT). The great Ro man historian, Titus Livius, is without a history, for we have no ancient biography of him, and very little information is obtained either from his own writings or from allusions in other authors. Ile was horn at Patavium (Padua), the chief city of Venetia, in B.C. 59 (a date given in Saint .Te rome's Chronicle of Eusebius), consequently at the beginning of the most important period of Roman history, for Caesar had just obtained the govern ment of Gaul. The place and period of his birth had great influence upon his career. Padua was a city of considerable importance, with a tradi tional history going back to Antenor. and Livy. a Paduan at heart, felt deep sympathy with the municipalities which preserved the old independ ent spirit of Italy; nevertheless be was in a larger sense a Roman. and recognized the advan tage of association with a people who had con quered the early enemies of his native town, and who were his fellow-citizens, the Paduans having long possessed the Roman franchise. On the evi dence of some inscriptions (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, v. 2865. 2975) and of the general aristocratic spirit of his writings there is reason to believe that he belonged to a noble family. lie undoubtedly received training in philosophy, rhetoric, and literature.
When Caesar was slain and Cicero gave voice to his Philippics. Livy was fifteen years of age. He was familiar, then, with the great strn7de for liberty, and with all the events of that stir ring time, and in consequence was a republican. Ile came to Rome about n.c. 31, the year of the battle of Actium. and there he resided until shortly before his death. Although he formed a friendship with Augustus (whom, however, he mentions only twice, once to give a date and once to prove a fact), he admired Brutus and Cassius, nevertheless, and dared to say that it was a ques tion whether or not Cesar had been of service to his country. Augustus called him a Pompeian, perhaps in a spirit of pleasantry, as the purpose and aim of the historian must have been satis factory to him; for while Livy idealized the Re public, he was entirely satisfied with the exist ing Imperial Government.
Suetonins (Claudius 41) remarks that Livy advised the future Emperor Claudius to write history, and that Caligula (Caligula 34) charged him with being negligent. This accusation was undoubtedly due to his evident ignorance of mili tary detail and of Roman law, which resulted in errors in his description of wars and of constitu tional changes. lie, however, had a great reputa tion in his own day, of which he himself was cog nizant; fur he is said to have declared that he had obtained sufficient glory, but continued writ ing because he should miss the employment. After the accession of Tiberius Livy returned to Padua, where he died in A.D. 17. In the letters of Seneca (100, 9) there is a reference to Livy's writing dialogues, half philosophical and half rhetorical, and Quinnlian (x. 1, 39) and Seneca the Elder mention a letter addressed to his son, in which be urged him to study the speeches of Demosthenes and Cicero; but these have disap peared. His history of Rome was begun early in his life, for in book •. 19 we have a reference to the fact that the temple of Janus had been shut twice since the time of Xuma once after the First Punk War, and again after the battle of Actium; the third closing occurred in B.C. 25, so that the writing of the first book must fall between D.C. 29 and 25. and as Livy also uses here the title Augustus. which was conferred in January n.c. 27, we may place the date about B.C. 26. There is also evidence that the work did not appear as a whole, but in sections, which contained a varying number of hooks. Certain passages are clearly prefaces to new parts of the history. e.g. at the beginning of books 6, 21, and 31. It is noticeable that book 5 ends with the burning of Rome by the Gauls, so that hook 6 begins a new epoch; also book 15 be gins the First Punk NVar, and book 21 the Second Punic War. These facts point to a publication of decades or semi-decades. but it is doubtful if Livy held to this arrangement, for in the best MSS. we find that books 109-116 are treated in one perioeha, or summary, under the title BeHunt Cirile.