Episode Details

Livy wrote a 142-book history of Rome from its founding to his own era, and in doing so created the version of Roman history that Romans themselves believed. Romulus, the rape of Lucretia, Horatius at the bridge: these stories survive because Livy told them better than anyone else.

This episode examines how his Ab Urbe Condita shaped Roman national identity and asks whether his moralizing history was more honest than it appears.

• How he turned Rome's mythological origins into compelling narrative
• The moral framework that made his history a guide to Roman virtue
• Why only 35 of his 142 books survived
• His relationship with Augustus and the politics of writing official history