Titus, the best of the Roman historians, as he is called by Mr Bayle, was born at Patavium, or Padua. Few particulars of his life have been handed Livius handed down to us. Coming to Rome, he acquired the notice and favour of Augustus, and there he long resided. Some have supposed, (for there is not any proof of it,) that he was known to Augustus before, by certain Philosophical Dialogues which he had dedicated to him. Seneca says nothing of the dedication; but mentions the dialogues, which he calls historical and philosophical; and also some books, written purposely on the subject of philosophy. Be this as it will, it is probable that he began his history as soon as he was settled at Rome; and he seems to have devoted himself so entirely to the great work he had undertaken, as to be perfectly regardless of his own advancement. The tumults and distractions of Rome frequently obliged him to retire to Naples; not only that he might be less interrupted in the pursuit of his delineated talk, but also enjoy that retirement and tranquillity which he could not have at Rome, and which yet he seems to have much sought after: for he was greatly dissatisfied with the manners of his age, and tells us, that "he should reap this reward of his labour, in composing the Roman history, that it would take his attention from the present numerous evils, at least while he was employed upon the first and earliest ages." He used to read parts of this history, while he was composing it, to Mecenas and Augustus; and the latter conceived to high an opinion of him, that he pitched upon him to superintend the education of his grandson Claudius, who was afterwards emperor. After the death of Augustus, Livy returned to the place of his birth, where he was received with all imaginable honour and respect: and there he died, in the fourth year of the reign of Tiberius, aged above seventy. Some say, he died on the same day with Ovid; it is certain that he died the same year.

Scarce any man was ever more honoured, alive as well as dead, than this historian. Pliny the younger relates, that a native gentleman travelled from Gades, in the extremest parts of Spain, to see Livy: and, though Rome abounded with more stupendous and curious spectacles than any city in the world, yet he immediately returned; as if, after having seen Livy, nothing further could be worthy of his notice. A monument was erected to this historian in the temple of Juno, where was afterwards founded the monastery of St Justina. There, in 1413, was discovered the following epitaph upon Livy: Offa Tit Livii Patavini, omnium mortalium judicio digni, cujus prope invito calamo invicti populi Romani res gestae conferrentur; that is, "The bones of Titus Livius of Patavium, a man worthy to be approved by all mankind, by whose almost invincible pen the acts and exploits of the invincible Romans were written." These bones are said to be preserved with high reverence to this day, and are shown by the Paduans as the most precious remains. In 1451, Alphonso, king of Aragon, sent his ambassador, Anthony Panormita, to desire of the citizens of Padua the bone of that arm with which this their famous countryman had written his history; and, obtaining it, caused it to be conveyed to Naples with the greatest ceremony as a most invaluable relic. He is said to have recovered from an ill state of health by the pleasure he found in reading this history; and therefore, out of gratitude, put upon doing extraordinary honours to the memory of the writer. Panormita also, who was a native of Palermo in Sicily, and one of the ablest men of the 15th century, sold an estate to purchase this historian.

The history of Livy, like other great works of antiquity, is transmitted down to us exceedingly mutilated and imperfect. Its books were originally a hundred and forty-two, of which are extant only thirty-five. The epitomes of it, from which we learn their number, all remain, except those of the 136th and 137th books. Livy's books have been divided into decades, which some will have to have been done by Livy himself, because there is a preface to every decade; while others suppose it to be a modern contrivance, since nothing about it can be gathered from the ancients. The first decade, beginning with the foundation of Rome, is extant, and treats of the affairs of 462 years. The second decade is lost; the years of which are seventy-five. The third decade is extant, and contains the second Punic war, including eighteen years. It is reckoned the most excellent part of the history, as giving an account of a very long and sharp war, in which the Romans gained so many advantages, that no arms could afterwards withstand them. The fourth decade contains the Macedonian war against Philip, and the Asiatic war against Antiochus, which take up the space of about 23 years. The five first books of the fifth decade were found at Worms, by Simon Gryneus, in 1431, but are very defective; and the remainder of Livy's history, which reaches to the death of Drusus in Germany in 746, together with the second decade, are supplied by Freinshemius.

Never man perhaps was furnished with greater advantages for writing a history than Livy. Besides his own great genius, which was in every respect admirably formed for the purpose, he was trained as it were in a city, at that time the empress of the world, and in the politest reign that ever was; having scarcely had any other school than the court of Augustus. He had access to the very best materials, such as the Memoirs of Sylla, Caesar, Labienus, Pollio, Augustus, and others, written by themselves. "What writers of memorials (says Lord Bolinbroke), what compilers of the Materia Historica, were there! What genius was necessary to finish up the pictures that such matters had sketched! Rome afforded men that were equal to the task. Let the remains, the precious remains, of Salust, of Livy, and of Tacitus, witness this truth.—What a school of public and private virtue had been opened to us at the resurrection of learning, if the latter historians of the Roman commonwealth, and the first of the succeeding monarchy, had come down to us entire! The few that are come down, though broken and imperfect, compose the best body of history that we have; nay, the only body of ancient history that deserves to be an object of study. It fails us indeed most at that remarkable and fatal period, where our reasonable curiosity is raised the highest. Livy employed forty-five books to bring his history down to the end of the fifth century, and the breaking out of the third Punic war; but he employed ninety-five to bring it down from thence to the death of Drusus; that is, through the course of 120 or 130 years. Appian, Dion Cassius, and others, nay, even Plutarch included, make us but poor amends for what is lost of Livy."

Speaking then of Tully's orations and letters, as the best... LIV

be adventitious helps to supply this loss, he says, that "the age in which Livy flourished, abounded with such materials as these: they were fresh, they were authentic; it was easy to procure them; it was safe to employ them. How did he employ them in executing the second part of his design, we may judge from his execution of the first: and, I own, I should be glad to exchange, if it were possible, what we have of this history for what we have not. Would you not be glad, my Lord, to see, in one stupendous draught, the whole progress of that government from liberty to servitude; the whole series of causes and effects, apparent and real, public and private?" &c.

The encomiums bestowed upon Livy, by both ancients and moderns, are great and numerous. He not only entertains like Herodotus; he also instructs and interests in the deepest manner. But his great probity, candour, and impartiality, are what have distinguished Livy above all historians; for neither complaisance to the times, nor his particular connexions with the emperor, could restrain him from speaking well of Pompey; so well, as to make Augustus call him a Pompeian. This we learn from Cremutius Cordus, in Tacitus; who relates also, much to the emperor's honour, that this gave no interruption to their friendship. But whatever elogies Livy may have received as an historian, he has not escaped censure as a writer. In the age wherein he lived, Asinius Pollio charged him with Patavinity; which Patavinity has been variously explained by various writers, but is generally supposed to relate to his style. The most common is, that this noble Roman, accustomed to the delicacy of the language spoken in the court of Augustus, could not bear with certain provincial idioms, which Livy, as a Paduan, used in divers places of his history. Pignorius is of another opinion, and believes that this Patavinity regarded the orthography of certain words, wherein Livy used one letter for another, according to the custom of his country, writing file and quafe for fibi and quafi; which he attempts to prove by several ancient inscriptions. The expressions, however, or the orthography of words, are not loaded with obscurity, and the perfect classic is as familiarly acquainted with those supposed provincialisms as with the purest Latinity.—Livy has been censured too, and perhaps with justice, for being too credulous, and burdening his history with vulgar notions and superstitious tales. He may disgust when he mentions that milk and blood were rained from heaven, or that an ox spoke or a woman changed her sex; yet he candidly confesses that he recorded only what made an indelible impression upon the minds of a credulous age.

Is it worth while to mention here the capricious and tyrannic humour of the emperor Caligula, who accused Livy of being a negligent and wordy writer, and resolved therefore to remove his works and statues out of all libraries, where he knew they were curiously preserved? Or the same humour in Domitian, another prodigy of nature, who put to death Metius Pomponianus, because he made a collection of some orations of kings and generals out of Livy's history? Pope Gregory the Great, also, would not suffer Livy in any Christian library, because of the Pagan superstition wherewith he abounded: but the same reason held good against all ancient authors; and indeed Gregory's zeal was far from being levelled at Livy in particular, the pontiff having declared war against all human learning.

Though we know nothing of Livy's family, yet we learn from Quintilian, that he had a son, to whom he addressed some excellent precepts in rhetoric. An ancient inscription speaks also of one of his daughters, named Livia Quarta: the same, perhaps, that espoused the orator Lucius Magius, whom Seneca mentions; and observes, that the applause he usually received from the public in his harangues, were not so much on his own account, as for the sake of his father-in-law.

Our author's history has been often published with and without the supplement of Freinichenius. The best editions are, that of Gronovius, cum notis variarum et suis, Lugd. Bat. 1679, 3 vols 8vo; that of Le Clerc at Amsterdam, 1709, 10 vols 12mo; and that of Crevier, at Paris, 1735, 6 vols 4to. These have the supplements.—Learning perhaps never sustained a greater loss, in any single author, than by the destruction of the latter and more interesting part of Livy. Several eminent moderns have indulged the pleasing expectation that the entire work of this noble historian might yet be recovered. It has been said to exist in an Arabic version: and even a complete copy of the original is supposed to have been extant as late as the year 1631, and to have perished at that time in the plunder of Magdeburg. The munificent patron of learning, Leo X, exerted the most generous zeal to rescue from oblivion the valuable treasure, which one of his most bigoted predecessors, above mentioned, had expelled from every Christian library. Bayle has preferred, under the article Leo, two curious original letters of that pontiff, concerning his hopes of recovering Livy; which afford most honourable proofs of his liberality in the cause of letters.—A lately discovered fragment of Livy's history was published in 1773 by Dr. Bruns.