Ab Urbe Condita
History of Rome
Livy Titus Livius · 59 BCE – 17 CE
Librarian’s score8.6Claude · AI
Readers—Shown after five ratings
Livy told Rome's story from its founding legends to his own day in 142 books, of which 35 survive. He is less a critic of sources than a moralist and a storyteller: Lucretia, Horatius at the bridge, Hannibal crossing the Alps. Those scenes shaped how Europe imagined Rome for centuries. Read him for the drama and for what Romans believed about themselves, with Polybius at hand for the hard facts.