To what extent can Livy be considered an Augustan author? (i.e.

to what extent was Livy

influenced by the moral and social values promoted by Augustus and his regime?)

Word Count: 2009

This essay will attempt to ascertain how fair it would be to call Titus Livius (Livy) an
Augustan author, and if it is fair to say so, to what extent is it fair to say Livy was heavily
influenced by Augustus moral and social objectives and views. This will be achieved by
initially looking at direct references to Augustus throughout his works, specifically books one
to five. Though because these are few and far between, I will also scour Livys works for
more veiled hints at Augustus. Finally this essay will look at the moral values that Livy
praises and compare them with the social and moral values that Augustus himself
encouraged during his time in power. I will also examine whether other alleged connections
between Livy and Augustus are credible and amount to any influence in Livys work. So to
summarise this essay will answer the question of Livys credentials as an Augustan
historian in the following ways; looking at direct mentions of Augustus in Livys works,
looking for veiled comparisons to Augustus in his works, by contrasting Livys moral and
social views with those of Augustus himself and finally by dismissing the claim that Augustus
had any great impact upon Livys thought and works by showing that there were many areas
where the two vehemently disagreed and that the areas they agreed upon have a different
root in Livy.
In books one to five Livy only directly mentions Augustus on a mere two separate and
unrelated occasions. These comments themselves are rather unspectacular and are not
major points in Livys work just two among many minor divergences from the narrative of
early Rome. The first comment regards the temple of Janus and reads as follows Since
Numas reign the temple has twice been closed and after the battle of Actium where
Augustus Caesar brought peace to the world by land and sea.
1
In the passage Augustus
appears to be a sideshow to Numa. While he is merely a side point (and not the only one as
Manlius and the First Punic War are also mentioned
2
) he is certainly cast in a positive light
by Livy. It would be hard to find anyone willing to argue that bringing peace to the world
was not a just cause, and this is what Livy credits Augustus with doing at Actium. However
despite the lofty praise afforded to Augustus in this passage, it remains merely a fleeting
comment in a section dedicated to Numa Pompilius and Augustus name is not uttered
again until book four.

1
Livy , The Early History of Rome (England: Penguin Books: 2002): 52
2
Livy , The Early History of Rome, 52
In book 4 Livy mentions that Augustus enters the temple of Jupiter Feretrius and read the
inscription on some donated spoils.
3
However once again the emphasis of the passage is not
Augustus but instead it is Cossus, who the spoils were donated by. The spoils donated by
Cossus were disputed because there were questions surrounding Cossus eligibility to
deposit the spoils of honour in the temple of Jupiter Feretrius due to his military standing.
Livy implies that Augustus viewing the spoils grants them a sense of legitimacy; this appears
to afford almost a sense of reverence to Augustus. But upon further reading of the passage
it becomes very clear that it is once again not really about Augustus. Instead Livy says that
it would be almost sacrilege to deprive Cossus of so great a witness to his spoils than
(Augustus) Caesar.
4
While this extract obviously is focused on Cossus it praises both men
greatly and in Augustus case subtly, in a fashion similar to Livys famous account of the
discussion between Hannibal and Scipio Africanus after the battle of Zama.
5
While the quote
so obviously praises Cossus by saying to deprive him of acknowledgement of his spoils
would be akin to sacrilege it places Augustus in great standing. By saying that Augustus is
such a great witness Livy is telling his audience his personal admiration for Augustus, though
it does not give the reason for that admiration.
In Livys first 5 books Augustus receives some rare instances of flattery from Livy but they
are not more common or magnificent in nature than that given to other characters in the
aforementioned books. What is more Augustus appearances in the first 5 books are by way
of his interactions with places that were prominent in the early history of Rome, Livy
certainly does not make any effort to bring Augustus into his first 5 books where there are
plenty of other opportunities to mention Augustus directly, such as during the tales of the
first two kings Romulus and Numa Pompilius. So from direct mentions it does not seem that
Livy is heavily influenced by Augustus. Though this leads on to another way in which Livy
brings appraisals of Augustus and his policies into his histories, that of using historical
figures to convey aspects of Augustus.
In book one Romulus is depicted as a great warrior king who leads the Romans in victorious
conquests of neighbouring states and kingdoms. In one of the direct references to Augustus
Livy mentions that Augustus won victory on sea and land with the battle of Actium in the
civil war.
6
In fact Walsh (1961) says that there was a wave of feeling in Rome that Augustus
(then under the name Octavian) was the second coming of Romulus who would be a
second founder.
7
Walsh even goes on to say that in this sense Livy can be seen as an
Augustan historian, though this certainly is not the final word as he goes on to qualify this
by saying he was not a blind propagandist for Augustus regime.
8
This feeling of Augustus as

3
Livy , The Early History of Rome, 312
4
Livy , The Early History of Rome, 312
5
Brian T. Carey, Hannibals Last Battle: Zama & The Fall of Carthage (Great Britain: Pen & Sword Military:
2007): 129-130
6
Livy, The Early History of Rome, 52
7
P.G. Walsh, Livy: His Historical Aims and Methods (London: Cambridge University Press: 1963): 10
8
P.G. Walsh, Livy: His Historical Aims and Method, 10
a second Romulus is thought by many scholars (including Walsh) to have had an impact on
Livy and contributed to favourable depictions and comparisons for Augustus in Livys work.
However there is another possible explanation for this, it is that Livys own personal
upbringing in the notoriously backwater Patavium would give him a similar moral and social
ideal to Augustus, and that it is more a case of correlation in thought than a causation on
the part of Augustus.
However the argument that Livys background led him to have these views on society
neglects to answer one key thing about his work relating to Augustus. That is the thinly
veiled comparisons to Romulus and Numa Pompilius among others. In book one Livy anoints
Romulus as the great warrior and Numa as the pious bringer of peace yet both harbour
similarities to Augustus. Augustus was a great conqueror and expanded Roman territory by
more than anyone who preceded him, he was undoubtedly seen as a great warrior ruler so
the connection to Romulus is through his expansionist military actions.
9
In his comparison of
Augustus to Numa, Livy gives a great deal of praise to Numa for his piety and opening of so
many temples as well as installing religious institutions.
10
As Galinsky (1996) correctly points
out Augustus reign is particularly identifiable for the restoration of 83 temples and the
construction of twelve new temples in the capital alone.
11
Walsh correctly points out that all
these comparisons between Augustus and Numa, Romulus, Camillus etc. are flawed in the
sense that Livy openly scathes figures such as Camillus and has Romulus killed, are they bold
warnings to Augustus in the same sense that comparing Numas religious conventions with
Augustus religious revivals are seen as favourable comparisons.
12
Another way in which
these alleged comparisons are flawed is demonstrated by Machiavelli among others in his
Discourses. Machiavelli shows how Livy appears to strongly favour the Republic over the
Kingships of old.
13
So it would seem strange for Livy to compare Augustus with a form of
government he considers inferior to the early Republic. Though scholars also suggest that
Livy also puts aspects of Augustus in Scipio Africanus
14
, who was of course the Roman
general who finally succeeded in vanquishing Hannibal in the Second Punic War.
This less than one sided series of supposed comparisons for Augustus should be able to
remove any lingering suspicions that Livy was merely a mouthpiece for Augustus regime.
Despite that however a lot of Livys exempla have a moral and social outlook which would
appear to endorse Augustus social and religious policies. For example Augustus wanted to
promote marriage and reduce adultery.
15
The story of Verginia and her fathers fight to keep
her pudicitia strongly agrees with Augustus promotion of marriage and old religious moral
values. Other actions taken by Augustus such as the reconstruction and reopening of so

9
Karl Galinsky, Augustan Culture (New Jersey: Princeton University Press: 1996): 84
10
Livy, The Early History of Rome, 52
11
Karl Galinsky, Augustan Culture, 294
12
P.G. Walsh, Livy: His Historical Aims and Methods, 16
13
Nicollo Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co: 1883): 81
14
P.G. Walsh, Livy: His Historical Aims and Method, 16
15
Kitty Chisolm & John Ferguson, Rome: The Augustan Age (New York: Oxford University Press: 1981): 179-180
many temples is discreetly praised by Livy as his praise for Numa the king who opened many
of the temples is so clear for all to see. The largest piece of evidence against Livy being
heavily Augustan in his ideals is that he has what Walsh described as a pathological hatred
for Kingship.
16
And this in combination with Livys adoration of the Republican system and
the libertas it produced and it adds further doubt to the claim that Livy is even an Augustan
author at all.
The area where there can be little doubt as to whether Livy agrees with Augustus or not is
that of Romes moral standing. In his preface Livy makes it abundantly clear that he
disapproves of Romes current state. While Livy is not the first to point to a moral decline
in Rome, he explicitly refers to it a lot and offers his opinion on its cause. Other Roman
historians such as Sallust also wrote about the Roman moral decline and this was a popular
theme of thought in Rome at the end of the Republican era.
17
This is important as it shows
that these Augustan principles actually pre-dated Augustus and that it does not necessarily
mean that because Livy and Augustus shared the view that Rome was in a moral decline
that Livy was Augustus mouthpiece.
There are several other factors that we know of Livys life which may give us a clue as to
how influenced Livy was by Augustus and his social and moral policies. Firstly Tacitus tells us
that Livy and Augustus became friendly, and that furthermore Livy was chosen as a tutor for
the future emperor Claudius.
18
However not all accounts of Livys personal relationship with
Augustus are as affable, Tacitus also says that Augustus disapproved of Livys accounts of
the recent past and even labelled him a Pompeian.
19
This may have been in jest as if
Augustus did genuinely see Livy as a Pompeian then it is likely that Livy would have been
tried for treason and his works burnt. However whether it was in jest or not it seems to do
harm to the hypothesis of Livy being an Augustan author when Augustus himself certainly
didnt see Livys histories as being too favourable to him. It also appears that Livy himself
didnt think his histories regarding Augustus as being too sympathetic towards the Emperor;
this is because the summary of book 121 states that book 121 wasnt published until after
the death of Augustus, presumably for fear of reprisals if the book offended Augustus.
20

This essay has demonstrated that Livy rarely mentions Augustus outside of the books
concerning his principate and when he is referred to by Livy it is not for a glorious story but
usually as an aside to the main narrative of that book, as was the case with Numa and the
temple of Janus. I have also shown that while some of Livys social views happen to be the
same as those of Augustus there is no proof of influence on Augustus behalf. Instead as this
essay has shown Livy was more likely to be influenced by his conservative upbringing in
Padua or from other writers such as Sallust. And finally the fact that Livy didnt release the

16
P.G. Walsh, Livy: His Historical Aims and Methods, 272
17
P.G. Walsh, Livy: His Historical Aims and Methods, 10
18
Livy, The War with Hannibal (London: Penguin Books: 1972): 8
19
Livy , The Early History of Rome, 1
20
Livy , The Early History of Rome, 1
histories concerning Augustus directly show that Augustus cant have had much sway over
what Livy wrote, rather it shows that Livy was an independent historian who wrote down his
own views and some merely happened to correlate with the ideas and policies promoted
during Augustus reign.























Bibliography:
Carey, BT. Hannibals Last Battle: Zama & The Fall of Carthage (Great Britain: Pen & Sword Military:
2007)
Chisolm, K. & Ferguson, J. Rome: The Augustan Age (New York: Oxford University Press: 1981)
Galinsky, K. Augustan Culture (New Jersey: Princeton University Press: 1996)
Livy, The War with Hannibal (London: Penguin Books: 1972)
Livy , The Early History of Rome (England: Penguin Books: 2002)
Machiavelli, N. Discourses on Livy (London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co: 1883)
Walsh, PG. Livy: His Historical Aims and Methods (London: Cambridge University Press: 1963)