Livy : Reconstructing Early Rome / Gary B. Miles.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Miles, Gary B., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Livy. Ab urbe condita.

Livy.

Historiography--Rome.

Historiography.

Rome--History.

Rome.

Rome--Historiography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource ([32] p. :) col. ill. ;

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Some critics of the Roman historian Livy (59 B.C.-A.D. 17) have dismissed his work as a compendium of stale narratives and conventional attitudes. Gary B. Miles reveals in Livy's history a creative interplay between traditional stories, contemporary ideological assumptions, and the historian's own perspective at the margins of Roman aristocracy. Drawing on a range of critical approaches, Miles considers Livy's stance as a historian, the ways in which he reworked his sources, and his interpretation of such historical phenomena as recurrence, continuity, and change. Miles focuses on the foundation stories with which Livy begins his account, detecting in Livy's rendition certain original conceptions of historical time including the suggestion that Roman identity and greatness might be preserved indefinitely through successive reenactments of a historical cycle. Miles pays particular attention to two stories-those of the abduction of the Sabine women and of Romulus and Remus, showing how Livy's versions of these traditional narratives-far from leading to a simplistic moral-address unresolved political issues of his day. According to Miles, Livy shows an unusually tenacious willingness to confront dilemmas in historiography and Roman ideology which were commonly ignored or suppressed by both his predecessors and his contemporaries.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

1. History and Memory in Livy's Narrative

2. The Cycle of Roman History in Livy's First Pentad

3. Maiores, Conditores, and Livy's Perspective on the Past

4. Foundation and Ideology in Livy's Narrative ofRomulus and Remus

5. The First Roman Marriage and the Theft of the Sabine Women

Conclusion

Works Cited

Index of Ancient Passages Cited

General Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Nov 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781501724619

1501724614

OCLC:

1132226628