Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/805

Rh LIVIUS. explaiKition of some of the words and abbreTOHtions in the inscription, no doubt seems for a moment to have been entertained that it was a genuine me- morial of the historian. Accordingly, tiie Bene- dictine fathers of the monastery transported the tablet to the vestibule of their chapel, and caused a portrait of Livy to be painted beside it. In 1413, about fifty years after the discovery just described, in digging the foundations for the erection of new buildings in connection with the monastery, the workmen reached an ancient pavement com- posed of square bricks cemented with lime. This having been broken through, a leaden coffin became visible, which was found to contain human bones. An old monk declared that this was the very spot above which the tablet had been found, when im- mediately the cry rose that the remains of Livy had been brought to light, a report which filled the whole city with extravagant joy. The new-found treasure was deposited in the town hall, and to the ancient tablet a modern epitaph was affixed. At a subsequent period a costly monument was added as a further tribute to his memory. Here, it might have been supposed, these weary bones would at length have been permitted to rest in peace. But in 1451, Alphonso of Arragon preferred a request to the Paduans, that they would be pleased to bestow upon him the bone of Livy's right arm, in order that he might possess the limb by which the immortal narrative had been actually penned. This petition was at last complied with ; but just as the valuable relic reached Naples, Al- phonso died, and the Sicilian fell heir to the prize. Eventually it passed into the hands of Joannes Jo- vianus Pontanus, by whom it was enshrined with an appropriate legend. So far all was well. In the lapse of time, however, it was perceived, upon comparing the tablet dug up in the monastery of St. Justina, with others of a similar description, tltat the contractions had been erroneously ex- plained, and consequently the whole tenor of the words misunderstood. It was clearly proved that L. did not stand for Lucius but for libertus, and that the principal person named was Titus Livius Haly.% freedman of Livia, the fourth daugh- ter of a Titus Livius, that he had in accordance with the usual custom adopted the designation of his former master, that he had been a priest of Concord at Padua, an office which it appeared from other records had often been filled by persons in his station, and that he had set up this stone to mark the burying-ground of himself and his kindred. Now since the supposition that the skeleton in the leaden coffin was that of the historian rested solely upon the authority of the inscription, when this support was withdrawn, the whole fabric of con- jecture fell to the ground, and it became evident the relics were those of an obscure freedman. The great and only extant work of Livy is a History of Rome, termed by himself Amiales (xliii. l;5), extending from the foundation of the dty to the death of Drusus, u. c. 9, comprised in 142 books: of these thirty-five have descended to U3 ; but of the whole, with the exception of two, we possess summaries, which, although in them- selves dry and lifeless, are by no means destitute of value, since they afford a complete index or table of contents, and are occasionally our sole authorities for the transactions of particular periods. The Cduipilfr of these Epitomes^ as they are generally called, is unknown ; but they must have proceeded LIVIUS. 791 from one who was well acquainted with his sul)j'.>c% and were probably drawn up not long after the appearance of the volumes which they abridge. By some they have been ascribed to Liv}'- himself, by others to Floras ; but there is nothing in the Ian guage or context to warrant either of these con elusions ; and external evidence is altogether wanting. From the circumstance that a short introduction or preface is found at the beginning of books 1, 21, and 31, and that each of these marks the com- mencement of an important epoch, the whole work has been divided into decades, or groups, contain- ing ten books each, although there is no good, reason to believe that any such division was intro- duced until after the fifth or sixth century, for Priscian and Diomedes, who quote repeatedly from particular books, never allude to any such distribu- tion. The commencement of book xli. is lost, but there is certainly no remarkable crisis at this place which invalidates one part of the argument in favour of the antiquity of the arrangement. The first decade (bks. i — x.) is entire. It em- braces the period from the foundation of the city to the year b. c. 294, when the subjugation of the Samnites may be said to have been completed. The second decade (bks. xi — xx.) is altogether lost. It embraced the period from B. c. 294 to B.C. 219, comprising an account of the extension of the Roman dominion over the whole of Southern Italy and a portion of Gallia Cisalpina ; of the invasion of Pyrrhus ; of the first Punic war; of the expedition against the Illyrian pirates, and of other matters which fell out between the conclusion of the peace with Carthage and the siege of Saguntum. The third decade (bks. xxi — xxx.) is entire. It embraces the period from b. c. 219 to B.C. 201, comprehending the whole of the second Punic war, and the contemporaneous struggles in Spain and Greece. The fourth decade (bks. xxxi — xl.) is entire, and also one half of the fifth (bks. xli — xlv.). These fifteen books embrace the period from B.C. 201 to B. c. 167, and develope the progress of the Roman arms in Cisalpine Gaul, in Macedonia, Greece and Asia, ending with the triumph of Aemilius Paul- lus, in which Perseus and his three sons were ex- hibited as captives. Of the remaining books nothing remains except inconsiderable fragments, the most notable being a few chapters of the 91st book, concerning the fortunes of Sertorius. The whole of the above were not brought t» light at once. The earliest editions contain 29 books only, namely, i — x., xxi — xxxii., xxxiv — xl., the last breaking off abruptly in the middle of chapter 37, with the word edixeru7it. In 1518 the latter portion of bk. xxxiii., beginning in chapter 17th with artis /aucibus, together with what was wanting of bk. xl, were supplied from a MS. be- longing to the cathedral church of St. Martin at Mayence. In 1531 bks. xli. — xlv. were discovered by Grynaeus in the convent of Lorsch, near Worms, and were published forthwith at Basle by Frobe- nius ; and finally, in 1615, a MS. was found at Bamberg, which filled up the gap remaining in bk. xxxiii. ; and this appeared complete for the first time at Rome in 1616. The fragment of bk. xci. was copied from a palimpsest in the Vatican by Paulus Jacobus Bruns in 1772, and printed in the 3k 4