Livy and the Heroes of Early Rome

Livy and the Heroes of Early Rome
According to Roman historian Livy, the Roman Republic fell because of a degredation of moral character. “Capriccio with ruins of the Roman Forum,” circa 1634, by Claude Lorrain. Art Gallery of South Australia. Public Domain
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There’s a good deal of talk today, by people who imagine themselves to be serious thinkers, about doing away with the U.S. Constitution in favor of establishing a more “just” government. What would such a utopian polity look like? In the imaginations of radicals, it all sounds great, though history’s track record of human flourishing in cases where such sweeping overhauls have occurred is, to put it mildly, not great.

In an age when our commonwealth is crumbling, it’s instructive to take the example of another political institution that has long served as a model for American aspirations: Rome. The Roman Republic lasted for nearly 500 years because its institutions were profoundly conservative, even as its leaders took a pragmatic attitude that adapted ancient customs to the needs of the present. But how, more specifically, did Rome achieve such glorious heights, and why did it fall? For the great historian and super-patriot Livy, the answer was simple: moral character.

A (Very) Long History

Born in around 60 B.C. in modern-day Padua, Italy, Titus Livius, or Livy, lived through one of the most tumultuous periods in world history: Julius Caesar’s assassination, the civil wars of the late republic, and Rome’s transition to empire. Livy moved to the eternal city around the time that Octavius (Augustus) defeated Mark Antony. Unlike the poets Virgil and Horace, who championed the new autocracy, Livy was more pessimistic. He enjoyed the emperor’s patronage and the newfound political stability but felt that the current age was a degenerate one and began extolling, instead, the virtuous heroes of Rome’s republican past.
Andrew Benson Brown
Andrew Benson Brown
Author
Andrew Benson Brown is a Missouri-based poet, journalist, and writing coach. He is an editor at Bard Owl Publishing and Communications and the author of “Legends of Liberty,” an epic poem about the American Revolution. For more information, visit Apollogist.wordpress.com.
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