Livy (59 BC-17 AD), or Titus Livius, was a Roman historian who lived in the period when Augustus was building the Roman Empire out of the ruins of the republican system. In a life of quiet study Livy became the leading historian of his day.

Livy was born in Patavium (Padua), in his day one of the largest and most prosperous cities in Italy. St. Jerome gives 59 B.C. as the date of Livy's birth, but it is probable that he was mistaken and that Livy was born in 64 B.C. In Patavium he received an education similar to that given to any wealthy young Roman except that he did not have the usual culminating period of study in a Greek city. He may have started adult life as a teacher of rhetoric in his native town, and there is some evidence that he also wrote works on philosophy...