The History of Rome (Books from the Foundation of the City) is a monumental history of ancient Rome, written between 27 and 9 BC by the historian Titus Livius The work covers the period from the legends concerning the arrival of Aeneas and the refugees from the fall of Troy, to the city’s founding in 753, the expulsion of the Kings in 509, and down to Livy’s own time, during the reign of the emperor Augustus. Volume one comprises the first eight books, covering the legendary founding of Rome (including the landing of Aeneas in Italy and the founding of the city by Romulus), the period of the kings, the early republic down to its conquest by the Gauls in 390 BC, and the roman wars with the Aequi, Volsci, Etruscans, and Samnites.
About the author
Titus Livius (59 BC-AD 17) was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people – Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Books from the Foundation of the City) – covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional foundation in 753 BC through the reign of Augustus in Livy’s own lifetime. He was on familiar terms with members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, advising Augustus’s grandnephew, the future emperor Claudius, as a young man not long before 14 AD in a letter to take up the writing of history.