eives
me, or there never was any state either greater, or more moral, or
richer in good examples, nor one into which luxury and avarice made
their entrance so late, and where poverty and frugality were so much
and so long honoured; so that the less wealth there was, the less
desire was there. Of late, riches have introduced avarice and
excessive pleasures a longing for them, amid luxury and a passion for
ruining ourselves and destroying everything else. But let complaints,
which will not be agreeable even then, when perhaps they will be also
necessary, be kept aloof at least from the first stage of beginning so
great a work. We should rather, if it was usual with us (historians)
as it is with poets, begin with good omens, vows and prayers to the
gods and goddesses to vouchsafe good success to our efforts in so
arduous an undertaking.

[Footnote 1: The tone of dignified despondency which pervades this
remarkable preface tells us much. That the republican historian was
no timid or time-serving flatterer of prince or public is more than
clear, while his unerring judgment of the future should bring much of
respect for his judgment of the past. When he wrote, Rome was more
powerful than ever. Only the seeds of ruin were visible, yet he
already divines their full fruitage.--D. O.]

CONTENTS

BOOK I

THE PERIOD OF THE KINGS--B.C. 510

Arrival of AEneas in Italy--Ascanius founds Alba Longa--Birth of
Romulus and Remus--Founding the city--Rome under the kings--Death of
Lucretia--Expulsion of the Tarquins--First consuls elected

BOOK II

THE FIRST COMMONWEALTH--B.C. 509-468

Brutus establishes the republic--A conspiracy to receive the kings
into the city--Death of Brutus--Dedication of the Capitol--Battle of
Lake Regillus--Secession of the commons to the Sacred Mount--Five
tribunes of the people appointed--First proposal of an agrarian
law--Patriotism of the Fabian family--Contests of the plebeians and
patricians

BOOK III

THE DECEMVIRATE--B.C. 468-446

Disturbances over the agrarian law--Cincinnatus called from his fields
and made dictator--Number of tribunes increased to ten--Decemvirs
appointed--The ten tables--Tyranny of the decemvirs--Death of
Virginia--Re-establishment of the consular and tribunician power

LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY

BOOK I[1]

THE PERIOD OF THE KINGS

To begin with, it is generally admitted that, after the taking of
Troy, while all the other Trojans were treated with severity, i