history is an indivisible whole, and that humanity marches according to
fixed law towards a determinate end. The world is in their eyes a stage on
which is played for ever the same drama of life and death, whose fate
moves in a circle bounded by the catastrophes of cities mortal as their
inhabitants, without man's becoming by progress of time either better or
more powerful. In estimating, then, the value of Livy's work, we must ask,
How far did he possess the qualifications necessary for success? We turn
to his preface and find there the moralist, the patriot, and the stylist;
and we infer that his fullest idea of history is of a book in which he who
runs can read the lesson of virtue; and, if he be a lawgiver, can model
his legislation upon its high precedents, and, if he be a citizen, can
follow its salutary precepts of conduct. An idea, which, however noble, is
certainly not exhaustive. It may entitle its possessor to be called a
lofty writer, but not a great historian. This is his radical defect. He
treats history too little as a record, too little as a science, too much
as a series of texts for edification.
How far is he faithful to his authorities? In truth, he never deserts
them, never (or almost never) advances an assertion without them. [19] His
fidelity may be inferred from the fact that when he follows Polybius
alone, he adds absolutely nothing, he merely throws life into his
predecessor's dead periods. Moreover, he writes, after the method of the
old annalists, of events year by year; he rarely conjectures their causes
or traces their connexion, he is willing to efface himself in the capacity
of exponent of what is handed down. Whole passages we cannot doubt,
especially in the early books, are inserted from Fabius and the other
ancients, only just enough changed to make them polished instead of rude;
and it is astonishing how slight the changes need be when the hand that
makes them is a skilful one. So far as we can judge he never alters the
testimony of a witness, or colours it by interested presentation. His
chief authorities for the early history are Licinius Macer, Claudius
Quadrigarius, Gn. Gellius, [20] Sempronius Tuditanus, Aelius Tubero,
Cassius Hemina, Calpurnius Piso, Valerius Antias, Acilius Glabrio, [21]
Porcius Cato, Cincius, and Pictor. [22] These writers, or at least the
most ancient of them, Cato and Pictor, founded their investigations on
such, records as treaties, public documents--_e.g._ the annals, censors'
and pontiffs' commentaries, augural books, books relating to civil
procedure kept by the pontiffs, &c.; [23] laws, lists of magistrates, [24]
_Libri Lintei_ kept in the temple of Juno Moneta; all under the
reservation noticed before, that the majority perished in the Gallic
conflagration. [25] These Professor Seeley classes as _pure_ sources. The
rest, which he calls _corrupt_, are the funeral orations, inscriptions in
private houses placed under the _Imagines_, [26] poems of various kinds,
both _gentile_ and popular, in all of which, there was more or less of
intentional misrepresentation. For the history after the first decade new
authorities appear. The chief are Polybius, Silenus the Sicilian a friend
of Hannibal, Caelius Antipater, Sisenna, Caecilius, Rutilius, and the
Fasti, which are now almost or quite continuous; and still further on he
followed Posidonius, and perhaps for the Civil Wars Asinius Pollio,
Theophanes, and others. There is evidence that these were carefully
digested, but by instalments. For instance, he did not read Polybius until
he came to write the Punic wars. Hence he missed several antiquarian
notices (_e.g._ the treaty with Carthage) which would have helped him in
the first decade. Still he uses the authors he quotes with moderation and
fidelity. When the _Fasti_ omit or confuse the names of the consuls, he
tells us so; [27] when authorities differ as to whether the victory lay
with the Romans or Samnites, [28] he notes the fact. In the early history
he is reticent, where Dionysius is minute; he is content with the broad
legendary outline, where Dionysius constructs a whole edifice of probable