“We can bear neither our vices nor their remedies.”
Preface to Ab Urbe Condita
Livy's Ab Urbe Condita ran to 142 books, of which about a quarter survive. It moves from the legendary founding through the kings and the Republic to the reign of Augustus.
He treats early legend openly as legend, noting that it is better suited to poetry than to history, yet preserves it because it explains Rome's character. His set pieces — Horatius, Lucretia, Hannibal — became permanent images of Roman virtue.
Legacy
His account fixed the traditional chronology and cast of early Roman history.