The Historian’s Silences: What Livy Did Not Know—Or Chose Not to Tell

Abstract

The fragments of Livy's annalistic predecessors may be meagre, but they allow us to detect variant traditions which he does not include. Polybios, Tacitus and the emperor Claudius also record such variants on early Roman history. The same is true of the antiquarians Varro, Cincius, Verrius Flaccus, Gellius and Festus. These variants are examined to suggest what Livy might have rejected and why.

Middle Republican Connectivities

“…65–66 Pittà with Wiseman 2016: cxix; note Smith 2021 on the conquest's significance for Fabius Pictor and Cato the Elder. Livy's silences and omissions, and what they suggest about the currency of alternative accounts, are the theme of Ridley 2013.…”

“… 136 The ‘revolution’ that elevated the pontifex maximus , previously fifth in the ordo sacerdotium if Festus 198 L. is to be trusted: Ridley 2013: 41, summarising previous discussions. Religious institutionalisation during the third century: Rüpke 2012: chs 2–3.…”