Infirmitas Romana and its Cure – Livy's History Therapy in the Ab urbe condita

In the ancient literary tradition the discourse concerning cultural decay is usually connected with periods of crisis and with the breakdown of collective identity. The idea of degenerative historical development was introduced into classical literature as early as in the seventh century BCE– it was first applied by the epic poet Hesiod, who utilized the concept to discuss the social changes that challenged the traditional lifestyle of the rural upper class. ¹ Six hundred years later, the moral decline of the people was a major theme in the work of the Roman historian Titus Livius. Livy, too, lived during a transitional period – in his case, between the Roman Republic and the Principate. ² By Livy’s lifetime the bloody civil war, the proscriptions, murders and the political chaos had led to deep disillusionment among Roman intellectuals. The Augustan authors found the future difficult to imagine and many of them turned their minds to the mythical past instead. Anxiety about the present and nostalgia for the past can be clearly observed in Livy’s history, as well as in the poetry of his coevals, Virgil and Horace. ³