The Livian historiographical tradition

Abstract

This dissertation examines the relationships of the Roman historians Florus, Granius Licinianus, and Lucius Ampelius to their second century CE or High Imperial historical and cultural contex and to their source and predecessor, the Roman historian Livy. Their cultural context includes the Greek Second Sophistic, and these historians form part of the Second Sophistic's Roman counterpart, the "Roman Sophistic." The relationship between these historians and Livy is conceived in terms of a Gadamerian "fusion of horizons" that interprets the past in terms of the present, where Livy's text becomes the equivalent of the past. Florus adopts several Livian strategies and invents a few of his own to achieve a fusion of horizons between the Roman Republic and the High Empire, and the fusion of horizons becomes even more difficult for the early Roman Republic. Adapting Livian themes, Granius rewrites Roman history to frustrate and invert the emperor Hadrian's attempts to link himself with the past for propagandistic purposes. Lucius Ampelius reads Livy in non-chronological, hypertextual ways to educate his student Macrinus, who briefly became emperor, and to extract material from Roman history useful for High Imperial orators and officials.