Space, Narrative, and Historical Imagination in Livy's AB Urbe Condita - (Historiography of Rome and Its Empire) by Virginia Fabrizi (Hardcover)

About the Book

Using a narratological approach, this book analyses how Livy's Ab Urbe Condita constructs the settings of the historical events it narrates and aims to shed light on Livy's interpretation of politics, empire, conquest, and Roman identity.

Book Synopsis

The surviving books of Livy's Ab Urbe Condita (written ca. 30 - 15 BCE), narrate the origins of Rome, the gradual growth of the city, and its rise to Mediterranean hegemony. This monograph reads Livy's work as, among other things, a narrative about space - the space of the city and the space of the world which Rome strives to conquer and control. Using a narratological approach, it analyses how the text constructs the settings of historical events through an interplay of historical information, literary or conventional elements, and spatial semantics. In this way, it sheds light on Livy's interpretation of politics, empire, conquest, and Roman identity.