What Was The Difference Between Herodotus And Livy

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Herodotus and Livy are arguably the earliest true historians in that they recorded occurrences with the goal accurately remembering them for educational purposes, rather than of entertaining the people. Although they do appear to attempt to provide an accurate account of the events of the time, there are some sections of the book where a clear bias is portrayed. Even though both Herodotus and Livy impart some of their personal opinion into their histories, they do so in different ways which ultimately leads to a divergence in their styles of writing.
Although there are times in Herodotus’ The Histories where he makes an assertion, based on his own opinion, and blatantly chooses a side to support, he claims that he will not. This is shown in …show more content…

The main difference in these two is that Livy is much more insidious in his bias. He is not overt like Herodotus, but rather much more subtle. A prime example of Livy’s shrewd bias lies in his portrayal of Camillus. Livy shows Camillus as an adept military leader as well as a religious figure who led to the revival of religion in Rome. Livy says, through Camillus, that there is no wonder “the country has gone raving mad,” and then goes on to say that “you [the Romans] think of anything rather than of your duty to make your peace with God,” (Livy, 5.24). The religious revival the Camillus instigates in Livy’s stories raises Camillus and depicts him as a morally good leader. Camillus also leads the Romans against Veii, succeeding and vanquishing them. So, Livy portrays Camillus as a great leader, powerful both religiously and militarily. It is no coincidence that Livy’s contemporary Gaius Octavius, the founder of the Roman principate and first true Roman emperor, also caused a religious revival and was very successful militarily. The similarities between Livy’s Camillus and the real Gaius Octavius, whose favor would certainly benefit Livy, are too great to be ignored. Although Livy does not display this comparison in a straightforward manner, it is still present in his

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