Usos do passado em Tito Lívio: a construção de uma memória romana à época de Augusto (século I a.C.)

Abstract

We will discuss the role of the writing of History in Titus Livius (Livy) and how it defines and consolidates a Roman memory. We have to observe how the narrative structure leads to the understanding of a History conceived as “the master of life” (magistra vitae), that is, the use of the examples; to look at the past is to take from it the examples of behavior. In other words, the importance of studying History is not only in specific lessons, but also in the practice of how and what to look at in this past. In this sense, when he reuses an old historiography and apply it to his writings, Livy aims to develop a historiographic work that reaches his people’s dignity, an aspect that allows the definition of civic Roman behaviors, as well as a definition of a Roman latinity, linked to the troubles of his contemporary context at the time of Augustus, during centuries I B.C to I A.D. We will understand how Livy’s historical speech expresses the political demands of his time, from the relationship among discourse, rethorics, memory, power.