EUREKA - Roman army troops

[SigniferOne]

Livy bashing goes back to the introduction of the printing press. To my knowledge the first book published on the Roman army was by Lipsius (spelling) in 1510 AD. So Livy bashing is now close to its 500th year anniversary. One facet of academia that fascinates me is when an academic attacks another academic’s conjecture with his own conjecture. Here we have two academics who both cannot prove that they are right, telling the other they are wrong.

Sorry, not to belabor this for too long, but I'd beg to disagree. As late as the 18th century the scholarly community took the early kings for granted. Completely, without reservations. Basil Kennett might reference Servius Tullus here, Gibbon might invoke another king there. He also repeatedly makes references to Livy with unmixed admiration. In the 19th century, after 500 years, we see the ugly turn of events with Niebuhr: the first 5 books are mythological, and Livy is simply a liar. Mommsen then takes this and maximizes it to its maximum proportions. He writes that by his time "nobody" trusts Livy as an author and a historian.

Now that's very different from a Renaissance scholar who might nitpick a particular Livian point, yet study Latin feverishly, and enjoin on his children to know Latin by heart so that they'll be able to read Livy too. Montaigne was locked in a castle by his father until he was 7 years old, surrounded by Latin speaking servants and forbidden to know French until his adolescence, to be able to read Livy and Virgil fluently.