II. Rome in the Republican Period III. Forum and Capitol in the Republican Period V. Italy at the Beginning of the Second Punic War INTRODUCTION 1. The General Character of Roman History. The Romans of Livy's time had not developed the idea of minute scientific study, and their standard of historical accuracy was therefore different from our own. Moreover, the sources of information for the earlier periods were meager and inaccurate. Add to these fundamental disadvantages the fact that, simply to make his narrative interesting, a writer felt justified in passing lightly over an important incident or in magnifying the importance of a trivial one, and it is not surprising that we find very obvious inconsistencies and impossibilities. The statement of Quintilian (10, 1, 31), though written a century after Livy, indicates the general conception of historical writing: historia est proxima poetis et quodam modo carmen solutum, et scribitur ad narrandum, non ad probandum. 2. Sources for the History of the Early Period. - The writing of history at Rome began with the annales pontificum, called also annales maximi, a brief statement of important events, annually exhibited by the pontifex maximus, and preserved in his office, the Regia. Here were recorded the names of magistrates, the death of important men, decrees, campaigns, eclipses, prodigies, etc. The publication of these records began, according to Mommsen, in the first half of the fifth century B.C.- Another duty of the pontifices was the preparation of the annual calen ་ |