Livy, Periochae 56-60

Titus Livius or Livy (59 BCE - 17 CE): Roman historian, author of the authorized version of the history of the Roman republic.

A large part of Livy's History of Rome since the Foundation is now lost, but fortunately we have an excerpt, called the Periochae, which helps us reconstruct the general scope. This translation was made by Jona Lendering.

Chapter
56
57
58
59
60
Section
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

From Book 60

[60.1] [126] Consul Lucius Aurelius subdued rebellious Sardinians.


[60.2] [125] Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, sent out to help the Massiliots against Gallic Salluvians living on the Massilian frontier, was the first to subdue Ligurians beyond the Alps.


[60.3] Praetor Lucius Opimius accepted the surrender of the rebellious Fregellans and sacked Fregellae.


[60.4] There is a reference to a plague of locusts in Africa and the large numbers of killed insects.


[60.5] [124] The censors performed the lustrum ceremony. 


[60.6] 394,736 citizens were registered.


[60.7] [123] Tribune Gaius Gracchus, brother of Tiberius and a better orator, carried several dangerous laws, among which was one on the supply of grain, which was to be sold for six and one-third asses to the plebs; a land bill like that of his brother; and a third law, aimed at corrupting the equestrian order (which at that time was collaborating with the Senate), that six hundred knights should be added to the Senate. Because back then, there were only three hundred senators, and the six hundred knights and three hundred senators would be mixed, the equestrian order would have a majority of two to one in the Senate.


[60.8] After Gracchus had continued to a second tribuneship, he passed new land bills, which resulted in the founding of several colonies in Italy, and one in Carthage, of which he himself was one of the three founders. 


[60.9] Itnote also contains an account of the war of Quintus [Caecilius] Metellus against those Balearans whom the Greeks call Gymnesios, because they are naked in the summer.


[60.10] The Balearans received their name from their missiles, or else from Balius, a companion of Hercules who was left behind when he sailed to Geryon.


[60.11] A description is given of the situation in Syria, in which Cleopatra [Thea] first killed her husband Demetrius [II Nicator] and then her son Seleucus [V], because she hated him. After she had killed his father, he had accepted the diadem without her permission.