Was there any basis for an optimistic view of Rome in Livy and Ovid? Titus Livius was a Roman historian. Livy wrote down many thing about the history of Rome, but some of his writings do not exist today. We cannot believe some of these stories though. Much of these writings he does not know what happened so he writes down his imagination to fill in the blanks.  

Ovid’s full name was Publius Ovidius Naso. Ovid was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. Ovid wrote “a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people” which is called Ab Urbe Condita. Around 8 BC Augustus banished Ovid to the Black sea. About that same time Ovid started writing a book called Metamorphoses. This book is Ovid’s worldview on how creation happened. 

Both Livy’s and Ovid’s stories begin on their view of creation and then how they think Rome originated. Livy’s view on the creation of Rome starts when two children named Romulus and Remus were born. The king saw them as a threat and ordered them to be put in the river. the river god ,Tiberius, saved them and put them at the bank of where Rome would eventually be. There a she-wolf heard them crying and went to them and let them nurse of her. Eventually a shepherd found and adopted them. When they became adults they argued about who would build a great city and rule over it. Soon enough Romulus killed Remus, built the city, then named it Rome. 

In Ovid’s version mankind was so wicked that the god Jupiter sent a flood to destroy them all. there were two survivors, Deuclion and Pyrra. they repopulated the earth by tossing rocks over their shoulders which turned them into people. 

These two stories have some similarities, but they’re mostly different. They both begin with the corruption of mankind and end with building up hope for Rome. The basis of optimism for these two books is hope.