The Predecessors of Livy and Vergil

Abstract

Despite the different genres in which they wrote, Livy and Vergil shared a common perspective, which manifests itself in the authors’ use of prayers. It is an epic perspective, which is revealed in the frequency of prayers, as well as in the general religious framework employed by both writers. The numerous prayers in both works reflect a similar world view, which characterizes the religion of the Roman state as well as heroic epic. For both, the world is inhabited by two classes of beings, the mortal and the immortal. Since earthly events directly relate to the attitudes and behaviors of divine beings, prayer is a common form of speech in both the literary world of epic and the real world of Roman life. This shared world view, however, does not completely explain the similarities between Livy’s history and Vergil’s Aeneid. An examination of references by Livy to the epic genre and a comparison of his use of prayer to that of other authors, both historiographers and epic poets, suggests that he consciously used prayers to contribute to the epic tone of his history. A comparison of the influences which the epics of Homer and Ennius had on prayers in the two Augustan works will also show how different choices of epic models produced differences in the language and structure of prayers in the later works.