David Maneiro GNHU 282 07 E J Theodoracopoulos First Essay 10 11 17 The history of Rome is a very strange history that over time many people have wrote about Although there is nearly no way to know how exactly Rome came to be what it was historians such as Polybius and Livy took their time to write about the subject In the prefaces of each author we can already see similarities and differences between the two historian s work First things first the most obvious similarity between the two works is the subject matter both Polybius and Livy both discuss the history of Rome and how it came to be But other than that they are two very different pieces of writing For example a very subtle difference between the two historians is the time frame which their respective pieces have In Polybius work he states that he will be focusing more on the 53 years that it took Rome to conquer the known world while Livy is focusing on the general history of Rome from its humble beginning to its great accomplishments and great failures While Livy looks to praise the past of Rome by merely writing about it either more elegantly or in depth then those who wrote about it before him Polybius dares to question the history of Rome Polybius wants to know exactly how Rome became the single most dominate state known to man Polybius does not wish to repeat the words of those who wrote before him Polybius wants specifics while Livy s is happy with throwing his own reputation into the shade Livius 1 Polybius aims to inform the people and his own curiosity while Livy aims to please the people with the history of their own city Polybius effects on his readers is different than most other works about the history of Rome instead of going for what other author wrote about Polybius goes for the truth of the beginnings of Rome he wants to know exactly how Rome conquered the world in 53 years unlike Livy who aims to give people a remake on the same old history of Rome Polybius wants to prove or disprove the beginning of Rome Works Cited Livius Titus Book 1 Livy s History of Rome J M Dent Sons Ltd London 1905 n d Web