Ab Urbe Condita (book) - Livy's Publication

Livy's Publication

The first five books were published between 27 and 25 BCE. The first date mentioned is the year Augustus received that title: twice in the first five books Livy uses it. For the second date, Livy lists the closings of the temple of Janus but omits the closing of 25 BCE (it had not happened yet).

Livy continued to work on the History for much of the rest of his life, publishing new material by popular demand. This necessity explains why the work falls naturally into 12 packets, mainly groups of 10 books, or decades, sometimes of 5 books (pentads) and the rest without any packet order. The scheme of dividing it entirely into decades is a later innovation of copyists.

The second pentade did not come out until 9 BCE or after, some 16 years after the first pentade. In Book IX Livy states that the Cimminian Forest was more impassible than the German had been recently, referring to the Hercynian Forest (Black Forest) first opened by Drusus and Ahenobarbus. One can only presume that in the interval Livy's first pentade had been such a success that he had to yield to the demand for more.