About the artist:

Titus Livius[a] (/ˈlɪviəs/; Classical Latin: [ˈti.tus ˈliː.wi.us]; 64 or 59 BC – AD 12 or 17) – simply rendered as Livy (/ˈlɪvi/) in English – was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people – Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Books from the Foundation of the City) – covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional foundation in 753 BC through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own lifetime. He was on familiar terms with members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and even in friendship with Augustus, whose young grandnephew, the future emperor Claudius, he exhorted to take up the writing of history.