Livio e la storia universale

The Roman conception of history, extending from Cato down to the Augustan age and Livy, rejects the Hellenic idea of 'universal history', and embraces an alternative declination based on the postulate that the Romans were a 'chosen people', whose universal rule gathered the whole humankind and had to be willingly accepted. Rome's special place in world history derives from the gods and historians writing on Rome have to confirm that history is guided by a meta-historical will.