In Livy's defense, he doesn't seem to actually believe in these fairy tales, often packing them in constructs like "it is said" or offering two explanations for

In Livy's defense, he doesn't seem to actually believe in these fairy tales, often packing them in constructs like "it is said" or offering two explanations for things, one the more popular myth and one a more plausible explanation. Taking into account that Roman historians generally didn't care that much for facts, and that Livy wrote his Ab Urbe Condita because it was commissioned by Octavian (i.e. he was kinda obliged to make the history of Rome look good), he was actually a pretty decent historian. Doesn't mean I love Livy, though - reading his Latin is an inhumane torture (I hate Latin)