Liberty in Livy

Titus Livius (59 BC - AD 17), perhaps most famous for his history of Rome is a must-read for the student of ancient history. His treatment of the stories of the kings of Rome and the beginning of the republic is really entertaining reading. I teach it every year to Antiquity students.
At the beginning of book two, he has a short discourse on the nature of liberty that is invaluable to the modern mind. Livy exclaims that the preceding 244 years of Roman history (years spent under kings) were necessary to prepare men for liberty. Liberty, the essential freeness of men, is not to be understood as something that can granted by anyone, it must be earned. Livy understands that had the Romans achieved the liberty of self-government earlier, it would have been disastrous. Men need to learn how to be free before they can be free.
The root of liberty in the state, is liberty in the individual. However, the examples that Livy uses to showcase that prove that he understands liberty in the individual to refer to self-discipline rather than political freedom. A self-controlled man is a man in possession of liberty. Only a man who knows how to control himself is able to choose the right thing and avoid the wrong thing. Only such a man is truly free and at liberty.
Our nation was founded by self-disciplined men of great character. If we want to know what is wrong with our country today, we need only look at the level of self control in our elected officials. If our nation's leaders cannot control themselves, and do not place a high premium on such a virtue (by example), how can we expect the people to cultivate this virtue in themselves.? It does not appear to be the way to get ahead.
Livy understood better. May we cultivate self-discipline and liberty in our own lives that we may take back the culture that has ignored this basic Christian virtue for far too long.