Hannibal’s War

This volume contains Books 21–30 of Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita, his surviving continuous account of the Second Punic War. The narrative follows Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps, the disasters suffered by Rome in Italy, the battle of Cannae, Roman recovery under commanders such as Fabius and Scipio, and the final defeat of Carthage at Zama. Livy treats the war as a test of Roman endurance, discipline and political cohesion under extreme pressure.

Livy writes long after the conflict and shapes the narrative around Roman values as well as events. Defeats become tests of civic endurance, while commanders are praised or criticised according to discipline, courage and loyalty to the state. The work is therefore both a major historical source and an example of how Augustan Rome remembered the war that established its dominance in the western Mediterranean.