Livy

Livy was a Roman historian of the Augustan age. His monumental history traced Rome from legendary foundation to his own period, presenting episodes of war, civic virtue, political conflict and moral decline.

Livy devoted much of his life to the monumental history Ab Urbe Condita, which narrated Rome from its legendary foundation to his own Augustan age. The complete work comprised 142 books, of which only thirty-five survive intact. His history combines political and military narrative with moral exempla, presenting Roman success and decline through the character and choices of individuals and communities.

In Livy’s History of Rome, this volume contains Livy’s account of Rome’s earliest history in Books 1–5 of Ab Urbe Condita. In Livy’s The Rise of Rome, Livy’s early Roman history begins with foundation legend and follows Rome through the kings, the early Republic, conflict with neighbouring Italian peoples and the moral examples through which Augustan Rome imagined its past. In Livy’s Hannibal’s War, this volume contains Books 21–30 of Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita, his surviving continuous account of the Second Punic War.