Livy: Book 39, 187-183 B.C.

by Livy, P.G. Walsh (Translator), Malcolm M. Willcock (Editor)

Livy is a popular author in schools and universities in all areas of the English speaking world. The more popular books studied are those which recount the early history of Rome and the more noteworthy events of the Second Punic War; but there is a good case for examining the Romans' attitudes in the early years of their involvement in Greece and Asia, for these are crucial for an understanding of the development of Roman imperialism. The period covered by these five books, from the war against Antiochus the Great to the death of Philip V of Macedon, is of increasing interest to students of Hellenistic Greece and Roman imperialism, and should therefore increasingly interest university departments and Examination Boards seeking to break away from the conventional choices of the first and third decades. This is the only modern edition in English of these books.XXXIX (187183 BC) the interval between the war with Antiochus and the Third Macedonian War.
Livy devotes closer attention than previously to Roman expansion in northern Italy and to warfare in Spain, but the greater part of the book is concerned with domestic affairs, especially the celebrated episodes of the Bacchanalia and the censorship of Porcius Cato. The book also records in detail the deaths of Hannibal and Philopoemen.

204 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Titus Livius (Patavinus) (64 or 59 BC – AD 17)—known as Livy in English, and Tite-Live in French—was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people – Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Books from the Foundation of the City) – covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional foundation in 753 BC through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own time. He was on familiar terms with the Julio-Claudian dynasty, advising Augustus's grandnephew, the future emperor Claudius, as a young man not long before 14 AD in a letter to take up the writing of history. Livy and Augustus's wife, Livia, were from the same clan in different locations, although not related by blood.