Livy X: History of Rome, Books 35-37

"The History of Rome" in Fourteen Volumes #35-37

by Livy

Livy (Titus Livius), the great Roman historian, was born at or near Patavium (Padua) in 64 or 59 BCE; he may have lived mostly in Rome but died at Patavium, in 12 or 17 CE. Livy's only extant work is part of his history of Rome from the foundation of the city to 9 BCE. Of its 142 books, we have just 35, and short summaries of all the rest except two. The whole work was, long after his death, divided into Decades or series of ten. Books 1–10 we have entire; books 11–20 are lost; books 21–45 are entire, except parts of 41 and 43–45. Of the rest only fragments and the summaries remain. In splendid style Livy, a man of wide sympathies and proud of Rome's past, presented an uncritical but clear and living narrative of the rise of Rome to greatness. The Loeb Classical Library edition of Livy is in fourteen volumes. The last volume includes a comprehensive index.

Genres: History, Roman, Classics, Nonfiction

512 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

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.

Reviews

[Darwin8u · Rating 5 out of 5]

"No dispositions are so prone to envy as those of men whose abilities do not correspond to their birth and fortune, because they hate excellence and good qualities in another."
- Livy, History of Rome, XXXV, xliii



Books 35-37 of Livy's History of Rome detail the war with Antiochus. Antiochus, provoked by the Tyrant Nabis, joins with the Aetolians while the Achaeans, King Philip, Rhodes and Pergamum remain faithful to Rome.

Book 35 sees Scipio Africanus sent as an embassy to Antiochus. At Ephesus he has a fantastic conversation with his former foe. When Scipio asked Hannibal who he considered the greatest generals, he first listed Alexander the Great; second, Pyrrhus; and third, himself. When Scipio, smiling, asked: "What would you say if you had defeated me?" Hannibal answered "I would have ranked myself ahead of Alexander, ahead of Pyrrhus and ahead of all other generals."

This book details the end of Nabis (at the hand of Philopeomen and the Aetolians) and the beginning of the Roman war against Antiochus.

Book 36 sees Acilius Glabrio, with the help of King Philip, defeat Antiochus at Thermopylae and they drive him from Greece. Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica receives a triumph after defeating the Gallic Boii.

Book 37 sees Lucius Conrelius Scipio with his brother Scipio Africanus as his lieutenant starts the war against Antiochus, and was the first of all Roman general to cross into Asia. Regillus fights a successful battle against Antiochus' fleet off Myonnesus with the help of Rhodes. Antiochus is captured by Lucius Cornelius Scipio and peace is granted as long as he withdraws to beyond the Taurus mountains. Lucius is given the surname "Asiaticus." Eumenes and Rhodes are givens spoils by Rome for their help against Antiochus.

Things I love about these books: Asia minor. I lived for a couple years in Turkey and love hearing about places like Zmyrna, Pergamum, Ephesus, Sardes and Halicarnassus because these are all places I am intimately familiar with (having crawled all over the ruins of Turkey as a kid). Things that still drive me nuts about this period: keeping all the Scipios, Hamilcars, Alexanders, and Philips separated in my head. I constantly have to remind myself that King Philip here is NOT Alexander's dad. Different era. No. This Cleopatra isn't the one who hooked up with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Different era. Also, the maps help, but I'm still not as familiar with Greek place names as I am with Roman place names, and I'm honestly not great at those either.

[Ian Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loeb are in the process of replacing their ageing editions of Livy’s History of Rome, and this volume was only published in 2018. It has a much fresher translation of Livy’s text than the previous edition. The text has also been amended based on continuing research into the various surviving manuscripts discovered in assorted monasteries and museums. Amazing to think that people can make their life’s work out of poring over dusty old manuscripts, trying to make sense of the errors and idiosyncrasies of long-forgotten scribes and monks.
This volume continues the previous volume’s focus on the wars in Greece and Asia Minor (modern Turkey) following the end of the Second Punic War. Livy shows how with so much infighting between the Greek cities and islands there was no chance that they could put up a united front against Roman interference. Or, for that matter, against the meddling of kings on the fringes like Philip in Macedon and Antiochus in Syria. In fact the Romans often present themselves as “liberators”, freeing the Greek world from the tyrants, oligarchs and petty kings who had overthrown whatever democracy the Greeks (well, the male citizens at any rate) had enjoyed in earlier centuries.
It's interesting that Hannibal is still lurking in the shadows. He is now military adviser to Antiochus, who initially distrusts him, till Hannibal convinces him that his hatred of Rome continues unabated. However, Hannibal’s advice does not deliver military victory for Antiochus, who ignores the great general’s advice to take the war to Italy, and the latter is soundly beaten and forced to sue for peace.
Another interesting theme is the competition between the Roman generals for military commands that will give them an opportunity to win a victory and claim a triumph. You can see how the practice of awarding triumphs leads to all sort of problematic behaviours from whipping up unnecessary conflict to encouraging wholesale slaughter and plunder to boost the number of slaves and the amount of loot that will be put on show at the triumph itself. An example of this is how Scipio Africanus’s brother manoeuvres to get himself command of operations against Antiochus, wins a fairly easy victory (compared to Africanus’s victory over Hannibal) and then claims the honorific “Asiaticus” to match his brother’s “Africanus”. And he gets a triumph of course.
Livy is also pretty good at covering elections, although he glosses over the fact that Roman democracy was very limited, with the voting system skewed in favour of the toffs. Towards the end of this volume he describes a bitterly fought election for the censors, who were only elected every five years and had the job of cleaning up the ruling class. The censors did not have the kind of command-and-control powers that the annually elected censors had, but in terms of removing political enemies from the senate etc. they obviously had a lot of clout.
It's worth noting that Livy was writing nearly two centuries after the events he is describing. With hindsight he has the smug satisfaction of knowing that many of the independent city states and kingdoms that he writes about were Roman provinces in his day. What stuck in his craw though was that the price the Romans had to pay for a successful empire was…..an emperor.
I would recommend this volume to anyone who has an interest in classical history. Despite the fact that the events it covers happened in the 190s BCE, it gives a lot of insight into where we are now. It doesn’t matter if you don’t read Latin, the translation will tell you all you need to know.

[Lukerik · Rating 3 out of 5]

At this point the division into pentads is very confused in this edition. In this volume you have the last book of one pentad and two from the next which is then spreAD OVER THE NEXT TWO VOLUMES. Sorry about that. I appear to have accidentally pressed the shift lock key. My advice would be to read Livy pentad by pentad as there’s real artistry in the way he ordered his material.

Anyway, in this volume there’s some very interesting stuff. The Romans win a battle at Thermopylae, the first time this has ever been done at that place. They also cross into Asia for the first time and defeat Antiochus in an entertainingly described battle.

I can’t review the pentad as a whole as I’ve not read further yet.