Livy: Book XXXIX

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 (187-183 BC) covers 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.