Livy: Book XL

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.XL (182179 BC) focusses on the renewed threat to Rome from Macedon: the rivalry between Philip’s two sons, Perseus and Demetrius culminating in the murder of Demetrius, and Philip’s physical decline following this, offer the historian stirring themes. The campaigns in Spain and in northern Italy in which Fulvius Flaccus and Sempronius Gracchus in Spain, and Aemilius Paulus in Liguria, are prominent. The domestic controversies include the election to the censorship of sworn enemies, Aemilius Lepidus and Fulvius Nobilior, and the popular agitation which compelled them to work in harmony together.