Roman History: 2020

Reflections on “The Dark Side of Glory”

Reflections on “The Dark Side of Glory”

By Raven Kamali

Ten years ago, I embarked on a journey to write a historical novel that was relevant to our times. But the journey was difficult. I am passionate about ancient history and I wanted to inject as much history as possible into the storyline. However, I was aware that not everyone shared my passion. My aim was not to produce a novel that would only appeal to those who love history. I wanted the book’s appeal be all-inclusive. To accomplish such a goal, both the history and the story had to be gripping, which meant that the history had to be seen through the eyes of compelling characters with compelling lives. Heroes and villains had to come alive and take the reader into their world.

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The story begins in 7BC Judea with Joshua and his family: his two daughters (seven-year-old Abigail and fourteen-year-old Ruth), his wife, Deborah, and his brother, Tobias. Joshua and Tobias are juxtaposed as Ruth and Abigail are. Joshua is certain that he knows the mind of God. Tobias isn’t sure if God even exists. Joshua is ready to sacrifice his family for his faith. Tobias is ready to sacrifice himself for them. The question of faith plays an important part in the story and gives it a spiritual dimension. Joshua tries to reach for the hand of God; Tobias for the meaning of life. Ruth’s life is shaped by Joshua’s beliefs; Abigail’s by Tobias’s.

Abigail and Ruth are the protagonist and the antagonist respectively. Abigail’s strength is nourished by love; Ruth’s by hatred. It is love that enables Abigail to survive her darkest moments. Ruth’s hatred offers her no protection. For all her sins against innocent people, Ruth ultimately faces cosmic or divine retribution.

Raven Kamali

Authors website

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It was important for Abigail to never sully her hands with Ruth’s blood. She must remain pure and innocent to the end. In the movie Ben-Hur (1959), Judah does not kill Messala despite all the evil the latter had inflicted on the former. It is divine/cosmic justice that crushes Messala. Heroes that prevail without engaging in the cruel actions of their adversaries, and yet either nature or providence ensures that the world is still just, is a theme that I find appealing.

The end of the story is one of resurrection and renewal. A new family emerges and a young man finally completes the spiritual journey that started with Joshua by touching the hand of God.

Raven Kamali Writes Roman Historical Fiction & Launches Her New Book. Read at

http://romanancienthistory.blogspot.com/2020/11/raven-kamali-writes-roman-historical.html

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R. David Simpson Writes Roman Fictional Novels

Roman History Blog - Featured Author

R. David Simpson Writes Roman Fictional Novels

I was born in Cambridge England and took a deep interest in history as a teenager and even more so as I grew older. I started my film career in the 1980’s and script writing ten years ago. I now turn my scripts into novelettes.

Author R. David Simpson

Authors facebook page

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My first script and book were called’ CLEOPATRA, QUEEN OF EXILE’. I decided to write this story after talking to my daughter about Rome and Alexandria. I chose a particular part of her story that is seldom thought about. When she was twenty, she was forced to flee Alexandria for Syria, as her brother-husband was trying to kill her off. She came back to Alexandria, 15 months later with an Arab army. The rest of the story is ‘history’ as we have learned from Shakespeare and Hollywood!

Book 1: Cleopatra, Queen of Exile

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CLEOPATRA, QUEEN OF EXILE. Cleopatra is an Infinitely vain, highly intelligent, cunning, a gambler, seductive, queen but over underestimates her brother. When it looks like she’ll soon lose her head, she gets her servants to spirit her out of her palace at night – hidden in a rolled-up rug. and loses her crown to her husband-brother, Ptolemy.Once safely on the road in the desert with a small contingent of loyal servants, she struggles to raise an army to retake her throne. Cleopatra is unused to desert life and is forced to put up with hardships and indignities her privileged upbringing has ill prepared her for. On top of that, she’s forced to stoop to dealing with the lowly desert King Azar in order to find an army for her cause. Well before Cleopatra flees, Greek Oligarchy's wives, who pull the strings from behind the scenes in Rome, manipulate a Roman General, Julius Caesar, to invade Europe for their own profit and his. Caesar then takes matters into his own hands and seeks to use his new wealth to manipulate Cleopatra for his own interests posing as Cleopatra 's benefactor so that he can gain Egypt and Rome at one time. Cleopatra has her own ideas about who is going to manipulate who. After 16 months on the run and just when she succeeds in raising an army, Cleopatra learns that the Romans, led by Julius Caesar, have intervened in Egypt. Carried in the rolled-up rug, Cleopatra returns to throw herself at Caesar’s mercy.

The second book ‘THE WALL’ – takes place in 410 AD and is about two teenagers and their families who, with other families and soldiers are ordered to leave ‘Hadrian’s Wall’ in England and march back to Rome. The story records their trials and tribulations as they move from England to Gaul to Italy and face the dangers of tribes that realize that something is drastically wrong, as the occupiers leave Western Europe, never to return.

Book 2: The wall

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It's the year 410 AD. The Roman Army commander in ENGLAND, wakes up and finds orders to evacuate all troops and families,immediately.Two Roman teenagers of different class, cross paths and work together to survive the march home.

I look forward to making these books into films in the UK and Europe.

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The Wall
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Cleopatra Queen of Exile

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THANK YOU!

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A Military Life of Constantine the Great

A Military Life of Constantine the Great

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Much of Constantine I's claim to lasting fame rests upon his sponsorship of Christianity, and many works have been published assessing whether his apparent conversion was a real religious experience or a cynical political manoeuvre. However his path to sole rule of the Roman Empire depended more upon the ruthless application of military might than upon his espousal of Christianity. He fought numerous campaigns, many of them against Roman rivals for Imperial power, most famously defeating Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. In this new study, Ian Hughes assesses whether Constantine would have deserved the title 'the Great' for his military achievements alone, or whether the epithet depends upon the gratitude of Christian historians. All of Constantine's campaigns are narrated and his strategic and tactical decisions analysed. The organization, strengths and weaknesses of the Roman army he inherited are described and the effect of both his and his predecessors' reforms discussed. The result is a fresh analysis of this pivotal figure in European history from a military perspective.

Romulus: The Legend of Rome's Founding Father

Book Review by the Roman History Blog

Romulus: The Legend of Rome's Founding Father

by Marc Hyden

This book charters the rise of Romulus from his beginnings. He was the son of the god Mars, according to legend and a member of the Alba Longa's royal household. Romulus was left for dead on the bank of the River Tiber but the gods had other plans for him. The river carried him away but he managed to scramble back to the side where he was suckled by a she-wolf. Romulus founded Rome after he murdered his brother Remus.

This book explains the Trojan War and how Rome was born out of the fallout of this war. It tells the life story of Romulus and Remus, how they grew up and left Alba Longa to form their own colony. It explains who killed Remus and the outcome. Romulus may not of killed Remus directly! The book explains what Romulus did after the death of Remus. He had to deal with an epidemic and consulted an oracle to learn how to bring-round the angry gods and to stop this plague. An epidemic - sounds familiar!

The book details Romulus's building of Rome with two possible dates and its location. It also discusses King Romulus's running of Rome, how it dealt with its neighbours especially the Sabines and Caeninenses. Tatius was the king of the Sabines and joint-ruler of Rome with Romulus for several years before his death and this is well covered. The author also describes how women were treated in this period and that Romulus made a few concessions but also introduced new laws on marriage and morality.

Romulus died in his mid 50's but why didn't his son rise to the position of King? The author Marc Hyden explains why in detail giving the reader an important insight into possible reasons why!

This is a splendid book and very informative. The author, Marc Hyden has done his research and presented different narratives to recreate this interesting time period of which we see the first legendary King of Rome elevated to power, which the Romans believed in. If you are passionate about the Romans and classics then this book is a must have edition for your library! Its really is an inspiring read!

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According to legend, Romulus was born to a Vestal Virgin and left for dead as an infant near the Tiber River. His life nearly ended as quickly as it began, but fate had other plans. A humble shepherd rescued the child and helped raise him into manhood. As Romulus grew older, he fearlessly engaged in a series of perilous adventures that ultimately culminated in Rome's founding, and he became its fabled first king. Establishing a new city had its price, and Romulus was forced to defend the nascent community. As he tirelessly safeguarded Rome, Romulus proved that he was a competent leader and talented general. Yet, he also harboured a dark side, which reared its head in many ways and tainted his legacy, but despite all of his misdeeds, redemption and subsequent triumphs were usually within his grasp. Indeed, he is an example of how greatness is sometimes born of disgrace. Regardless of his foreboding flaws, Rome allegedly existed because of him and became massively successful. As the centuries passed, the Romans never forgot their celebrated founder. This is the story that many ancient Romans believed.

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Rome Is Burning: Nero and the Fire That Ended a Dynasty

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Rome Is Burning: Nero and the Fire That Ended a Dynasty

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Drawing on new archaeological evidence, an authoritative history of Rome's Great Fire-and how it inflicted lasting harm on the Roman Empire According to legend, the Roman emperor Nero set fire to his majestic imperial capital on the night of July 19, AD 64 and fiddled while the city burned. It's a story that has been told for more than two millennia-and it's likely that almost none of it is true. In Rome Is Burning, distinguished Roman historian Anthony Barrett sets the record straight, providing a comprehensive and authoritative account of the Great Fire of Rome, its immediate aftermath, and its damaging longterm consequences for the Roman world. Drawing on remarkable new archaeological discoveries and sifting through all the literary evidence, he tells what is known about what actually happened-and argues that the disaster was a turning point in Roman history, one that ultimately led to the fall of Nero and the end of the dynasty that began with Julius Caesar. Rome Is Burning tells how the fire destroyed much of the city and threw the population into panic. It describes how it also destroyed Nero's golden image and provoked a financial crisis and currency devaluation that made a permanent impact on the Roman economy. Most importantly, the book surveys, and includes many photographs of, recent archaeological evidence that shows visible traces of the fire's destruction. Finally, the book describes the fire's continuing afterlife in literature, opera, ballet, and film. A richly detailed and scrupulously factual narrative of an event that has always been shrouded in myth, Rome Is Burning promises to become the standard account of the Great Fire of Rome for our time.

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Marcus Tullius Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero was born on the 3^rd of January 106 BC at Arpinum in central Italy into a wealthy family of the equestrian order. He was educated in Rome where he studied law and also studied rhetoricians and philosophers in Greece. Cicero became a scholar, lawyer and statesman in the Roman republic, later becoming a consul and the Governor of Cilicia (southern (Mediterranean) coast of Turkey). He is known as one of Rome's greatest orators. Cicero joined the army briefly before embarking on his law career. He would take on risky cases and would win them and this made him quite famous!

Cicero Selected Works
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Lawyer, philosopher, statesman and defender of Rome's Republic, Cicero was a master of eloquence, and his pure literary and oratorical style and strict sense of morality have been a powerful influence on European literature and thought for over two thousand years in matters of politics, philosophy, and faith. This selection demonstrates the diversity of his writings, and includes letters to friends and statesmen on Roman life and politics; the vitriolic Second Philippic Against Antony; and his two most famous philosophical treatises, On Duties and On Old Age - a celebration of his own declining years. Written at a time of brutal political and social change, Cicero's lucid ethical writings formed the foundation of the Western liberal tradition in political and moral thought that continues to this day.

Cicero believed strongly in the Roman Republic and when he was made consul in 63BC he tried to stop the Republic being overthrown. He accused Lucius Sergius Catilina (Catiline) of leading a plot to overthrow the Roman Senate. The Catiline or Catilinarian Orations are a set of speeches given to the Roman Senate. The senate bestowed the tittle Pater Patriae, meaning "Father of the Country" onto Cicero.

Cicero Denounces Catiline, fresco by Cesare Maccari, 1882–88

Picture Wikipedia

Caesar was an ambitious politician and was part of a powerful alliance known as the First Triumvirate which included Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus. Caesar had asked Cicero to join this but Cicero refused making himself an enemy of Caesar. Cicero was frightened of Caesar's ambition for power. Caesar had Cicero exiled from Rome in 56BC but he returned a year later.

During the civil war of Caesar and Pompey, Cicero fled Rome again. Caesar had taken control of the city and had become dictator of Rome. Cicero was pardoned by Caesar and he was allowed back to Rome. In 44BC when Caesar was assassinated, Cicero was not disappointed and he lead the Senate to try and re-establish the Roman Republic.

The Republic and The Laws

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Cicero's The Republic is an impassioned plea for responsible governement written just before the civil war that ended the Roman Republic in a dialogue following Plato. Drawing on Greek political theory, the work embodies the mature reflections of a Roman ex-consul on the nature of political organization, on justice in society, and on the qualities needed in a statesman. Its sequel, The Laws, expounds the influential doctrine of Natural Law, which applies to all mankind, and sets out an ideal code for a reformed Roman Republic, already half in the realm of utopia.

Cicero was a staunch opponent of Mark Antony. Antony was one of the leading men wanting to fill the power vacuum after Caesar's death. Antony, Octavian and Lepidus, formed the second Triumvirate and took control of Rome and they sought out their enemies. They declared Cicero a public enemy and killed him in 43BC and his final words were "there is nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier, but do try to kill me properly." Cicero's head and hands were cut off and nailed to the Rostra of the Forum Romanum.

The writings of Cicero would have influenced many writers for generations to come and Historians would have learned a lot about the Roman government at this time even if his politics were not always popular. He wrote many works relating to philosophy, such as On the Republic, On Invention, and On the Orator. His son Marcus became a consul in 30 BC.

Treatises on Friendship and Old Age

Ancient Stoic Principles

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Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer and Academic Skeptic philosopher who played an important role in the politics of the late Republic and vainly tried to uphold republican principles during the political crises that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire. His extensive writings include treatises on rhetoric, philosophy and politics, and he is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists. This is his reflection of experience and wisdom on friendship and old age.

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Cicero: Politics and Persuasion in Ancient Rome

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As the greatest Roman orator of his time, Cicero delivered over one hundred speeches in the law courts, in the senate and before the people of Rome. He was also a philosopher, a patriot and a private man. While his published speeches preserve scandalous accounts of the murder, corruption and violence that plagued Rome in the first century BC, his surviving letters give an exceptional glimpse into Cicero's own personality and his reactions to events as they unravelled around him events, he thought, which threatened to destabilize the system of government he loved and establish a tyranny over Rome. From his rise to power as a self-made man, Cicero's career took him through the years of Sulla, and the civil war between Pompey and Caesar, to his own last fight against Mark Antony. Drawing chiefly on Cicero s speeches and letters, as well as the most recent scholarship, Kathryn Tempest presents a new, highly readable narrative of Cicero's life and times from his rise to prominence until his brutal death. Including helpful features such as detailed chronological tables, a glossary, a guide to Greek and Roman authors and maps, the volume balances background and contextual information with analysis and explanation of Cicero's works. Organized chronologically and according to some of his most famous speeches, Cicero will appeal to anyone with an interest in Roman history, oratory and politics in the ancient world. This accessible yet comprehensive guide provides a thorough introduction to this key ancient figure, his works and influence, and the troubled political times in which he operated.

Gladius: Living, Fighting and Dying in the Roman Army

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Gladius: Living, Fighting and Dying in the Roman Army

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The Roman army was the greatest fighting machine the ancient world produced. The Roman Empire depended on soldiers not just to win its wars, defend its frontiers and control the seas but also to act as the engine of the state. Roman legionaries and auxiliaries came from across the Roman world and beyond. They served as tax collectors, policemen, surveyors, civil engineers and, if they survived, in retirement as civic worthies, craftsmen and politicians. Some even rose to become emperors.

Gladius takes the reader right into the heart of what it meant to be a part of the Roman army through the words of Roman historians, and those of the men themselves through their religious dedications, tombstones, and even private letters and graffiti. Guy de la Bédoyère throws open a window on how the men, their wives and their children lived, from bleak frontier garrisons to guarding the emperor in Rome, enjoying a ringside seat to history fighting the emperors' wars, mutinying over pay, marching in triumphs, throwing their weight around in city streets, and enjoying esteem in honorable retirement.

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The Roman Poet 'Virgil'

The Roman Poet 'Virgil'

Publius Vergilius Maro better known to us as Virgil was born on the 15^th of October 70 BC at Andes in Northern Italy. He later died at Brundisium in Southern Italy on the 21^st of September 19 AD. Virgil was born to a lower class family, raised on a farm and was educated at Cremona (Milan) and then finished at Rome. He learnt the art of rhetoric and studied philosophy. His education included Greek and Roman authors, especially the poets. Siro the Epicurean philosopher also taught Virgil at his school in Naples. Virgil mentions Siro in the poem “Appendix Vergiliana” Virgil never married and lived almost like a recluse concentrating on his poems.

Mosaic of Virgil

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This Mosaic of Virgil can be found on the site of the ancient Hadrumetum and currently preserved in Bardo National Museum in Tunis, where it constitutes one of its key pieces. It is currently the oldest portrait of the Latin poet Virgil

Virgil witnessed the end of the Roman Republic, lived through the civil wars of Marius and Sulla, Pompey and Julius Caesar, When Virgil was at the age of 20, Caesar crossed the River Rubicon and initiated several civil wars. Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March 44BC (15^th of March) and his nephew Octavian (later Augustus) ended these civil wars at the battle of Actium in 31BC.

Virgil is perhaps known as the greatest Roman poet famed for his work “The Aeneid” an epic poem in 12 books. This was styled on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. It follows the Trojan refugee Aeneas as he struggles to fulfill his destiny and reach Italy, where his descendants Romulus and Remus were to found the city of Rome. It also includes the civil wars and the reign of Augustus including the tragedy of Dido, the queen of Carthage who killed herself by her affection for Aeneas, It is the story of the earliest days of Rome, a national epic honoring Rome and prophesying the rise of the Roman Empire.

The Aeneid

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After a century of civil strife in Rome and Italy, Virgil wrote the Aeneid to honour the emperor Augustus by praising his legendary ancestor Aeneas. As a patriotic epic imitating Homer, the Aeneid also set out to provide Rome with a literature equal to that of Greece. It tells of Aeneas, survivor of the sack of Troy, and of his seven-year journey: to Carthage, where he falls tragically in love with Queen Dido; then to the underworld,; and finally to Italy, where he founds Rome. It is a story of defeat and exile, of love and war, hailed by Tennyson as 'the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man'

Ovid, another Roman poet knew Virgil and Ovid would of been influenced by Virgil's work. Ovid would of been much younger then Virgil and eventually Ovid's writing would get him banished from Rome by Emperor Augustus!

Virgil died of fever in 19BC and on his deathbed asked that the 'Aeneid' be burnt as he had not finished the final edits but Emperor Augustus requested that it be published. Virgil will always be best known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid.

The Eclogues and Georgics

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The Eclogues, ten short pastoral poems, were composed between approximately 42 and 39 BC, during the time of the 'Second' Triumvirate of Lepidus, Anthony, and Octavian. In them Virgil subtly blended an idealized Arcadia with contemporary history. To his Greek model - the Idylls of Theocritus - he added a strong element of Italian realism: places and people, real or disguised, and contemporary events are introduced. The Eclogues display all Virgil's art and charm and are among his most delightful achievements.

Between approximately 39 and 29 BC, years of civil strife between Antony, and Octavian, Virgil was engaged upon the Georgics. Part agricultural manual, full of observations of animals and nature, they deal with the farmer's life and give it powerful allegorical meaning. These four books contain some of Virgil's finest descriptive writing and are generally held to be his greatest and most entertaining work, and C. Day Lewis's lyrical translations are classics in their own right.

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The Little Known Roman Emperor Called “Saloninus”

The Little Known Roman Emperor Called “Saloninus”

Publius Licinius Cornelius Saloninus Valerianus is better known to us as “Saloninus”. He was born in the year 242AD to Gallienus and Salonina and was their second son. His elder brother Valerian II was proclaimed Caesar in 256AD and fought alongside his father Gallienus at the Danubian front. Valerian II died early in 258AD captured and killed by Shapur I of the Sassanid Empire. His father, Emperor Gallienus then demoted the commander Ingenuus who had been hailed the new emperor by the legions of Moesia (Central Serbia) in favour of Valerian's son. Gallienus met Ingenuus on the battlefield at Mursa (modern Croatia) where Gallienus's General, Aurelian, led the troops to victory over Ingenuus. Ingenuus survived the battle but to avoid capture drowned himself in a nearby river.

Blue Glass Bust of Saloninus in the Roman-Germanic Museum in Cologne

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Saloninus was made Caesar in Gaul in 258AD and was put under the protection of the praetorian prefect Silvanus.

The silver coinage of Saloninus undergoes a severe debasement in 259AD. Before the year ends, the antoninianus becomes debased to the point where the silver content is less than 40%.

This Antoninianus was minted at Lugdunum (Lyon, France) in 256 AD and shows Saloninus as Ceasar. The obverse shows a radiate and draped bust and the legend "SALON VALERIANVS CAES". The reverse shows Spes walking left, holding a flower and raising the hem of the dress with the legend "SPES PVBLICA" meaning "the hope of the public".

Spes was the Roman personification of Hope, normally depicted carrying flowers. On this coin, the Caesar, Saloninus, the designated successor of the emperor, is identified as the hope for the future of the Roman people.

In 260AD Silvanus ordered Postumus to give over the booty that he had won in a successful raid on a German warband who had raided Gaul. Postumus's men refused and turned on Saloninus and Silvanus, who had to flee to Cologne with some loyal troops. Postumus was then acclaimed emperor by his army. Postumus surrounded Saloninus and Silvanus in Cologne.

Gallienus was engaged in the Danube and could not save his son, Saloninus. So in desperation proclaimed Saloninus emperor hoping that this would induce Postumus's army to desert him and join them in a bid for Empire. The citizens of Colonia Agrippina handed Saloninus and Saloninus over to their enemy. The army of Postumus murdered them. Soloninus's reign as sole Emperor only lasted a few weeks or months of his accession in the year of 260AD.

The Reign of Emperor Gallienus: The Apogee of Roman Cavalry

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This is the only fully illustrated military life of the Emperor Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (253-268). Considered the most blatantly military man of all of the soldier emperors of the third century, Gallienus is the emperor in Harry Sidebottom's bestselling Warrior of Rome novels. Gallienus faced more simultaneous usurpations and foreign invasions than any other emperor, but somehow he managed to survive. Dr. Ilkka Syvanne explains how this was possible. It was largely thanks to the untiring efforts of Gallienus that the Roman Empire survived for another 1,200 years. Gallienus was a notorious libertarian, womanizer, and cross-dresser, but he was also a fearless warrior, duellist and general all at the same time. This monograph explains why he was loved by the soldiers,yet so intensely hated by some officers that they killed him in a conspiracy. The year 2018 is the 1,800th anniversary of Gallienus' date of birth and the 1,750th anniversary of his date of death. The Reign of Gallienus celebrates the life and times of this great man.

Gallienus after losing two sons, made no effort to elevate his third son, Egnatius Marinianus, although he did allow him to be elected to the ceremonial office of Consul in 268AD. Gallienus died in September 268AD.

Romans at War:
The Roman Military in the Republic and Empire
By Dr. Simon Elliott

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In Romans at War ground-breaking research is presented in an accessible, entertaining, and sumptuously illustrated format, including: • A new consideration of the nature of late Roman military leaders; the author argues they were effectively independent warlords

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The Roman Historian - Livy

The Roman Historian - Livy

Titus Livius best known to us as Livy was a Roman historian. He was born in either 64 or 59 BC at the prosperous city of Patavium (now Padua) which was located in the province of Cisalpine Gaul but later was absorbed into Italy. Whilst Livy was still young, Julius Caesar was Governor and gave Roman citizenship to its inhabitants.

The Early History of Rome

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'I hope my passion for Rome's past has not impaired my judgement; for I do honestly believe that no country has ever been greater or purer than ours or richer in good citizens and noble deeds'

Livy dedicated most of his life to writing some 142 volumes of history, the first five of which comprise The Early History of Rome. With stylistic brilliance, he chronicles nearly 400 years from the founding of Rome to the Gallic invasion in 386 BC, an era that witnessed the establishment of the Republic, unrest and brutal conflict. Bringing compelling characters to life, and re-presenting familiar tales - including the tragedy of Coriolanus and the story of Romulus and Remus - The Early History is a truly epic work, and a passionate warning that a nation should learn from its history.

Its possible that the boy Livy may of heard stories about the wars in Gaul. Livy studied rhetoric and philosophy growing up and there is no accounts on his early career. Livy never got accustomed to military matters and his writings show this but it did not stop him becoming a distinguished historian. At the age of 10, Caesar and Pompey the Great were having a civil war and the outcome would be decided in 48BC at the battle of Pharsalus.

After the assassination of Caesar a new round of civil wars followed. In 44/43BC, Livy may of observed some of this fighting. Octavian, Caesar's adopted son was victorious after the battle of Actium in 31BC and he would bring peace and stability to Italy.

Rome's Mediterranean Empire

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These words from one of Rome's opponents encapsulate the authority Rome achieved by its subjugation of the Mediterranean. The Third Macedonian War, recounted in this volume, ended the kingdom created by Philip II and Alexander the Great and was a crucial step in Rome's eventual dominance. For Livy, the story is also a fascinating moral study of the vices and virtues that hampered and promoted Rome's efforts in the conflict. He presents the war not so much as a battle against Perseus, Alexander's last and unworthy successor, than as a struggle within the Roman national character. Only traditional moral strength, embodied in Lucius Aemilius Paullus, the general who ultimately defeats Perseus, ensures the Roman victory.

Livy moved to Rome around 29BC or earlier as he started writing the History of Rome, so one would assume he had moved there before he started writing this. Augustus took an interest in Livy and he also helped educate the future emperor Claudius. Livy never mentions the poets Horace, Virgil, and Ovid of the literary world of Rome so one assumes he was not closely (if at all) involved with them. Livy published the first five books of his History of Rome from its foundation between 27 and 25BC whilst in his early thirties. This most famous work narrates a complete history of the city of Rome, from its foundation to the death of Augustus. It has embellished accounts of Roman heroism and emphasizes the great triumphs of Rome. All this to flatter the Emperor Augustus and his new style of government.

We know very little of Livy's private life but he was married and he had two children, a son and a daughter who was married to a teacher of oratory named Lucius Magius. Livy did not belong to the inner circle of Augustus, Rome's first emperor, but he and the emperor respected each other. Livy encourage the young prince Claudius to write history and this included his histories of Rome, Carthage and the Etruscans.

Livy The War with Hannibal

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In The War with Hannibal, Livy (59 BC-AD 17) chronicles the events of the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage, until the Battle of Zama in 202 BC. He vividly recreates the immense armies of Hannibal, complete with elephants, crossing the Alps; the panic as they approached the gates of Rome; and the decimation of the Roman army at the Battle of Lake Trasimene. Yet it is also the clash of personalities that fascinates Livy, from great debates in the Senate to the historic meeting between Scipio and Hannibal before the decisive battle. Livy never hesitates to introduce both intense drama and moral lessons into his work, and here he brings a turbulent episode in history powerfully to life.

Livy became a well known person, but lacked the popularity of Ovid, Horace and Virgil. Livy died in 17AD in his home city of Patavium.

The History of Rome

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In addition to Valerie Warrior's crisp, fluent translation of the first five books of Livy's Ab Urbe Condita, this edition features a general introduction to Livy and his work, extensive foot-of-the-page notes offering essential contextual information, and a chronology of events. Three appendices--on the genealogies of the most prominent political figures in the early Republic, Livy's relationship with Augustus, and Livy's treatment of religion--offer additional insight into the author and the early history of Rome.

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