The Rise of Rome: Books One to Five (Oxford World's Classics) (Bks. 1-5)

The first five books of Livy's history of early Rome recount the great stories and moments of Roman history. From Romulus and Remus, to the rape of Lucretia, to Horatius at the bridge, Livy's massive work immortalizes the events which both defined early Roman civilization and helped to shape our cultural heritage. This new annotated translation includes both maps and an index, making it the most complete and up-to-date edition available. "Romulus and Remus, the rape of Lucretia, Horatius at the bridge, the saga of Coriolanus, Cincinnatus called from his farm to save the state - these and many more stories immortalized by Livy in his history of Rome have become part of our cultural heritage." "The historian's huge work consisted of 142 books which trace Rome's history from its foundation in 753 BC to events in Livy's own lifetime (9 BC). Only 35 books survive in their entirety. These first five books cover the period from Rome's beginnings and her first great foreign conquest, the capture of the Etruscan city of Veii, to her first major defeat, the sack of the city by the Gauls in 390 BC. This new translation is based on R.M. Ogilvie's Oxford Classical Text, the best to date."--Jacket. "Books 31 to 40 of Livy's history chart Rome's emergence as an imperial nation and the Russians' tempestuous involvement with Greece, Macedonia, and the near East in the opening decades of the second century BC; they are our most important source for Greco-Roman relations in that century. Livy's dramatic narrative includes the Roman campaigns in Spain and against the Gallic tribes of Northern Italy; the flight of Hannibal from Carthage and his death in the East; the debate on the Oppian law; and the 'Bacchanalian' episode."--Jacket 1. There is general agreement, first of all, that when Troy fell the Greeks punished the other Trojans mercilessly but refrained from exercising any right of conquest in the cases of two men, Aeneas and Antenor, who were connected to them by long-standing ties of guest friendship and had always advocated the return of Helen.