The War with Hannibal
by Livy
The History of Rome from Its Foundation (Ab Urbe Condita), Books XXI-XXX
Recommendations from our site
“Livy’s whole thing is storytelling. He’d be a good BBC historian, popping up and doing documentaries, tramping around fields to tell us where things happened, and then stopping the camera and giving us a mini lecture or dramatically acting out what was said at a particular moment. He’s very rhetorical and into the narrative…One of my favorite passages in historical writing is Livy’s account of Hannibal crossing the Alps. It’s absolutely classic. And I guess the knock against him…is that maybe he’s not always 100% reliable. It goes back to how much is myth and how much is factual.” Read more...
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