"With a single announcement from a herald, all the cities of Greece and
Asia had been set free; only an intrepid soul could formulate such an
ambitious project, only phenomenal valour and fortune bring it to
fruition."
Thus Livy describes the reaction to the Roman commander T.Q. Flamininus'
proclamation of the freedom of Greece at the Isthmian games near Corinth
in 196 BC. Half a century later Greece was annexed as a province of the
Romans who burned the ancient city of Corinth to the ground.
Books 31 to 40 of Livy's history chart Rome's emergence as an imperial
nation and the Romans 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 Graeco-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.
This is the only unabridged English translation of Books 31 to 40.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has
made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the
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bibliographies for further study, and much more.
