For next week read Livy, Books 21 and 22 in their entirety, in addition to the passages from Polybius that are listed below. For a secondary source, see Craige Champion’s essay “Polybius and the Punic Wars” (chapter 6) in the Companion.

This will take a few hours, but since you do not have class on Thursdays right now, you have the extra time. I want you to grasp the sweep of Livy’s narrative, its dramatic arc from the beginning of the war to the aftermath of the battle of Cannae, which was the low point for the Romans.

Then, I want you to focus in particular on the following:

1. Livy 21.1 (The preface to Books 21-30 and Hannibal’s Oath)

We’ll compare Livy’s introduction and story of the oath to other prefaces and versions of the story told elsewhere (I’ll bring those in), as well as to some passages of Vergil’s Aeneid, which I give here in Allen Mandelbaum’s translation.

Aeneid 1.1 ff. The opening of the epic:

I sing of arms and of a man: his fate

had made him fugitive; he was the first

to journey from the coasts of Troy as far

as Italy and the Lavinian shores.

Across the lands and waters he was battered

beneath the violence of High Ones, for

the savage Juno’s unforgetting anger;

and many sufferings were his in war—

until he brought a city into being

and carried his gods to Latium;

from this have come the Latin race, the lords

of Alba, and the ramparts of high Rome.

Tell me the reason, Muse: what was the wound

to her divinity, so hurting her

that she, the queen of gods, compelled a man

remarkable for goodness to endure

so many crises, meet so many trials?

Can such resentment hold the minds of gods?

There was an ancient city they called Carthage—

a colony of refugees from Tyre—

a city facing Italy, but far

away from Tiber’s mouth; extremely rich

and, when it came to waging war, most fierce.

This land was Juno’s favorite—it is said—

more dear than her own Samos; here she kept

her chariot and armor; even then

the goddess had this hope and tender plan:

for Carthage to become the capital

of nations, if the Fates would just consent.

But she had heard that, from the blood of Troy,

a race had come that some day would destroy

the citadels of Tyre; from it a people

would spring, wide-ruling kings, men proud in battle

and destined to annihilate her Libya.

The fates had so decreed. And Saturn’s daughter—

in fear of this, remembering the old war

that she had long since carried on at try

for her beloved Argos (and, indeed,

the causes of her bitterness, her sharp

and savage hurt, had not yet left her spirit;

for deep within her mind lie stored the judgment

of Paris and the wrong done to her scorned

beauty, the bread she hated, and the honors

that had been given ravished Ganymede)—

was angered even more…

Aeneid 4.621ff. (Dido’s curse):

“These things I plead; these final words I pour

out of my blood. Then, Tyrians, hunt down

with hatred all his sons and race to come;

send this as offering unto my ashes.

Do not let love or treaty tie our peoples.

May an avenger rise up from my bones,

one who will track with firebrand and sword

the Dardan settlers, now and in the future,

at any time that ways present themselves.

I call your shores to war against their shores,

your waves against their waves, arms with their arms.

Let them and their son’s sons learn what is war.”

2. The fall of Saguntum, Polybius 3.17; 3.20-33; Livy 21.6-16.

The siege itself and the fall of the city (Polybius 3.17; Livy 21.6-16). What are some important differences between the two versions?

3.The end of Livy Book 21 (21.57-end) and beginning of 22 (22.1-7)

Consider the role of religion here, and the role of the Capitoline Hill.

How are religion, politics, and the city itself interrelated?

4. The aftermath of Cannae. especially the end of Livy 22.

Compare Livy 22.50-61and Polybius 3.117-118.

What, according to each author, led to Rome’s ultimate success?