History of Rome, Book 21

Book 21 opens Livy's account of the Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC), which fills Books 21 to 30 of his history and which he calls the most memorable war ever waged. Written under Augustus about two centuries after the events, it draws on Polybius and earlier Roman historians.

Livy begins with the war's origins: Hamilcar Barca's campaigns in Spain, the boy Hannibal's oath of hatred towards Rome, and a celebrated character sketch of Hannibal, brave and tireless but cruel and faithless. Hannibal besieges the Spanish city of Saguntum, an ally of Rome, in 219; Hanno argues at Carthage for peace in vain, and the city falls. Roman envoys at Carthage offer a choice of peace or war in the folds of a toga, and war is declared. Hannibal crosses the Ebro and the Pyrenees, ferries his elephants over the Rhône, and makes his crossing of the Alps through ambushes, snow and a landslide, splitting a rock with fire and vinegar to open the road. In Italy he defeats the consul Publius Scipio in a cavalry battle at the Ticinus, and in December 218 draws Sempronius into a trap at the river Trebia. The book ends with the war in Spain and Sicily and with the consul Flaminius slipping away to his province.

This is one of the most widely read books of Livy: dramatic, carefully constructed and full of speeches. His Latin is long-sentenced and varied, a good step up from Caesar.