1.
I also am relieved, just as if I myself had shared1 the labour and the peril, that I have come to the end of the Punic War.
[2]
For while it is not at all fitting that one who has ventured to promise to write the whole history of Rome should grow wearied in dealing with the single portions of so great a task, nevertheless, when I reflect that sixty-three years —the space between the outbreak of the First and the end of the Second Punic War2 —have
[3]
filled as many books3 for me as were required for the four hundred and
[4]
eighty-seven years from the founding of the city to the consulship of Appius Claudius (who began the first war with the Carthaginians), already I see in my mind's eye that, like men who, attracted by the shallow water near the shore, wade out into the sea, I am being
[5]
carried on, whatever progress I make, into depths more vast and, as it were, into the abyss, and that the task almost waxes greater [p. 5]which, as I finished each of the earlier portions,4 seemed to be growing smaller.
[6]
The Punic peace was followed by the Macedonian war, which, although in no wise comparable as regards its danger, or the prowess of the leader,5 or the strength of the military forces employed, yet, because of the fame of Macedonia's ancient kings6 and the ancient glory of the nation and the vast extent of its empire, in which
[7]
it had at one time gained by its arms dominion over large portions of Europe and the greater part of Asia, was almost more celebrated.
[8]
Now the war with Philip,7 begun about ten years before this time, had some time before been laid aside for a period of three years, the Aetolians being the cause of the truce as they had been of the beginning of hostilities.
[9]
Then later the Romans, being at last unoccupied by any war, as a result of the peace with Carthage, and being indignant with Philip both because of the treacherous peace which he had concluded with the Aetolians8 and the other allies in that region, and because of [p. 7]the military assistance and money which he had9 recently10 sent to
[10]
Hannibal and the Carthaginians in Africa, were aroused by the prayers of the Athenians, whom Philip had driven into the city by the ravaging of their fields, into renewing the war.
1 B.C. 201
2 The dates of the events referred to are, respectively, 267 B.C. and 204 B.C., by Livy's reckoning, or, according to the usual chronology (which is retained in the marginal dates), 264 B.C. and 201 B.C.
3 Books I-XV contained the narrative of the earlier period; Books XVI-XXX covered the First and Second Punic Wars.
4 B.C. 201
5 Philip V, king of the Macedonians, was not to be compared with the Carthaginian Hannibal.
6 Livy thinks especially of Philip II, founder of Macedonian power, and of Alexander the Great, who had conquered an empire greater than that of Carthage.
7 Philip V had come to the Macedonian throne in 217 B.C. at the age of 17, and had continued the aggressive policy of his regent, Antigonus. As an ally of the Achaean League, the Macedonians had fought a successful war against the Aetolian League (see Introductory Note), and in 216 B.C. concluded an alliance with Hannibal by a treaty of which Polybius (VII. xix) preserves some clauses. Meanwhile Philip was pursuing an ambitious policy towards Athens and other Greek states. By 214 B.C., Rome seems to have recognized that something like a “state of war” existed (XXIV. xl. 1), but in this passage Livy dates the actual hostilities from 211 B.C., when Rome made a treaty with Philip's old enemies, the Aetolians (XXVI. xxiv. 10). Philip's treaty of peace with the Aetolians is dated 205 B.C. by Livy (XXIX. xii. 1), but we may perhaps explain his “three years” on the assumption that it was not ratified until the next year, Livy's chronology is often confused, as a result of unskilful handling of annalistic sources. The so-called Second Macedonian War, the account of which begins here, was practically ended by the battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 B.C. (XXXIII. vi-x; Polyb. XVIII. xx-xxvii), but lasted diplomatically until 196 B.C. (XXXIII. xxxii). Thereafter Philip pursued a policy of alternating friendship and hostility towards Rome until his death in 179 B.C.
8 See the preceding note for the peace of 205 B.C., which might seem due to the treachery of the Aetolians rather than of Philip. Rome was so occupied by the war against Hannibal that the Aetolians had to bear all the burden of keeping up the war against Philip. The failure of the Romans to aid them is frequently mentioned in the diplomatic conferences of the next years.
9 B.C. 201
10 Livy (XXX. xxvi. 3) reports the rumour that troops had been sent to Hannibal, and in XXX. xxxiii. 5 lists Macedonians among his allies. See also XXX. xlii. 4 and XLV. xxii. 6. Polybius does not mention them.
Livy. Books XXXI-XXXIV with an English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935: no copyright notice.
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