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Compare And Contrast Polybius And Livy

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Polybius and Livy were two different historians with unique styles and different personalities. Polybius and Livy agreed on three causes of the Second Punic war which was “Wrath of Barcids” revenge for the loss of Sardinia and Corsica, and the success that Carthaginians had in Spain. Livy was viewing the seizure Saguntum as a primary cause. Polybius on the other hand did not feel the same way, Polybius felt that is was the beginning of the war rather than an underlying cause. After looking at the facts I could find on each of the causes I believe that all four causes are suitable. The ancient causes were too pro-Roman. The revenge idea reflects poorly on the Romans and the legality may rest with Hannibal’s seizure of Saguntum, this last …show more content…

There is a North-East scholar R Malcom Errington (1970) argued the Roman involvement was due to pressure by being invited by Saguntum and Massilia, being fearful of the growing power of Carthage. For Livy he also had strong feelings that Hannibal was to blame in the way that Polybius felt about Hannibal. Livy says that when Saguntum fell Hannibal received dispatches which made him aware of the fact that he was (in Roman eyes) the cause of the impending war. In Livy’s historical account of the battle of Zama, Livy went deeper and made Hannibal say, ‘It was I first began this war against the Roman people’ However it was later that Roman writers (e.g. Appian) who would also put the blame on Hannibal for the start of the war by what they say crossing Ebro and essentially breaking the treaty of 226 B.C When we discuss Livy’s account of the second Punic war he says of Hannibal “ They now came to another canton which, considering that it was a mountain district, had a considerable population. Here he (Hannibal) narrowly escaped destruction, not in fair and opening fighting, but by the practices which he himself employed-falsehood and treachery.”

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A change in the Carthaginian senate in 203 greatly influenced Hannibal’s campaign in Italy. Hannibal’s popularity had declined and his faction no longer held the power in Carthage that it previously held by 203 B.C. A treaty enacted by the Romans and Carthaginians for peace could only come into force once Hannibal and his brother Mago left Italy. Clearly, Hannibal realized the Carthaginians had named him the scapegoat for the War. Livy states that no sooner had Hannibal realized this when he immediately blamed Hanno for this disgrace. Within a year, Hannibal returned to Africa, only to lose one of the decisive battles of the war.

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Sallust, a highly regarded Roman historian, commented that “…fear of its enemies preserved the food morals of the state, but when the people were relived of this fear, the favourite vices of prosperity-licence and pride-appeared as a natural consequence”. This is corroborated by Florus, a criticized Roman historian and poet “The next hundred years were unhappy and deplorable because of internal calamities. The resources and wealth gained in our conquests spoiled the morals of the age and ruined the state, which was engulfed in its own vices as in a common sewer”. Both Sallust and Florus explain how Tiberius’ death caused the senate to resort to violence in order to keep their power. Consequently, the peace in Rome was disturbed and eventually led to the fall of Rome.

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In the verbal presentation “Hannibal and His Secret Weapon,” by Dr. Patrick Hunt, he explains the incredible life of Hannibal, a famous carthaginian war general, focusing specifically on how he used his small force of men and his environment to his advantage. The presentation starts off talking about how after Hannibal swore to eternally hate Rome on a living sacrifice, his father was killed in an avalanche on an expedition in search of gold. After this, the Carthaginians pronounced Hannibal their new war general, because his father was the previous one and they recognize his military genius. Next, Hannibal decides to embark on his quest to take back Rome. In a brilliant move, he takes a path through the Alps to sneak up on the Romans where

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Everything he did was to protect his dignitas he worked so hard for during his proconsulship in Gaul. Sir Ronald Syme a historian and classicist, long associated with Oxford University and widely regarded as the 20th century's greatest historian of ancient Rome;(in massie, pg.28, 1983) saw that "Caesar was the aggressor; he was fighting not for no nobler cause

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Firstly, the issue noted above that we do not know the order of the Parallel Lives, makes interpretation difficult because we therefore can’t understand how Plutarch’s themes developed and interacted with each other throughout the entire series. This is an issue in Life of Marius because of how singularly negative Plutarch is about Marius, to the point where it has been noted as his most critical work on any character. Secondly, the genre of biography itself and its focus on character rather than fact, inherently suggests that Plutarch may exaggerate some events and omit others, in order to communicate his lessons on morality. For example, Plutarch is far more descriptive of political events in which Marius can be portrayed as immoral and ambitious. However, he says little on the political platform on which Marius ran for consulship, and downplays the political acumen Marius, as a novus homo, or even if he had been nobilis, must have had to gain consulship for 6 straight years.

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One thing we should know about the Second Punic War is that this war was to a considerable extent initiated by Carthage at Saguntum in Spain and is marked by Hannibal's surprising overland journey and his costly crossing of the Alps, followed by his reinforcement by Gallic

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Livy believed that the Second Punic War was started by the siege of Saguntum by the Carthaginian Commander Hannibal and that this violated past treaties which left Rome no choice but to declare war on Carthage. In addition he believed the events that caused the war were entirely the fault of Carthage and that Rome did everything possible to prevent the dispute with Carthage from escalating. However there are inconsistencies in his work which undermine his reliability as a historian. The event that started the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage was the siege of Saguntum by Hannibal.

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Correspondingly, a third source that similarly discredits the conventional awareness of Augustus is The Lives of the Twelve Caesars provided by Suetonius as it portrays Augustus as being, to a certain extent, paranoid, manipulative, strategic and immoral. This is mostly unequivocal when Suetonius reinterprets an encounter between Augustus and a Roman Knight as he incurred detestation through many acts. However, Suetonius pays unmistakable consecration to this incident as when, “…a Roman knight was taking notes, he ordered that he be stabbed on the spot, thinking him an eavesdropper and a spy. Augustus, suspecting that he had a sword concealed there, did not dare to make a search on the spot for fear it should turn out to be something else and though he made no confession, ordered his execution, first tearing out the man's eyes with his own hand. ” This piece of material of him murdering a Roman knight, due to alleged eavesdropping, is a primary case in point of how

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