War, Strategy, and Republican Power
War is one of civilization's oldest and most destructive institutions. It has created states, dissolved empires, accelerated technology, redrawn borders, destroyed capital and moved power between cultures. A leader who does not understand war may start one believing it will be brief, rational and controllable. History says otherwise. The governing rule is simple: do not start a war you cannot win, finance, control, and end on acceptable terms.
A History of Warfare
John KeeganFR ?Phase 31521hThe Early History of Rome
Books 1–5LivyFRPhase 31616hRome and Italy
Books 6–10LivyFRPhase 31730hThe War with Hannibal
Books 21–30LivyFRPhase 31829hRome and the Mediterranean
Books 31–45LivyFRPhase 3Not part of the thirty-eight. These extend the core reading and are woven into the reading sequence.
Livy is not a neutral modern historian. He is a literary and moral historian who chose his stories partly for their civic meaning. Read him both to reconstruct Rome's development and to understand how Romans conceived virtue, legitimacy, ambition, corruption and decline.