Livy, a Roman historian of the late first century BC, wrote this History of Rome. Book 24 is the next stretch of the Second Punic War, Rome against Carthage while Hannibal still occupies Italy. In Book 23 he wintered in Capua, a rich city near Naples that had switched sides after Rome’s worst defeat; Rome armed boys and slaves, and Syracuse in Sicily began to lean toward Carthage.

Marcellus, a Roman commander, sits down before Syracuse, the great Greek city of Sicily, and finds Archimedes in the walls: engines, legendary mirrors, a mind that turns a siege into a contest of wits. Factions inside the city do Rome’s work as surely as rams. Philip V of Macedon, king of a northern Greek kingdom, dabbles with Hannibal and opens an eastern danger. In Spain the elder Scipios, Roman generals, go down and that whole front seems lost. Greek statues travel toward Rome with the winners, and with them a fear of softness. Hannibal’s Italian war has become a grinding occupation. Sicily must be held or Italy starves. Livy asks you to watch stone, river, and sea at once.