Livy, a Roman historian, wrote this History of Rome. Book 25 of that long work follows the Second Punic War, Rome’s fight with Carthage under Hannibal, across Italy, Sicily, and Spain. In the last book Marcellus still sat before Syracuse, the great Greek city of Sicily, while Rome’s commanders in Spain went down and Hannibal’s war in the south turned into a grinding occupation.

Syracuse falls, and Archimedes is killed in the sack. Tarentum, the great southern port we call Taranto, opens itself to Hannibal, though the Roman citadel still holds the harbor. Southern Italy becomes a war of cities split against themselves. Against cautious elders, the people send young Publius Cornelius Scipio to Spain with an unusual command: a name and a gamble. Rome still will not treat for peace. The fighting now lives in several climates at once, and if Scipio’s road holds, it points toward Africa.