Livy wrote this History of Rome in the late first century BC. Book 26 continues the Second Punic War, Rome's fight with Carthage and its general Hannibal. Last time, Syracuse fell, Tarentum in the south went over to Hannibal, and young Publius Cornelius Scipio was sent to Spain.

Scipio takes New Carthage, Carthage's capital in Spain (now Cartagena), in a single day — walls, harbor, hostages, silver, and the archive of a province. He sends Spanish princes home and binds their fathers. In Italy Hannibal marches on Rome to pull Roman troops off Capua, a southern city that had joined him. The streets cry that Hannibal is at the gates. He does not take the city. Capua falls back to Rome and is punished as a lesson. Hannibal stays unbeaten in the field but cannot make Rome surrender. Spain is turning. Italy is held. Africa starts to look like a plan.