Livy, writing under Augustus, tells Rome’s story in his History of Rome. This is Book 31. After Zama in North Africa, Hannibal was beaten, the peace of 201 stripped Carthage of empire and fleet, and Scipio took the name Africanus. Hannibal still lived.

The Senate, the council that steered the Republic — Rome run by a senate and elected officials, not a king — turns east. Philip V, king of Macedon in northern Greece and once allied with Carthage, becomes the test. Aetolians and other Greeks invite Roman weight into leagues, kings, and old grudges. Rome speaks of freedom for Hellas, the Greek cities, while it raises levies and ships for war across the Adriatic. Philip is talented and brittle. Legions meet the Macedonian phalanx, a dense spear wall, light Illyrian fighting, and small states shopping for a protector. You are walking into a people who beat a genius and now face the East.