"Romulus and Remus, the rape of Lucretia, Horatius at the bridge, the saga of Coriolanus, Cincinnatus called from his farm to save the state - these and many more stories immortalized by Livy in his history of Rome have become part of our cultural heritage. " "The historian's huge work consisted of 142 books which trace Rome's history from its foundation in 753 BC to events in Livy's own lifetime (9 BC). Only 35 books survive in their entirety. These first five books cover the period from Rome's beginnings and her first great foreign conquest, the capture of the Etruscan city of Veii, to her first major defeat, the sack of the city by the Gauls in 390 BC. This new translation is based on R. M. Ogilvie's Oxford Classical Text, the best to date. "--Jacket.