that selections
aggregating seven books would accomplish all the purposes of a
complete presentation. The editors have chosen the first three books
of the first decade as telling what no one can better tell than Livy:
the stories and legends connected with the foundation and early life
of Rome. Here, as I have said, there was nothing for him to do but cut
loose from all trammels and hang breathless, pen in hand, upon the
lips of tradition. None can hold but that her faithful scribe has writ
down her words with all their ancient colour, with reverence reigning
over his heart; however doubts might lurk within his brain. These
books close with the restoration of the consular power, after the
downfall of the tyrannical rule of the Decemvirs, the revolution
following upon the attempt of Appius Claudius to seize Virginia, the
daughter of a citizen who, rather than see his child fall into the
clutches of the cruel patrician, killed her with his own hand in the
marketplace, and, rushing into the camp with the bloody knife, caused
the soldiers to revolt. The second section comprises Books XXI-XXIV, a
part of the narrative of the second Punic war, a military exploit the
most remarkable the world has ever seen.

The question who was the greatest general that ever lived has been a
fruitful source of discussion, and Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon have
each found numerous and ardent supporters. Without decrying the signal
abilities of these chiefs, it must nevertheless be remembered that
each commanded a homogeneous army and had behind him a compact nation
the most warlike and powerful of his time. The adversaries also of the
Greek and the Roman were in the one instance an effete power already
falling to pieces by its own internal weakness, and in the other, for
the most part, scattered tribes of barbarians without unity of purpose
or military discipline. Even in his civil wars Caesar's armies were
veterans, and those of the commonwealth were, comparatively speaking,
recruits. But when the reader of these pages carefully considers
the story of Hannibal's campaign in Italy, what does he find? Two
nations--one Caucasian, young, warlike above all its contemporaries,
with a record behind it of steady aggrandizement and almost unbroken
victory, a nation every citizen of which was a soldier. On the other
side, a race of merchants Semitic in blood, a city whose citizens had
long since ceased to go to war, preferring that their gold should