Parallel Lives: Hannibal and Scipio in Livy's Third Decade

Abstract

I trace the correspondences between the lives of Hannibal and Scipio in the third Decade of Ab urbe condita and show how Livy fashions the two as "parallel lives." I further explore how this synkrisis reflects issues critical to the political discourse of the late Republic and sets up an exemplary antithesis between Rome's past virtus and her present decline.