[Sidenote: Livy’s History.] The title of Livy’s history was _Libri ab Urbe Condita_ (_Books from the Foundation of the City_). It consisted of 142 books, the first of which was written between 29 and 25 B. C., while the last twenty-two were published after the death of Augustus. The last book ended with the death of Drusus, in 9 A. D. Whether Livy intended to carry his work still further is unknown. The division into books is Livy’s own, but the division into decades, or groups of ten books, was made later, though it may perhaps have been suggested by the original publication of some of the books in groups. For the earlier parts of the work comparatively little material was available; consequently the history of the early years of Rome is less detailed than that of later periods. Fifteen books carry the narrative from the foundation of the city to the beginning of the Punic wars, a period of nearly five hundred years, while the war with Hannibal occupies ten books, and ten books are devoted to the eight years from the death of Marius to the death of Sulla (86-78 B. C.). Of this immense work only thirty-five books are extant: Books I-X, from the beginning into the third Samnite War (753-293 B. C.), and XXI-XLV, from the second Punic War to the Macedonian triumph of Lucius Æmilius Paulus (218-167 B. C.). In Books XXI-XLV numerous gaps occur. The contents of the remaining books are known to us through a series of abstracts made not directly from Livy, but from an epitome. Such an epitome existed as early as the time of Martial, not many years after Livy’s death.