from Saguntum, and to hand Hannibal himself over to the Romans in pursuance of the treaty; I move a third embassy to restore their property to the Saguntines. This speech, composed with powerful rhetoric and placed in a dramatic setting, serves not only to bring before our eyes the fruitless errand of the Roman envoys at Carthage, but to emphasize the justice of the Roman cause and to predict the ultimate success of the Romans, on whose side the gods that watch over treaties were enlisted. It is an example of Livy’s oratorical composition, of his dramatic power, of his desire to show that historical events are the result of moral causes, and of his conviction that the Roman power was founded upon right and justice. Livy’s great work was the first complete history of Rome composed in fine literary form. The time was ripe for such a work. The Roman people had spread its power over the whole civilized world, and the peace and order established by Augustus made it natural that men should wish to read the history of the long struggles of the republic that led up to the present peace of the empire. Livy’s history, therefore, appealed directly to a large circle of readers. But in extending its power over the world, the Roman people had come in contact with various nations, and it was natural that the history of those nations should be of interest to the Romans. [Sidenote: Pompeius Trogus.] The task of writing this history was undertaken by Pompeius Trogus. By descent he was a Vocontian, of the province of Gallia Narbonensis, but his grandfather had received the Roman citizenship from Pompey, and his father had served under Cæsar in Gaul. Pompeius Trogus himself is mentioned as a writer on zoology, but his most important work was his universal history entitled _Historiæ Philippicæ_, in forty-four books. Trogus began with the history of the Oriental empires, Assyria, Media, and Persia, passing from the Persians to the Scythians and the Greeks. The greater part of his work was taken up with the account of the Macedonian Empire founded by Philip, and of the kingdoms that arose from it after the death of Alexander the Great. The history of each of these kingdoms is continued to its absorption in the Roman Empire. It is from this part of the work (Books VII-XL) that the whole received its title. The forty-first and forty-second books contained the history of the Parthians, the forty-third told of the beginnings of Rome and treated of affairs in Gaul, and the forty-fourth book contained the history of Spain, ending with the victory of Augustus over the Spaniards.