Livy's History of Rome, Book II

In preparation for reading Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy, we read the second book of Livy's History of Rome. Machiavelli's Discourses interact with Livy's work in complex and subtle ways, so an in-depth reading of Livy is necessary for comprehending Machiavelli's meaning.

The Discourses is one of Machiavelli's longest and most complex works and has generated one of the most important secondary literature tradition in the history of thought.