This volume explores the political implications of the first five books of Livy's celebrated history of Rome, challenging the common perception of the author as

This book explores the political implications of stories that Livy recounts in the first pentad of his history of Rome.

Machiavelli saw history in general as a way to learn useful lessons from the past for the present, and also as a type of analysis which could be built upon, as

"This volume explores the political implications of the first five books of Livy's celebrated history of Rome, challenging the common perception of the author a

Reconstructs the origins of the idea that social conflict, and not concord, makes political communities powerful.