Livy's History of Rome is our main source for the study of the history of the early centuries of the Roman Republic. In Book IX Livy narrates the course of the Second Samnite War, one of the most important that Rome fought during its conquest of Italy: the book begins with Livy's celebrated account of the Roman defeat in the Caudine Forks and ends with Roman victory over the Samnites. This commentary discusses all problems posed by Livy's matchless narrative.

This three volume commentary also includes an introduction discussing previous research on the Odyssey, its relation to the Iliad, the epic dialect, and the transmission of the text.

This magisterial work, to be published in three volumes, is the first full-scale commentary to be written in modern times on this part of Livy's great history of Rome. This second volume consists of Books VII and VIII, in which Livy describes Rome's annexation of Capua and Naples and her first fighting against the Samnites, the powerful tribe that lived in the mountains of central Italy. (The commentary is not accompanied by the Latin text or a translation).