Trebia. Trasimene. Cannae. With three stunning victories, Hannibal humbled Rome and nearly shattered its empire. Even today Hannibal's brilliant, if ultimately unsuccessful, campaign against Rome during the Second Punic War (218-202 BC) make him one of history's most celebrated military leaders. This biography by Cornelius Nepos (c. 100-27 BC) sketches Hannibal's life from the time he began traveling with his father's army as a young boy, through his sixteen-year invasion of Italy and his tumultuous political career in Carthage, to his perilous exile and eventual suicide in the East. As Rome completed its bloody transition from dysfunctional republic to stable monarchy, Nepos labored to complete an innovative and influential collection of concise biographies. Putting aside the detailed, chronological accounts of military campaigns and political machinations that characterized most writing about history, Nepos surveyed Roman and Greek history for distinguished men who excelled in a range of prestigious occupations. In the exploits and achievements of these illustrious men, Nepos hoped that his readers would find models for the honorable conduct of their own lives. Although most of Nepos' works have been lost, we are fortunate to have his biography of Hannibal. Nepos offers a surprisingly balanced portrayal of a man that most Roman authors vilified as the most monstrous foe that Rome had ever faced.

Reviews available here: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/cornelius-nepos-life-of-hannibal-latin-text-notes-maps-illustrations-and-vocabulary

The free course, Discovering Ancient Greek and Latin, gives a taste of what it is like to learn two ancient languages. It is for those who have encountered the classical world through translations of Greek and Latin texts and wish to know more about the languages in which these works were composed.

The aim of this free course is to enable you to get started on learning Latin in a fairly
leisurely but well-focused way. It has been developed in response to requests from
students who had had no contact with Latin before and who felt they would like to spend a
little time preparing for the kind of learning that studying a classical language involves.
This course will give you a taster of what is involved in the very early stages of learning
Latin. Along the way, you will learn some Latin words, master the pronunciation of Latin
and explore the links between Latin and English. Importantly, too, you will gain a basic
understanding of how Latin ‘works’ – its grammar and sentence structure – and gain a
useful impression of what learning Latin actually involves. The material which follows is
designed to be studied in small sections. In all, it will probably take about 8–10 hours to
work through. But even if you have only a small amount of time available, you will find it
useful to work through the early sections and familiarise yourself with some basic
grammatical terms.

Greek and Latin Roots: Part I - Latin is part one of a two part series. This series examines the systematic principles by which a large portion of English vocabulary has evolved from Latin and (to a lesser degree) from Greek. This book focuses on Latin roots. A link to the second part focusing on the Greek roots can be found below. Part I will try to impart some skill in the recognition and proper use of words derived from Latin. There is a stress on principles: although students will be continually looking at interesting individual words, their constant aim will be to discover predictable general patterns of historical development, so that they may be able to cope with new and unfamiliar words of any type that they have studied. They will be shown how to approach the problem by a procedure known as “word analysis,” which is roughly comparable to the dissection of an interesting specimen in the biology laboratory. The text assumes no previous knowledge of Latin, and does not involve the grammatical study of this language—except for a few basic features of noun and verb formation that will help students to understand the Latin legacy in English. Although there will be some attention paid to the historical interaction of Latin with English, this text is definitely not a systematic history of the English language. It focuses on only those elements within English that have been directly or indirectly affected by this classical language. In order to provide the broadest possible service to students, the text emphasizes standard English vocabulary in current use. The more exotic technical vocabulary of science and medicine can be extremely interesting, but is explored in only summary fashion. Nevertheless, this text should be of considerable value, say, to a would-be botanist or medical doctor, if only by providing the foundation for further specialized enquiry.

This is an elementary Latin course accompanied with a detailed grammar based upon Kennedy's Public School Latin Grammar designed to introduce one to the world of classical languages. A basic understanding of grammatical terminology would be helpful; however, it is not required. Basic definitions of terms will be explained in Lessons 1 and 2, and later elaborated as needed.

This course book offers a portion of the original Latin text, study aids with vocabulary, and a commentary. Designed to stretch and stimulate readers, Owen's and Gildenhard's incisive commentary will be of particular interest to students of Latin at both A2 and undergraduate level. It extends beyond detailed linguistic analysis and historical background to encourage critical engagement with Tacitus' prose and discussion of the most recent scholarly thought.

Table of Contents
1. Preface and acknowledgements

2. Introduction

2.1 Tacitus: life and career
2.2 Tacitus' times: the political system of the principate
2.3 Tacitus' oeuvre: opera minora and maiora
2.4 Tacitus' style (as an instrument of thought)
2.5 Tacitus' Nero-narrative: Rocky-Horror-Picture Show and Broadway on the Tiber
2.6 Thrasea Paetus and the so-called ‘Stoic opposition'
3. Latin text with study questions and vocabulary aid

4. Commentary

Section 1: Annals 15.20–23
(i) 20.1–22.1: The Meeting of the Senate
(ii) 22.2: Review of striking prodigies that occurred in AD 62
(iii) 23.1–4: Start of Tacitus' account of AD 63: the birth and death of Nero's daughter by Sabina Poppaea, Claudia Augusta
Section 2: Annals 15.33–45 (AD 64)
(i) 33.1–34.1: Nero's coming-out party as stage performer
(ii) 34.2–35.3: A look at the kind of creatures that populate Nero's court – and the killing of an alleged rival
(iii) 36: Nero considers, but then reconsiders, going on tour to Egypt
(iv) 37: To show his love for Rome, Nero celebrates a huge public orgy that segues into a mock-wedding with his freedman Pythagoras
(v) 38–41: The fire of Rome
(vi) 42–43: Reconstructing the Capital: Nero's New Palace
(vii) 44: Appeasing the Gods, and Christians as Scapegoats
(viii) 45: Raising of Funds for Buildings
5. Bibliography

6. Visual aids

6.1 Map of Italy
6.2 Map of Rome
6.3 Family Tree of Nero and Junius Silanus
6.4 Inside the Domus Aurea