The War with Hannibal - Livy

Brilliant history of the second Punic war (the one with the elephants and the alps). Livy wrote an entire and enormous history of the Roman Republic, most of which is lost : ( but we still have a huge amount of Livy, which is great, because he's a great historian. You can read The War with Hannibal as one complete work. If you're prepared to get stuck into Rome just getting this book and reading it is a great way to start. Back yourself.