'The Discourses on Livy', also known as 'Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy' is a work of political history and philosophy written by the Italian writer and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli, best known as the author of The Prince. The title identifies the work's subject as the first ten books of Livy's 'Ab urbe condita', which relate the expansion of Rome through the end of the Third Samnite War in 293 BC, although Machiavelli discusses what can be learned from many other eras including contemporary politics. 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 long as each generation did not forget the works of the past.