Any book recommendations?

[HottestRod]

There is a good scientific article out there called "The Later Roman Empire" by Richard Gerberding; and I'll second @ExtraNoise "SPQR" by Mary Beard (it's a good synthesis of this era in my opinion, a must have). Another good one is Rome Resurgent: War and Empire in the Age of Justinian by Peter Heter.

And for those of you more interested in fiction there is this absolute masterpiece by Marguerite Yourcenar "Memoirs of Hadrian". Read it, you won't be disappointed.

 

[Caligula Caesar]

If you want to know about the Punic Wars along with associated Roman and Carthaginian history, Adrian Goldsworthy's book on them is good and accessible.

 

[Ragnarrr]

The Last King by Michael Curtis Ford is a historical fiction novel about the life of Mithridates The Great of Pontus. He was one of Rome's most successful enemies and lived a pretty interesting life. The book is the reason I'm excited to play a Pontus play through when the game eventually comes out.

 

[alvaro]

The saga of Marco Didio Falco (Lindsey Davis) is my most enjoyed set of books on antiquity
as novels on warfare i would recommed Scipio Africanus trilogy (Posteguillo) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_Posteguillo#Scipio_Africanus_trilogy
on the punic world I would recommend Tartessos (Maeso de la torre). I couldnt find the english edition but I am sure it should be somewhere.
https://www.amazon.com/Tartessos-Jesús-Maeso-Torre/dp/8495971399

 

[nme3234]

I found The History of Ancient Rome on audible to be very good.
https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/History/The-History-of-Ancient-Rome-Audiobook/B00DIGWR4A?qid=1531140564

It's not about Roman history but Bob Brier's History of Ancient Egypt is good too.
https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Histor...ent-Egypt-Audiobook/B00DICV0LU?qid=1531140805

As other people have mentioned, Adrian Goldsworthy has a few good books.
Caesar, Augustus: First Emperor of Rome and Fall of Carthage are my favourites of his.

 

[Rhaegar1]

I allways enjoy Adrian Goldsworthy, (roman Army, Ceasar, a bunch of others) Easy to read and give a good overview.

The wars of Alexanders succesors (vol. 1 and 2) by Bob Bennet and Mike Roberts where decent allthough I downright hate how little good books are written about the Hellenistic states compared to Rome (and how little we know probably)

Currently I'm reading S.P.Q.R. by Mary Beard and to be honest I cannot recommend this enough. For a non historian like my (or at most an amateur) I find it very spectacular. Not so much in what she describes about the republican age (I'm still at the third century B.C.) but also how good she makes clear about what we know, what we think we know and especially what we only know from highly unreliable sources. It's a great insight in the way one of the top historians of the Roman age goes to work in deciphering what we know, suspect or just guess when looking into such ancient history.

It was a pretty big eye opener to see how little we know about Rome from before 400 B.C. and the transformation of Rome from a pretty average city in Italy towards the highly potential republic mercilessly marching towards greatness in 300 B.C.and how much is not much more then highly unreliable guesswork based on not much more then a painting here, a bit of rubble there and a bunch of myths and legends that probably are less reliable then me guessing the weather in 2 weeks.

 

[Grubnessul]

Luttwak's The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire should be on the dev's reading lists as well...

 

[alvaro]

There is a good scientific article out there called "The Later Roman Empire" by Richard Gerberding; and I'll second @ExtraNoise "SPQR" by Mary Beard (it's a good synthesis of this era in my opinion, a must have). Another good one is Rome Resurgent: War and Empire in the Age of Justinian by Peter Heter.

And for those of you more interested in fiction there is this absolute masterpiece by Marguerite Yourcenar "Memoirs of Hadrian". Read it, you won't be disappointed.

"Later roman empire", "Age of Justinian",...The fall od the roman empire DLC CONFIRMED!

 

[Amallric]

It was a pretty big eye opener to see how little we know about Rome from before 400 B.C. and the transformation of Rome from a pretty average city in Italy towards the highly potential republic mercilessly marching towards greatness in 300 B.C.and how much is not much more then highly unreliable guesswork based on not much more then a painting here, a bit of rubble there and a bunch of myths and legends that probably are less reliable then me guessing the weather in 2 weeks.

A Critical History of Early Rome by Forsythe does the same job. A good book, with lots of bibliography if you want to dig further.

 

[Gurkhal]

A Critical History of Early Rome by Forsythe does the same job. A good book, with lots of bibliography if you want to dig further.

And to this I would also add " The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC)" by T. J. Cornell. A very interesting book dealing with early Rome. Its alot of discussion about when this or that would have happened. For someone who isn't totally immersed in Roman history this was very interesting.

 

[AKronblad]

And for those of you more interested in fiction there is this absolute masterpiece by Marguerite Yourcenar "Memoirs of Hadrian". Read it, you won't be disappointed.

And to this I would also add " The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC)" by T. J. Cornell.

Yep, I can highly recommend the two books above. Memoirs of Hadrian is simply among my best reads ever, all categories. And Beginnings of Rome takes on an interesting uncovered part of Roman history, even though much is of course unknown and speculative.

Can also add In The Name of Rome by Goldsworthy; covering the famous generals, each in his own chapter.

 

[LiberiusX]

Fiction: I, Claudius - Graves, Robert

Nonfiction: There are 2 lecture series by Garrett Fagan on Audible. The History of Ancient Rome and Emperors of Rome.

Both series are good, with the first focusing more on the mechanics and power structures of the Republic, and the crises that led to its demise. It covers the significant military campaigns as well. The second series, obviously, focuses more on the Empire and the Emperors themselves.

As an epilogue, I recommend Philip Daileader's lecture series on the Early Middle Ages, which starts by covering Diocletian's reign and ends at 1100.

 

[J_de_Silentio]

The Storm before the Storm: The Beginning of of the End of the Roman Republic by Mike Duncan is a good read.

I listened to his podcast and while they were short installments, you could tell that he did his research well. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[DeveronMagi]

I greatly enjoy Rubicon by Tom Holland. It is maybe not the best for giving the reader explanation for views and defenses of views, so it's not going to turn you into a historian or anything. But it reads a lot better for it, in my opinion. More like reading a story than a text book. If you're looking for something to help ignite an interest in Roman history, I highly recommend it. The book is largely what caused me to become so interested in Rome in the first place.

The timeline of the book is pretty good too for this game. The majority of the narrative falls between about 200-40BC.

i agree it is very easy read, his other book i really like is persian fire (about the fights between the greeks and Persia)

a more military book i can recommend is Hannibal (i think it is from Richard Gabriel) about the tactics Hannibal used and the famous battles and the formations. It is a bit dry but give you great insights

 

[Susanna]

Tom Holland has also written a sequel to Rubicon; Dynasty, which is about the Julio-Claudian emperors.

 

[Gurkhal]

And now for something entirely different in terms of recommendations! There's been alot of political and military history, so I'll throw in some social history to mix things up a little.

Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks by Robert Garland - I'm reading it right now and I find it interesting, often pointing out little details that I wouldn't have noticed otherwise or I didn't know about life in ancient (Athenian) Greece.

The World of Odysseus by M. I. Finley & Bernard Knox - Deals with the world of Greek Dark Ages

Ancient Greek Agriculture by Signe Isager & Jens Erik Skydsgaard - You can't really understand a society if you don't have a clue about what most people's lives and kind of work in the economy revolved around.

And I've got some more that I'll review when I get time for them, or managed to scrap together money to get my hands on them. Especially works on ancient Greek women which I would love to learn more about, but most of those books a pretty pricy.

But in the meantime on the Roman front, I would ask if people anything to say about these social history titles? Or other titles in the same vein.

Running the Roman Home - Alexandra Croom

Popular Culture in Ancient Rome - J. P. Toner

Mothering and Motherhood in Ancient Greece and Rome - Lauren Hackworth Petersen & Patricia Salzman-Mitchell

 

[Plaid Shirts]

Tom Holland has also written a sequel to Rubicon; Dynasty, which is about the Julio-Claudian emperors.

Thanks for the heads up! I'll have to check that out after finishing up SPQR!

 

[LiberiusX]

And now for something entirely different in terms of recommendations! There's been alot of political and military history, so I'll throw in some social history to mix things up a little.

Running the Roman Home - Alexandra Croom

Popular Culture in Ancient Rome - J. P. Toner

Mothering and Motherhood in Ancient Greece and Rome - Lauren Hackworth Petersen & Patricia Salzman-Mitchell

Dr. Fagan(from the lecture series I mentioned above) is of the opinion that we don't know much about Plebeian and Slave household and social life. IIRC this is due to the fact that historians, mostly from the Patrician class, bothered to mention much about them other than as a group.

I wonder how these books draw meaningful conclusions if we don't really know much about the social history of the majority of the population? If you try them, please fill us in.

 

[Gurkhal]

Dr. Fagan(from the lecture series I mentioned above) is of the opinion that we don't know much about Plebeian and Slave household and social life. IIRC this is due to the fact that historians, mostly from the Patrician class, bothered to mention much about them other than as a group.

I wonder how these books draw meaningful conclusions if we don't really know much about the social history of the majority of the population? If you try them, please fill us in.

Well, I'd suspect they base most of it on archeology and literary pieces from here and there.

I'm a bit discouraged from Faban's series if he don't see the vast worth that archeological work brings to the Classical field. In the case of the Roman world we for example have the ruins of Pompei which has with it a wealth of information about daily life of the lower classes.

 

[HottestRod]

Yep, I can highly recommend the two books above. Memoirs of Hadrian is simply among my best reads ever, all categories. And Beginnings of Rome takes on an interesting uncovered part of Roman history, even though much is of course unknown and speculative.

Can also add In The Name of Rome by Goldsworthy; covering the famous generals, each in his own chapter.

In The Name of Rome is a must read too! Listen to AKronblad guys!