(Part 3) Best products from r/ancientrome

I know this is /r/ancientrome, but Plato's Republic is superb, and an amazing place to start, as it is a book in most Intro to Philosophy courses. You see, the Romans were weak on philosophy; much of it was borrowed from the Greeks.

The big Roman philosophy is Stoicism - for a bit of that, I'd recommend reading up on Seneca.

If you're looking for a big catch-all book, I'd recommend Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy. You can focus on the beginning portion of it, of course.

One of the best and most dramatic works I can recommend is The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic, by Robert L. O'Connell. The battle of Cannae was a turning point for Rome, and O'Connell captures the horror and drama of the battle and surrounding events excellently. I HIGHLY recommend it.

In terms of Roman historians... It really depends on what period you're looking at. Want an awesome insight into the military? Go with Caesar's Commentaries of the Conquest of Gaul. Punic Wars? Check out Livy. Definitely check out Plutarch's Parallel Lives as well.

Of course, the quintessential book on the Roman Empire is Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. One can hardly consider themselves a Roman scholar without reading it, and nearly every historian will refer to it at some point.

Oh! And there's an interesting one I came across, for a bit more of a lower-look. By a Roman no less! Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome*, by Apicius is very interesting. Might not be worth it to put on your list, but definitely check it out.

TL;DR: If I have to pick two to add, take the Ghosts of Cannae and Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By a Roman, pick from what's relevant.

Just a heads up that Landmark Pantheon is publishing The Landmark Julius Caesar with an expected October release. If I'm reading the fuzzy cover right, it's a new translation by Kurt Raaflaub but the other Landmark books are top notch with great maps, annotations, and a lot of other good stuff.

I just read Philip Matyszak's "Legionary: The Roman Soldier's (Unofficial) Manual" and really enjoyed it.

It's kind of a witty/snarky book at times, written from the perspective of someone giving advice to an ancient Roman entering the military.

Everyone else on here has also given great advice for books to read :)

Here is a easy read on all things Roman.
Veni, Vidi, Vici: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Romans But Were Afraid to Ask

https://www.amazon.com/Veni-Vidi-Vici-Everything-Wanted/dp/1782393900

Easy read. Accurate info in bite size chunks.

SPQR is awesome.

Mary Beard made a TV show called, Meet the Romans. It is a tv version of SPQR. It is on Amazon prime and you can find bootlegs on youtube.

All the questions you've asked have incredibly complex answers to the point where entire books have been written on each. Unfortunately any succinct efforts we put in here would be about on par with Wikipedia and so you'd be better off just going there if you're a day away from submission. If you're interested in some research books, I can suggest the following:

Rome: An Empire's Story

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

The Fall of the Roman Empire

There are a million more but these are the three that I've personally read.

Of course your primary sources like Tacitus and Livy are available for free online.

Other less citable but more succinct (and free) sources are available in the form of the History of Rome Podcast (listen to episode 179 - The End and the episodes dealing with the slave revolts) and in the In Our Time: History Archives (look into the 5-6 episodes on Rome).

If you are interested in the food of the time, I wrote a novel about the ancient Roman gourmand, Apicius, Feast of Sorrow. Set in the time of Augustus and Tiberius. There is also a companion cookbook with modern recipe recreations available for free download here, as well as a ton of information about ancient Roman food.

However even after that point the Romans still considered their state a Republic. Emperors remained as such by maintaining their legitimacy. By cultivating good relations with the Army, nobility, Clergy, and Capital residents.


I suggest the Byzantine Republic by Anthony Kaldellis. It's a good read and gives a very enlightening insight into the late Roman mindset and governmental systems

https://www.amazon.com/Byzantine-Republic-People-Power-Rome/dp/0674365402

If you're set on a book that's a fairly broad discussion of Rome, Mary Beard's SPQR is one of the better ones I've read, though it stops at 212 A.D. and doesn't go all the way through the fall of the Western Roman Empire, so you will want something else for that. Anytime this question comes up though, I have to add a caveat: the best introductory material on Rome I've ever found isn't a book but a podcast: The History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan. There really is no better introduction to get the basic story of the whole history of Rome from it's mythical beginnings to the end of the Western Roman Empire and in my opinion this is the true answer to your question.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Romes-Enemies-Germanics-Dacians-Men-at-arms/dp/0850454735/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=B65KEDMP3PYTV9B2FJN4 The men at arms books do a whole selection of the barbarians on the Roman border, I've been very interested about this topic as well and the great part about this series is even if you're looking at a very specific group of barbarians there is often a book on them.

A rare detailed, sourced answer on this sub. Kudos. The value of Potter's approach is the way he places Constantine's religious self-imagining in the context of recent imperial models and his focus on the evidence of coinage and iconography, which allows us to trace developments over Constantine's time in power.

There were of course some Christians in the countryside during Constantine's reign. Athanasius' Life of Antony provides anecdotal evidence for this in late third and early fourth century Egypt, which is backed up by documentary evidence. One interesting petition dated to 324, for instance, makes casual mention of a monk and a deacon strolling about in the fields just outside an Egyptian village. Anyone interested in more information on the evidence from papyri might consult Luijendijk's Greetings in the Lord or Choat's Belief and Cult in Fourth-Century Papyri.

Caesar and Christ: The Story of Civilization, Volume III by Will Durant is what I read immediately after, and it is both comprehensive and beautifully written. Also, you can continue his series into late antiquity through the medieval period with The Age of Faith: The Story of Civilization, Volume IV.