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Greetings! I am looking for an introduction to roman, and by extension greek, history and culture, to serve as a basis for Gibbon's Decline and Fall. I am also interested, although it is less of a concern to me, in learning more about colonial America, the french revolution, the Napoleonic wars and the history of the british isles in general. If lains could recommend me books pertaining to these topics, I'd be much obliged. I would also like for this thread to serve as a way for lains to know which books are considered the best, not only content-wise but also in regards to style and readability, for each topic of world history. Cheers!

>>11903 I've only studied greece/rome from a philosophy/poli-sci interest, but texts I read that I enjoyed in a rough order: learning about greece: ~ illiad ~ odyssey ~ all of socrates/plato ~ thucydide's pp war greece + rome: plutarch's lives (as many as you can get hands on) learning about rome: ~ all of livy ~ caesar's gallic campaign + the two other books ~ tacitus ~ seutonius 12 caesars ~ new testament ~ marcus aurelius meditations they are all "primary" sources because reading some dudes summary of what someone said when we have the original texts seems silly to me (aside from areas where textual record is fragmentary etc.). theres more but i've forgotten them for now, ill check the bookshelf tomorrow. also apologies for spp. errors, late and feeling lazy.

In addition to the excellent suggestions above, Polybius' Histories might be of interest to you.

The ruling class history by Gibbon really needs a counterbalance to understand the broader scope of Roman history. Here's a few books that have greatly expanded my understanding of Rome after a somewhat biased education in college on the subject: The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome by Michael Parenti The Storm Before The Storm by Mike Duncan The Collapse of Antiquity by Michael Hudson

>>11904 >they are all "primary" sources because reading some dudes summary of what someone said when we have the original texts seems silly to me This is far but I do think that there is a non trivial amount of archaeological evidence outside of books which adds considerable insight on certain topics. Perhaps less for philosophy and politics. I'd also add that its a little ridiculous to call such sources as those roman historians primary sources. Livy is writing about events starting some seven hundred years before his life (more or less). He is certainly closer to the events than we are, and perhaps the closest in some cases that's available, but there's a huge difference between firsthand reporting and most roman Historians. Tacitus, as I recall, has a tiny dash of his own accounts but again, most of his work is about events well before his time and is simply taken from sources to which we now have no access.

>>11910 >I'd also add that its a little ridiculous to call such sources as those roman historians primary sources. hence the quotations around primary e.g; "primary" guess i could've made it more obvious >tacitus lived AD 56-120 annals+histories cover AD 14 - 69* (end of surviving text) seems unfair to call it "well before his time" agricola covers 77-83ish, which is contemporary as well >thucydides lived (and iirc fought in) during the pp war >suetonius AD 69 - 122 writing covers ~40 BC - 96 AD so roughly contemporary also had direct access to imperial archives iirc >m aurelius/plato/socrates self-authored >caesars gallic campaign self authored >the other two caesar texts probably not by caesar, but also authored by people who lived+fought them iirc is the best guess >>11905 this was one that i'd forgotten, good to read +1 texts that i'd forgotten: ~ sallust (catilines war, jugurthine war, histories) ~ early chapters of augustines city of god cover some pagan vs christian conflict (the rest is also cozy but very long) ~ ammianus marcellinus the later roman empire ~ boethius consolation of philosophy ~ xenophon history of my times ~ herodotus the histories not history but fun cultural background: ~ ovid metamorphoses lmk if you want more early christian stuff i can poke around the shelf

>>11903 Definitely recommend Xenophons Anaebasis. First person account of Xenophon and his army’s travels. Definitely a propaganda piece and most likely embellished. However it does show an interesting insight on how the Greeks saw themselves and how they saw the other peoples they came into contact with. If nothing else it’s a very entertaining read.

>>11903 josephus is also good to read i'd recommend reading 'antiquities of the jews' (books 11-20) and wars of the jews. the william whiston translation (~1700s) seems fine, so you should be able to find a cheap reprint somewhere.