Recommendations you can check.
British historian, translator and broadcaster; author of Rubicon and Dominion and co-host of The Rest Is History podcast.
5 things
The Twelve CaesarsBook Suetonius
Suetonius's work is a collection of biographies of the first 12 Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar through to Domitian. And it really had a crucial sense of shaping our understanding of Imperial Rome as a place of vice and savagery and sexual depravity and violent, brutal, bawdy splendour.
Five Books interview on the best books about ancient Rome
2011-09-13·fivebooks.com ↗
The Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireBook Edward Gibbon
But the truth is that it remains incredibly readable. As I said before, it takes Tacitus as its model, who was famous for his waspish style, and a careful balancing and modulating of the sentences so that irony would be generated. This is what Gibbon does as well, and it means that not only is it an incredible work of scholarship but it is also compulsively entertaining. I really think that anyone who is prepared to give it a chance will find themselves smiling at the very least throughout it.
Five Books interview on the best books about ancient Rome
2011-09-13·fivebooks.com ↗
The Roman RevolutionBook Ronald Syme
This again is an absolute classic which is completely informed by Tacitus. It has that very mordant take on the way that power works and operates.
Five Books interview on the best books about ancient Rome
2011-09-13·fivebooks.com ↗
The Roman TriumphBook Mary Beard
But there is also a deep pleasure in looking at some of the things that we think we know about Rome, or the myths that we know are not actually true, taking the mystery to pieces and examining the works and seeing what is there. This is what Mary Beard does in her book.
Five Books interview on the best books about ancient Rome
2011-09-13·fivebooks.com ↗
Pagans and ChristiansBook Robin Lane Fox
Robin Lane Fox's book is the best modern account that I can think of which will give people the sense of how this remarkable revolution took place.
Five Books interview on the best books about ancient Rome
2011-09-13·fivebooks.com ↗
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