I have had an itch for the history of the Roman Republic for almost a year now. No YouTube video, Veeky Forums thread, or Reddit post would drive this preoccupation away.
Looks like reading a book about the subject is inescapable. Though I'd rather invest that time in something else. What's the best book about the Republic (especially the last century) would kill this itch once and for all?
I just want a book that would give me a high-school tier knowledge of the Roman Republic up until Augustus. You know, a normie book about Romans.
>Looks like reading a book about the subject is inescapable. Though I'd rather invest that time in something else. >I just want a book that would give me a high-school tier knowledge of the Roman Republic up until Augustus. > a normie book about Romans.
history of rome podcast on spotify you utter pleb
Christian Sullivan
if it's not in latin it's not worth reading.
Hudson Green
Interested in this too, what's the best book that takes me from the beginning of the roman empire all the way up to its collapse?
Charles Hill
Go for Livy's work is you want an entertaining and quick read about the early history.
Jaxson Ross
Too much time. I would read 10 books in the time the podcast takes.
Ian James
It's good that you want to read a book about the Roman republic, because you clearly can't see the difference between the Republic and the Empire on a map.
Austin Murphy
OP was asking about the Republic -- I'd go with Anthony Everitt's "Rise of Rome" as a good overview from the legends of the founding of the city up until close to the end of the Republic. His biographies of Cicero and Augustus would catch you up the rest of the way. Goldsworthy's Augusts is better, in my opinion, if you want to mix up authors a bit.
Avoid, yay like even unto how thou wouldst avoid the plague, the "biography" of Catiline/Catilina by Francis Galassi. Absolutely the worst book on any topic I have ever read, rife with misapplying modern political thought and motives to ancient contexts, polus making shit up to justify his man-crush on Catiline, to confusing basic concepts like Patrician/Plebian vs. Optimate/Popularis. Only book I can recall I ever stopped reading halfway through -- it was that bad.
Christian Wilson
Good read, but bear in mind as you read that Livy had an axe to grind and a distinct point of view.
Ryan Baker
Forgot to add, I know of no good single book on the history of the Empire to the end of same, other than Gibbons's "Decline and Fall," which is dated now; more worth reading as an artifact of how history was studied than as a history of Rome. Still, it gets your feet wet.
Logan Nguyen
I knew it was the Empire you shitlord. I just typed "map of roman conquest" and took the most good looking one.
Charles Thompson
>to confusing basic concepts like Patrician/Plebian vs. Optimate/Popularis >Plebian >Popularis It's "plebeian" and "populares".
"Popularis" is the adjective in the nominative and genitive singular, but you need the mixed declension noun in the nominative plural. "Plebian" is just wrong.
Connor Wood
Gotta put all those hours wasted on Latin lesson to use.
Kevin Jackson
This, great read, would highly reccomend, ticked all my autism boxes with information but was very fun to read.
Easton Mitchell
>wasted on Latin lesson It's "lessons". Plural.
Julian Foster
We all have our regrets, user. Just learn to live with yours.
Owen Lewis
Nice recommendations. What about the Republican civil wars -- Sulla v. Mauritius and Caesar v. Pompey -- which books should I read?
Nathan Morgan
...
Logan Davis
I approve of this guide. Plebeians who don't want to be patronised but are afraid to have technical stuff thrown at them will find this useful.
Adrian Robinson
What was the origin of the "Gaius & Aulus Bros 4 LIFE" again?
Makes me giggle.
Connor Long
There's an inscription in Pompeii written by them, it follows: >I.7.8 (bar; left of the door); 8162: We two dear men, friends forever, were here. If you want to know our names, they are Gaius and Aulus.
A friendship that lasts 2000 years
Liam Perry
It was Graffiti from some wall in Pompey I believe.
Read Livy >Scipio, when he looked upon the city as it was utterly perishing and in the last throes of its complete destruction, is said to have shed tears and wept openly for his enemies. After being wrapped in thought for long, and realizing that all cities, nations, and authorities must, like men, meet their doom; that this happened to Ilium, once a prosperous city, to the empires of Assyria, Media, and Persia, the greatest of their time, and to Macedonia itself, the brilliance of which was so recent, either deliberately or the verses escaping him, he said:
>A day will come when sacred Troy shall perish, >And Priam and his people shall be slain. >And when Polybius speaking with freedom to him, for he was his teacher, asked him what he meant by the words, they say that without any attempt at concealment he named his own country, for which he feared when he reflected on the fate of all things human. Polybius actually heard him and recalls it in his history.
Angel Carter
Oh, man, that makes it even better.
Aaron Lewis
I meant Polybius obviously, dammit.
Evan Long
>Read Livy
I am not big on piracy. Have you gotten a link to a decent translation? If not for Livy, then maybe Commentarii De Bello Gallico
Oliver Bailey
you couldnt just google riman republic pdfs?
youre lazy and dont deserve to know about glorious Roma.
Angel Thompson
>Commentarii De Bello Gallico Just wait until October. Landmark publications is coming out with their collected Caesar works. I fucking loved their Herodotus and Arrian versions, so I'm happy to see Caesar's gonna get the classy treatment finally. a.co/0k8wo3U What's the best version of Polybius to get? I was looking at Oxford classics
Isaac Parker
Just go to Project Gutenberg.com
Every ancient book is there, translations and original
Kevin Walker
>Asked for pirated books >links to $39 hard cover book
WEW LAD EE W W
L L A A D D
Ethan Ortiz
his suggestion is excellent.
Jonathan Peterson
bump
Nathaniel Ortiz
...
John Rogers
>asks about the republic >posts a picture of the empire at its height Fucking kys OP