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Interested in reading up on the Roman civil wars or Rome in general. What books do you gentlemen recommend for my educational and reading pleasure?

Iuguolo Inimicus wrote:Interested in reading up on the Roman civil wars or Rome in general. What books do you gentlemen recommend for my educational and reading pleasure?

as the authors can be understood without understanding french, try:

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?25428-livres-historiques


also:

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?25269-Books-to-read-fiction-or-non-fiction

and my favorite while traveling lately, podcasts

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?25531-Scenario-related-podcasts

If you want historical novels that cover the Triumvirs period it's hard to do better than Colleen McCollough. The best history book I've read is Arthur Ferrill's 'The Fall of Rome: The Military Explanation', although of course this covers more the latter Empire than the late Republic. In any event though so much has been done (books, films, games) on the Triumvirs and the late Republic that I find the latter Empire much more interesting.

Tom hollands"Rubicon-the last years of the republic",anything by Adrian goldsworthy,The spartucus Wars by barry Strauss and the legion series by Stephen Dando-Collins to name a few.

MarsRobert wrote:If you want historical novels that cover the Triumvirs period it's hard to do better than Colleen McCollough. The best history book I've read is Arthur Ferrill's 'The Fall of Rome: The Military Explanation', although of course this covers more the latter Empire than the late Republic. In any event though so much has been done (books, films, games) on the Triumvirs and the late Republic that I find the latter Empire much more interesting.

I actually came upon Ms. McCollough's book "First in Rome." Actually ordered it on Saturday and it is supposed to arrive today. It looked interesting and had so many good reviews. Unsure about historical novel aspect but I figured I'd try it out. Right now I think I'm more interested in early Rome and the time period through Augustus' death. I have read some stuff by Adrian Goldsworthy on Carthage and Punic Wars, very interesting.

barkmann44 wrote:Tom hollands"Rubicon-the last years of the republic",anything by Adrian goldsworthy,The spartucus Wars by barry Strauss and the legion series by Stephen Dando-Collins to name a few.

Got some Goldsworthy, like his stuff very much. Was looking at Rubicon but didn't purchase yet. Figured I'd come back to it. I'll have to take a look at Strauss.

Yes Goldsworthy is THE best I have "How Rome Fell","THe Fall of Carthage","Caeser","In The Name of Rome","The Punic War's".Give Holland a try you won't be disappointed.
Strauss's book is a good,researched book as are Dando-collins series on the legions,the one on the 3rd gallica is especially good.

Not a book, but the History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan is excellent.

h ttp://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/

Sorry about the modified link but I am not allowed to post a link to another site until I have 5 or more posts, spam protection I guess.

The Complete Roman Legions by Nigel Pollard and Joanne Berry gives an interesting several pages of information about each legion, its campaigns and location - very useful for scenario design (lots of pretty pictures and maps as well). I also recently got The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third by Edward Luttwak which I have just started - also looks very interesting.

Roman Warfare by Goldsworthy is a good introduction - well written with colourful maps and images.

I can also suggest some books from Adrian Goldsworthy like the "Roman Legions" and the "Complete Roman Army" - very interesting indeed...with images and good pictures and some maps...

Hohenlohe

Let me recommend to you "Mithridates the Great - Rome's Indomitable Enemy" by Philip Matyszak (2008, Pen and Sword editions).

A much enjoyable read

Iuguolo Inimicus wrote:Interested in reading up on the Roman civil wars or Rome in general. What books do you gentlemen recommend for my educational and reading pleasure?

The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, by Edward Luttwak. A well written attempt to define the evolution of the strategic directives used by the empire, from the "hegemonic empire" to the "regional defense"

Iuguolo Inimicus wrote:I actually came upon Ms. McCollough's book "First in Rome." Actually ordered it on Saturday and it is supposed to arrive today. It looked interesting and had so many good reviews. Unsure about historical novel aspect but I figured I'd try it out. Right now I think I'm more interested in early Rome and the time period through Augustus' death. I have read some stuff by Adrian Goldsworthy on Carthage and Punic Wars, very interesting.

Reading "First in Rome" at the moment. After giving up on a few sub-Sharpe type roman novels this one hits the spot for me.

Anything from Adrian Goldsworthy is good, Punic Wars helped with the 1st Punic war. His book on Caesar and his book on Anthony& Cleopatra are both good but somewhat similar so you may want to read something in between them, or skim a bit. His book on the Fall of Rome is good but out of the games timeframe (mostly, re: Severus). My main recommendation is Sertorious and the Legacy of Sulla, which from what I can tell is the main book about Sertorious in English. It was published in the late 1980's and is a proper academic monograph.

If you are interested in military history I recommend the OSPREY series: Warrior, Men-at-Arms, Elite and Campaign. They are incredible good books about the Roman Army during Republic, Civil War Era and Principat.

Has anyone read "Marius' Mules" by S.J.A. Turney? The series looks interesting.

pantsukki wrote:Has anyone read "Marius' Mules" by S.J.A. Turney? The series looks interesting.

If anyone else in intrigued by the series, I'd recommend to give them a try. Especially since they are ridiculously cheap, about 3$ for Kindle versions. I'm currently reading the third volume. The books are far from perfect, but still quite enjoyable. Although I really dislike the author's portrayal of Caesar.

barkmann44 wrote:Tom hollands"Rubicon-the last years of the republic",anything by Adrian goldsworthy,The spartucus Wars by barry Strauss and the legion series by Stephen Dando-Collins to name a few.

I agree that anything by Adrian Goldsworthy is well worth reading. Not only is the information solid, he writes very well, and keeps it interesting, unlike some other academics.

"Ancient Rome - A military and political history" and "The breakdown of the roman republic" both by Christopher S. Mackay are two good books.

Although it should by no means be the only book you look at on the subject, you could do worse than to read Ronald Symes' Roman Revolution. It's a classic, but be sure it's not the only thing you read on the subject.

Symes is a major figure, and half the fun is getting a handle on just how big the axe he has to grind actually is (his comment about history viewed through the blood-red lenses of Marxist-Leninism is priceless).

Last I looked it was available through Amazon.

I just re-read an older historical novel (from the 1980's) 'The Eagle and the Raven' by Pauline Gedge and recommend it. It's set during the Roman conquest of Britain and tells the story from the perspective of the Britons. It's still available on Amazon.

I would highly recommend Robert O'Connell's The Ghosts of Cannae. It covers the battle in great detail (and offers much on the Second Punic War), the rise of Scipio Africanus and how the disenfranchised Cannae survivors formed the hard core of the army that finally beat Hannibal at Zama. A very readable account that oozes authenticity but will probably be controversial in some quarters.

-C

Random wrote:I would highly recommend Robert O'Connell's The Ghosts of Cannae. It covers the battle in great detail (and offers much on the Second Punic War), the rise of Scipio Africanus and how the disenfranchised Cannae survivors formed the hard core of the army that finally beat Hannibal at Zama. A very readable account that oozes authenticity but will probably be controversial in some quarters.

-C

Thank you, bought and downloading to ipad

Looks good indeed

Cheers

google Hannibals Dynasty, by D Hoyos, you will find it for free as a pdf, and is a first rate read, its worth buying as its now cheap on amazon, but not as cheap as free!

Put this on your must read list.

Legions of Rome: The Definitive History of Every Imperial Roman Legion by Stephen Dando-Collins.

I found the prose clean and readable; the book is for the general public, so there's little in the way of foot notes. But it's still an excellent military history.

Straight Arrow wrote:Put this on your must read list.

Legions of Rome: The Definitive History of Every Imperial Roman Legion by Stephen Dando-Collins.

I found the prose clean and readable; the book is for the general public, so there's little in the way of foot notes. But it's still an excellent military history.

I also found this a great read. One thing this book did for me was to finally provide a peg to remember each legion which formerly were simply numbers.

"The complete Roman Legions" by Nigel Pollard is also a good read.

The last one I read and enjoyed very much was "The Ghosts of Cannae" by Robert O'Connel. A refreshing look on the 2PW.


Regards

http://bastudio.eu/?c=2&p=29676

More free things we all should have!

I'm sorry but I do not believe that anyone has mentioned Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert. If it fits into the query of Roman history. Forgive me but I just recently discovered this book and completed reading it. I have no idea if it is popular or not, but it is available for free on Kindle. As it is still fresh in my mind, I frown upon calling it my favorite read of all time, knowing well that I feel a certain way about all the books I read shortly after completing them.

Salammbo deals with The Mercenary War, which happens to be one of the scenarios of AJE, I believe it is around 48 turns. A good description is detailed in game and it plays kind of similar to the novel with characters properly noted. The author seemingly studied the historical works of Polybius and his detailing of the conflict. The book was written around 1850. The books imagery, in my opinion, is second to none. There is criticism that there is hardly any character development, I believe that this piece of literature was to be taken as an account of the history to be believed as a storyteller would have in 200 BC. The characters themselves have no control of their decisions but rely upon who they are and what they end up doing is almost as important as what they do not do while being entangled and in predicament of savagery war. The players are definitely explained well, and portrayed as if one was looking directly through their eyes but only to quell the unspeakable horror that they are dealt with through being the ones to act, that is why they are the players. My proof is in the exorbitant amount of details regarding everyday devices of that era with so non-chalantly are used at will. One might need a certain book to decipher but only if one were not daft enough to recognize linguistic clues to what these items were.

I think there may have been a comic book treatment of Salammbo, though I may be thinking of a computer game that is available on Steam (and probably other places). I have never summoned up the courage to buy it so I can't comment on how closely it does or does not follow the novel. But the costumes and setting don't particularly look like what I would expect to see in 3rd century Carthage.