Essential Works of History of the Roman Empire

[Specter1075]

Hello all!

I want to first say that I apologize for asking the type of question that most likely gets asked by many people new to these boards. I have spent the last few hours reading and searching, and feel I should now ask my question.

 

I have been bitten by the Roman History bug. I have, over the last few months, read M. Cary's History of Rome Down to the Reign of Constantine, Mommsen's History of Rome, Caesar's Gallic, Civil, and Alexandrian/Spanish/African Wars, and am now finishing up Syme's Roman Revolution. This said, I have been reading quite about about the Republican period, and want to move along to the Empire. I know that Mommsen and Syme's works are considered especially important in the study of Roman History. I also have Gibbon on my list, but my understanding is that his work starts around 98CE, which skips over the early part of the Empire. I was wondering first, if there any indispensible histories of the first three hundred years of the Empire that are of the same prestige that one sees in Mommsen or Gibbon? If not, I am wondering what works other members here find indespensible for this period of history.

 

I have heard that Anthony Everitt's works on Augustus and Hadrian are good, and have them on my list. It is my hope that before digging into more focused works such as these, that I may read histories that cover larger segments of time during the Empire. Any direction would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thank you in advance!

[GhostOfClayton]

An (only slightly) fictionalised work covering a big slice of that period is, of course, 'I Claudius'.

[Number Six]

It's always a good idea to read broad works such as Mommsen's History of Rome, although I am not a great follower of most of Mommsen's ideas (nevertheless he has my foremost respect). You must be careful when you read works suchs as Mommsen's or Gibbon's, but I guess you will learn it over time by yourself.

 

If you read Italian I could suggest Santo Mazzarino's L'impero romano, but it has not been translated to English, like most of his works (Mazzarino was a great mind and a leading historian; you should note his The end of the ancient world, for when you move onto late antiquity).

 

Anyway, an author of similar prestige as Mommsen (but truly there is nobody like Mommsen) is Rostovtzeff, The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire, definitely a must-read at some point, like Mommsen and Gibbon (but you should 'correct' it with The Ancient Economy by Moses Finley). And do not forget the so called fifth book of Mommsen's history fo Rome: The provinces of the Roman empire from Caesar to Diocletian.

 

You could read authors such as Bury (which I do not suggest), the mentor of Runciman, but he's a late 19th century historian, you'd get the wrong picture from him (as you probably got from Mommsen, though). As a beginner, I believe you should rather go for more recent historians, not earlier than those who were still publishing during Sixties. Also, I'm not a great fan of general histories of the Roman eras, I would rather suggest you to focus on specific issues and monographies, but of course you'll probably need a guide book in order to put all of those pieces together.

 

About the original sources: Tacitus, Suetonius, Ammianus Marcellinus, Cassius Dio, Zosimus (but he mostly covers late antiquity): they're all solid writers, beside sources for Roman history. Beside them, there are plenty of other historians and sources, of course, but those five ones are something along the lines of Caesar's works, which you said you read.

 

When you decide to move onto the late empire, ask again, it's one of my specific fields.

But if you decide to start considering the religious history of the Empire already, don't read anything before you read MacMullen's Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Number Six

[Pompieus]

You could also check your library for the relevant volumes of the Cambridge Ancient History (X-XII).  Yes they're a bit stodgy and conservative, but there is a new edition now, the contributors are major scholars and the bibliography is exhaustive.