Ancient History Book Recomendation Thread

[comme]

Nicephoras told me he was going to start this, but I thought I might as well get on with it

My own area is reception studies, in particular of Classical Sparta, but I will try to be a bit broader for this thread.

I'll start of with the most obvious ones, then move on to some of my personal favourites.

Primary sources first

Herodotus-Histories

Thucydides- History of the Peloponnesian War

Xenophon- Hellenica

Xenophon-Anabasis

Plutarch- Lives

Oxhyrnchus Historian-Fragments

Livy-History of Rome

Tacitus-The Annals

[comme]

Secondary sources

Some of thse might be a bit specialised for more general readers, but all are very interesting.

Steve Hodkinson-Property and Wealth, Hodkinson and Powell-The Shadow of Sparta, Sparta beyond the Mirage-

Paul Cartledge- Agesilaos, or Sparta and Lakonia. Steer clear of his modern work, he has started to chase the money with populist, simplistic and generally poor works.

Trevor Buckley- Aspects of Greek History- The best introduction to the subject

GEM de ste. Croix- Origins of the Peloponnesian War

Stephen Todd- The shape of Athenian Law- Also look out for a forthcoming work on Lysias.

Hornblower- The Greek World

Moses Finley- The Ancient Economy

Rawson- The Spartan Tradition in European Thought- seminal work

Meiggs- The Athenian Empire

Buckler- The Theban Hegemony

Also goes without saying (but I'll say it all the same) the CAH is magnificent, if your library has a copy, I have no idea what it would cost to buy the whole thing.

[nicephoras]

Thanks comme. I wrote a post starting this thread on my laptop, only for my router to die yet again. Once I rescue it, I'll post the Roman history list.
Out of curiosity, have you read Rostoftzeff's works on the ancient economy?

[comme]

Thanks comme. I wrote a post starting this thread on my laptop, only for my router to die yet again. Once I rescue it, I'll post the Roman history list.
Out of curiosity, have you read Rostoftzeff's works on the ancient economy?

No I must admit I haven't.

Is it worth reading?

[nicephoras]

I've only read pieces myself. Its.....interesting, and extremely cynical. He saw the whole Mediterranean world as a mercantile construct, one which was also very fragile.

[Pilum]

I found Josephus' work quite interesting. Mainly for the Jewish War as I like my Roman history, but also Antiquities is worth a read just to 'compare and contrast' to the way the Old Testament was 'officially' written.

[comme]

If you are interested in the Ancient Economy then Property and Wealth, by Hodkinson is definitely worth a read.

He worked under Finley at Oxford, and is an incredible man. His work on Spartan land holdings has effectively disproved theories which had endured from the Hellenistic period.

[nicephoras]

I've heard the name, but haven't read him. How do you like Finley's work?

[comme]

I'm a massive admirer of Finley's, not just on the Ancient Economy. He wrote a wonderful book on the historicism of Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon.

Most of the people I have spoken to about him say he was particularly illuminating in person.

[nicephoras]

I've read some of Finley as well, seemed interesting. The only "big" name in ancient history that I know personally is Erich Gruen, and he's a very nice guy. I've met Geoffrey Parker (not an ancient historian), who "taught" at my undergraduate university, but "collected paycheck" describes his time there a lot better.

[comme]

Alot of academics are like that, most see (in some cases rightly) teaching as a waste of time they could spend researching.

In the UK the Ancient History community is pretty small, everyone knows everyone else (at least among the big names) and most are very accomodating if you are interested in talking to them.

Sad to admit, but I have found myself almost star struck a couple of times. I met Cartledge one time and couldn't really hear what he was saying so just nodded, until I found he had been asking me questions.

[nicephoras]

Heh. For me Gruen is my "grandfather", since I studied under one of his students, so it was very cool meeting him. But he was quite nice and actually encouraged me to take a graduate seminar, which I did. It was actually sort of nice to be in a class with grad students in history while I was in law school. I learned a lot of interesting things that semester, including quite a bit about Alexandrian citizenship, which is apparently as complicated a question as anything else in ancient history. (Which, of course, made me laugh at the last episode of Rome, but beggars can't be choosers.)
I will admit that it took me multiple classes to muster up the courage to actually speak in the graduate seminar I was taking with Gruen.

[Dr. Wankler]

Nicephoras told me he was going to start this, but I thought I might as well get on with it

My own area is reception studies, in particular of Classical Sparta, but I will try to be a bit broader for this thread.

I'll start of with the most obvious ones, then move on to some of my personal favourites.

Primary sources first

Herodotus-Histories

Thucydides- History of the Peloponnesian War

Xenophon- Hellenica

Xenophon-Anabasis

Plutarch- Lives

Oxhyrnchus Historian-Fragments

Livy-History of Rome

Tacitus-The Annals

What? Where's "Suetonius-The Twelve Caesars"?

Okay, granted accuracy isn't exactly his strong suit, but he can be damned entertaining, as can some of the others you mention.

[nicephoras]

Comme is doing the Greek primary sources. Once I rescue my post from the Evil Router I'll post the Roman primary sources.

[Dr. Wankler]

Comme is doing the Greek primary sources. Once I rescue my post from the Evil Router I'll post the Roman primary sources.

Livy and Tacitus are Greek?

[comme]

I started doing just Greek works, then ended up tacking a couple of particularly significant/important Roman works on.

My list was by no means exhaustive.

[nicephoras]

This was supposed to have been the first post in this thread. Thanks to comme for kicking me off and for spurring my struggle with my Evil Router (tm). The router won, sadly, but there's now someone else's network in my apartment. :)

At any rate, here we go - primary sources, first:

Polybius - the pet philosopher of Scipio Aemilianus who witnessed the fall of Carthage firsthand. A noble Greek he provides us early insights into Roman politics, Roman law/constitution issues and of course Carthage. He's also one of our best sources for Ptolemaic Egypt.
Cato the Censor - the grandfather of Cato the stoic, the Censor was a very conservative old coot who wrote multiple tracts which are not so much historical as they are topical. Some interesting reading, especially on the social structure of Rome.
Sallust - a Caesarian commander in the civil war he was removed from his post in Africa province for corruption (which means he was particularly venal - you were expected to loot your province). He wrote plaintive letters to Caesar but also wrote a biased history of the Catiline rebellion, a history of the Jugurthine war and other events. Like so many ancient historians, much of his work is lost.
Livy - much of what Livy wrote about the earliest periods of Rome is hard to credit. Nevertheless he provides the origins of Rome, even if many of them are half-fables. However, much of Livy's later work is absolutely invaluable. He is surprisingly well preserved.
Caesar's Commentaries are, of course, self evident. It is likely that his later Gallic dispatches and especially his De Bello Alexandrino were ghost written by his secretary Hirtius (later the consul whose death right after Antony's defeat handed Rome to Octavian). Nevertheless, they served as a classic text for centuries. Caesar also published an Anti-Cato to blacken Cato's reputation, a surprising move considering Caesar's personality. It is believe Cecero wrote a Pro-Cato.
Cicero - Cicero fancied himself a more important person than he was. (He was certainly never as important as he hoped he was.) However, Cicero was the acknowledged orator of his age, and due to the tireless efforts of his secretary Tiro many of his speeches remain. It should be noted that Cicero's speeches are of suspect authenticity - he was a vain man and was not above changing them in publication. Cicero also wrote a great deal on philosophy and rhetoric. His philosophical works are mediocre. I've always thought he was the world's first bourgeoise lawyer, in the worst sense of the term.
Dio Cassius - writing in the second century, much of his work is lost. However, he was a Senator and familiar with Roman history. He provides details about many events in the first century B.C.
Tacitus - the great chronicler of Domitian's reign. Tacitus's annals stand as some of the finest history of the Roman period, and his Germania is very important for what it says about Romans (moreso than Germans, really). Tacitus was a very highly placed official (and the son in law of the conqueror of Scotland Agricola) and was close to Domitian's inner circle. Recent scholarship has suggested that he may have overstated the case for Domitian's "evil", since, as he admitted, he needed to justify sitting at the same positions under Trajan that he did under Domitian. Nevertheless, a fascinating read. Stylistically and academically probably the greatest of Rome's historians.
Appian - a writer who lived under Trajan and worked as a lawyer in Rome. His work on the civil wars is of great factual assistance. Much of it survives. It does not make for great reading.
Suetonius - the 12 Caesars set the standards for tell alls about former bosses. Suetonius was employed by Hadrian but was let go for some reason. He wrote a collection of some of the most scurrilous rumors about the first 12 Roman emperors, probably in an attempt to curry favor with Hadrian, although how his report that Augustus had his wife fetch him slave girls helped. Highly entertaining even if sometimes hard to believe. Suetonius is one of the ancient writers that may mention Jesus; this is disputed by historians.
Plutarch - Plutarch's lives are a wonderful source for much of Rome's history. Eminently readable and spanning multiple periods in Rome's history. Some of the most famous quotations of Roman figures are preserved in Plutarch who served as a basis for Shakespeare's Roman plays.
Ammiannus Marcellinus - it is a tragedy that much of Ammianus's works are lost. He wrote much later, in the 4th century, and was a follower of Julian the Apostate. Nevertheless he offers a mostly impartial description of Christianity and his history is generally excellent. He also wrote about his travels. There is a reason for the great jump to Ammianus - there is a paucity of sources of the Empire's century of crisis (3rd century) and by the time after Marcellinus, many Christian historians took up the slack. Perhaps they were unconsciously trying to compensate for the untold amount of "pagan" works intentionally destroyed by many Christians (who burned the Serapeum and the Library of Alexandria).

Please note that I haven't read all of the above - its done in bibliographic form. Some of it is only interesting reading to historians (Appian instantly comes to mind). For reccomendations - Plutarch, Livy, Polybius, Tacitus, Caesar, Suetonius and Ammianus Marcellinus come highly reccomended as interesting and topical. Sallust as well, I suppose, since he writes about very interesting times.

My knowledge of late Roman history is not great; but then the period is a lot less interesting. Tomorrow I'll post the secondary sources. :)