Appian Primary Source: Cassius Dio also includes a narrative of the late Republic, and one can be pieced together from Plutarch, but Appian’s is probably the most important (surviving!) Imperial Period narrative history of the late Republic. The Foreign Wars and especially the Civil Wars provide for us one of the most well developed narratives…

Roman Colonization Under the Republic by Edward Salmon (1969; ISBN 9780801405471) Intermediate Military: an old book now, but still the basic survey of how the Romans colonized Italy from the fourth century BC onwards. Salmon discusses how and why Roman motivations for colonization changed across the period, and covers the longer-term consequences.

Building Mid-Republican Rome: Labor, Architecture, and the Urban Economy by Seth Bernard (2018; ISBN 9780190878788) Intermediate Economic – Seth Bernard excels in illuminating how ancient economies cannot be studied just as numbers and markets, but in their complex social and cultural contexts. Bernard studies here the development of early Roman urbanism from 396 to 168…

Romulus’ Asylum: Roman Identities from the Age of Alexander to the Age of Hadrian by Emma Dench (2005; 9780198150510) Intermediate Social: Dench examines later uses of Rome’s foundation myths in the construction of Roman identity, in terms of the paradox between, on one hand, the Roman’s inclusivity of new people and, on the other, their…

Etruscan and Early Roman Architecture by Axel Boethius (1978; ISBN 9780300052909) Intermediate Cultural: A slightly dated, but still valuable, survey of the beginnings of Roman architecture. Since the remains of early Rome are so scanty (recent finds around Sant’Omobono and in the Roman Forum notwithstanding), more than half of the book is devoted to the…

Religions of Rome, Vol. 1: A History and Vol. 2: A Sourcebook by Mary Beard, John North and Simon Price (1998; ISBN 9780521316828 and 9780521456463) Entry-Level Religious – This two-volume monolith by three great Cambridge historians is really still the synthesis of Roman religion. The first volume covers over 1000 years of history of Roman…

Social Struggles in Archaic Rome: New Perspectives on the Conflict of the Orders edited by Kurt Raaflaub (2004; 9781405100618)IntermediatePolitical: this edited volume includes chapters by the leading scholars on the early republic, and deals with some of the most difficult issues in the history of this period. Later Romans knew that their early history was…