Reading level: 9th grade and above.
This is a massive website, with sections going from the
mythical founding of Rome all the way through the fall of the western half and
a short section on the east/Byzantium. The interface is a bit dated, but it
works well. An excellent reference if you know the time period for
something/one.
Reading level: 9th grade and above.
Another website; this one covers a wide variety of topics as
well. Its sections on daily life are quite good and to the point. The site also
features a forum (to use at one’s own peril) and has prominent links to reviews
of Rome-related media.
Reading level: 10th
This is an older, but impressively detailed website with
biographical sections on every Roman (and Byzantine) emperor and usurper from
Augustus to Constantine XI. The biographies feature hyperlinks to other
important figures in each emperor’s life and to sources used for the article if
one wishes to see what the sources say. The list can be viewed chronologically
and alphabetically, if you are looking for someone but cannot remember what
number he was.
Grade: 9th and up
A short deck of flashcards with the basics about
the first 13 emperors (Augustus to Marcus Aurelius, typically the end of Roman
history in most social studies classes). All the features and ease of use we
all know and love that Quizlet has.
Books (Print and Electronic)
Edward Gibbon’s Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire
Reading level: Teachers, gifted/advanced students
This is the big one. A meticulously (if biased) account of
the twilight years of the Western Roman Empire and at the same time the Eastern
Roman/Byzantine Empire. Gibbon made extensive use of primary sources and used
secondary ones with the greatest of reluctance. The text is difficult, but
phenomenally rewarding. The link is to an electronic (and stable) version of the
entire text. All six volumes of it.
- Mithridates the Great: Rome’s Indomitable Enemy
Philip Matyszak
Reading level: 9th grade and above
This is a very engaging and informative work about a
disappointingly obscure eastern king (who came far closer to checking Rome than
one would initially believe), the life of whom, in the words of the author,
reads like, “an overblown film script of the 1950s.” There are illustrations
and maps of battles and maneuverings, so you do not need to be an expert on
Anatolian and Aegean geography to understand what is going on.
- The Lives of the Twelve Caesars
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
Reading level: 10th grade
If one wants to understand the Roman Empire, one must
understand the Roman emperors. And Suetonius, who was the personal secretary of
the emperor Hadrian, had easy access to the imperial archives for primary
sources and eye-witness accounts. Again, some of the Latin words (which just
don’t translate) can be off-putting, but it is a highly interesting and
engaging read. While racy at times, few histories give such detailed accounts
of humanizing characteristics, like personal habits and appearances of Julius
Caesar and the first eleven emperors.
- The Annals
Cornelius Tacitus
Reading level: 11th
A contemporary of Suetonius, Tacitus’s surviving
work covers the period from the beginning of the reign of Tiberius to the year
68 AD. Tacitus, while occasionally
bitter and quite pessimistic, is widely considered one of the greatest Roman
historians and his year-by-year approach is highly informative.
- The Histories
Cornelius Tacitus
Reading level: 11th
Another work by the same author, with all the bitter
pessimism and bemoaning the fallen state of men in his day. This work covers
the suicide of Nero through the rise of Vespasian (which was roughly a year,
but what a year it was).
- The Romans for Dummies
Guy de la Bedoyere
Reading level: 9th
This is an easy-to-read overview of all of Roman
history. It has plenty of diagrams and side-bars, not to mention sub-section
headers so you can make a reasonable guess as to what it is you’ll be reading
if you go further (for example, not everyone may find the history of the grain
supply of Rome to be as enthralling as I).
- Greece and Rome: Builders of Our World
The National Geographic Society
Reading level: 9th
This book has chapters on the Greeks, Carthaginians,
Etruscans and Romans. The text is lively and engaging (although a bit dated)
and there are numerous, and excellent, illustrations and photographs of the
modern state of ancient sites.
- The Jewish War
Titus Flavius Josephus, aka Joseph ben Matityahu
An account of the war which helped propel Vespasian
to the throne, Josephus, a leader in the Jewish revolt, managed to ingratiate
himself to his enemy, and later patron, by telling (and convincing) the future
emperor that the messianic prophecies in 1st century Judaism were
actually about Vespasian becoming emperor. As he was on both sides of the war,
and stepped in both cultures, this is a fascinating (if somewhat biased) work.
- History of the Later Roman Empire
John Bagnal Bury
Grade: 12th
An older, but detailed work about the later part of the
Roman empire, from the time of Stilicho (395 AD) to Justinian (565 AD). It also
discusses the religious sentiments of the era, the Romans’ neighbors, and the
shifting barbarian kingdoms that established themselves in Spain, France,
Africa and Italy. I particularly enjoyed the section on the Nika Riot, when a
massive mob of dissatisfied chariot fans nearly brought down the empire.
- Ab Urbe Condite (History of Rome)
Titus Livius Patavinus
Grade: 11th
You cannot discuss the history of Rome without Livy. While
he is a fan of impressively long sentences, and many of his translations tend
to use polysyllabic words, his texts is engaging and quite comprehensive,
covering the span of history from the mythical founding of Rome to the Roman
conquest of the eastern Mediterranean. Unfortunately, we are missing the vast
majority of his work, but what remains is a treasure.
- Letters of Pliny the Younger
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus
Grade: 10th
Pliny the Younger and his correspondences are a very
humanizing body of work. Some are more difficult to read than others, and the
correspondence with the emperor Trajan are hilariously flattering (all the more
so because Trajan was not the sort of man to demand the fawning deference Pliny
shows him). Of particular interest are the letters which Pliny wrote to Tacitus
upon receiving the historian’s request (letters six and sixteen of the sixth
volume) for an eye-witness account of Vesuvius’s eruption.
Few things are more entertaining than the exploits of the Roman emperors. It's a shame that so few of these have reading levels accessible to most high schoolers, though, because the Romans were just insane.
ReplyDelete