Europa Barbarorum Bibliography
Voluntary non-binding guidelines for submitting books to the bibliograhpy
I will include all suggested books. I think that it is more useful if there is some uniformity in the list. I therefore ask that if you submit a book, please use the following format:
Name of Book Underlined, Name of Author or Editor, (Publishing data optional), A Brief squib of your opinion, Your Name/Handle
I will edit submissions to more-or-less conform to this format, so it just saves me time if you do it like that.
If I miss or forget to add your submission to the main post, please remind me and I will rectify. It will never be on purpose.
General Histories of the Period, Theoretical Works on Language, Economics, Demographics
Black Athena volume One: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785-1985, Martin Bernal. Very Controversial, Not Very Well Written. Not necessarily all wrong.
Empires of the Word:A language History of the World Nicholas Ostler
New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology ed. Robert Graves
Mapping Human History Steve Olson
The Field and the Forge: Population, Production, and Power in the Pre-Industrial West, John Landers. Thought-provoking book incorporating demographics, economics, macro-politics, but especially military technology and logistics within the context of the “Organic Economy” over a wide chronology of western history, from Antiquity through the French Revolution.
Religions of the ancient world : a guide, Sarah Iles Johnston a good overview of various religions and their interconnectness in antiquity, interesting insight into the spiritual and everyday world of that time.
Food in the ancient world, John M. Wilkins and Shaun Hill, informative, interesting perspective into sociology and everyday life of the ancient times.
Works on Military Theory and Armies
War in the Hellenistic World by Chaniotis
The Mercenaries of the Hellenistic World G.T. Griffith very informative and detailed, especially about the economics of the mercenary market
Warfare in the Classical World John Warry
Warfare in the Ancient World Brian Todd Carey; Joshua B. Allfree,; John Cairns
Greek Mercenary Soldiers Parke
Warfare in Antiquity Hans Delbruck. Excellent book for getting a feel for the evolution of warfare in the ancient West, with a surprising amount of detail for a survey work.
Absolutely critical book to read for analysis of hoplite/phalanx fighting
The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the American Civil War Brent Nosworthy
Off topic but still germane: the psychology and methods of line infantry and great explanations of logistics, terrain and the impact of technology on warfare.
The Ancient Greeks Nicholas Sekunda. One of those illustrated 'Soldiers of the x period' books from Osprey publishing, but the articles are also excellent and explain a great deal about the difficulties of drawing conclusions about things like hoplite armour from the sources that w have.
The Western Way of War, Victor Daivs Hanson
Warhorse: Cavalry In Ancient Warfare, Philip Sidnell. Concentrates mainly on Roman and Greek cavalry and highlights why the stirrup wasn't all that big a deal for cavalry.
Hellenistic infantry reform in the 160's BC, Nicholas Sekunda.
the latest work of N. Seckunda where he somewhat changes his earlier ideas (expressed in his previous works) on what happened in the infantry reforms of the 160's.
Besieged, D. B. Campbell.
development of siege warfare from 6th century Persia to the 4th century Roman world.
The Ancient World at War ed. P. de Souza.
War and peace in the ancient world, Kurt A. Raaflaub ed., excellent compilation of studies into the concepts, theory and practice of war and peace in various antic civilizations from assyrians to India (and even North American Indians), A MUST!
Greece/Hellenistic
The Cambridge History of the Classical World vol 7
A standard work, every college library and most good public libraries will have a set. Volume 7 covers the EB period for All the Diadochi/Greek factions, as well as Epirus and lots on Rome. Perhaps the best one-stop-shop for an overview of the period. The following articles were very good:
The Aetolian League; Social Changes in Greece; Greece after Pyrrhus' Death; The Greek Leagues and Macedonia all by WW Tarn
Rhodes in the Hellenistic Age R.M. Berthold
Spartan Twilight Piper
Athens From Alexander to Antony C. Habicht
Wealthy Corinth Salmon
Greeks, Romans, and Barbarians: Spheres of Interaction Barry Cunliffe
A History of the Greek City States, 700-338 B. C. Raphael Sealey
The Greek World 479-323 BC Simon Hornblower
The Greek Tyrants, A. Andrews. More about the Classical Period, but a great background book with some good bits on hoplites
Ancient Greece, Eyewitness Guides. A cheesey selection but has some nice pictures :).
The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Glenn Bugh ed. Great collection of articles, especially Hellenistic Military Developments by the editor and Hellenistic Economies by John Davies
A History of the Greek Workd 323-146 BC M. Cary
Very Hellono-centric, nothing really new but later chapters on economics and governments in post Alexandrine Greece very interesting.
The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome Erich Gruen
Only had a chance to skim through this but a very interesting work: not a chronological history but more an analysis of the impact on Greek thought and life of Roman dominance, i.e. how the previously world-conquering hellenes adjusted to being conquered.
The Social and Economic History of the Greek World M. Rostovtzeff
( 3 volumes ) Covers the EB period in depth with great chapters on the 'minor monarchies' (Pergamon, Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia and the Black Sea City-statesand the Bosporan Kingdom)
A Massaliot Greek's travels to Britain in 320 BC, and lots of stuff about the interaction between the Hellenic and Celtic worlds. Well written.
An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy of the Hellenistic and Roman Periods from Alexander the Great down to the Reign of Constantine (323 B.C. - A.D. 337), McLean
Babylon, Memphis, Persepolis: Eastern Contexts of Greek Culture, Walter Burkett
The City of Sharp Nosed Fish, Greeks Lives in Roman Egypt, Peter Parsons
The story of the late 19th century expedition of Grenfell and Hunt to the ruins of Oxyrhynchos, outside of Cairo, where they found a massive horde of papyri detailing the everyday lives of Greek colonist in Egypt from Alexander up to Roman times. Fascinating.
The Role of Metals in Ancient Greek History Michail Yu Treister
Daily Life in Greece at the Time of Pericles, Robert Flaceliere
Hellenistic History and Culture, Peter Green ed.
Dividing the Spoils, Robin Waterfield
Macedon
Lysimachus: A Portrait of Hellenistic Kingship Helen S. Lind
A History of Macedonia Errington
The Macedonian State N Hammond
The Macedonian Empire: The Era of Warfare Under Philip II and Alexander the Great 359-323 BC James R. Ashley
Alexander the Great and the logistics of the Macedonian Army, Donald W. Engels.
The Genius of Alexander the Great N.G. Hammond
Alexander by Robin Lane Fox
Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age Peter Green
Alexander of Macedon Peter Green
Alexander Lt. Col. Theodore Ayrault Dodge
The Nature of Alexander the Great, Mary Renault- The Grandmother of Classical Historical Fiction gives her non-fic opinion of Al. Well written and also provides a glimpse behind the scenes of her famous trilogy.
Epiros
Pyrrhos: King of Epirus Petros Garoufalias
Epirus Hammond
The Illyrians John Wilkes Fantastic book- v. good on the differences between the Illyrians and the Greeks, really puts them in context
Seleukids
The House of Seleucus Edwyn R. Bevan
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&...result#PPR3,M1
A link to an etext version of the above, I hope
Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon T. Boiy
The Seleucid Army: Organisation and Tactics in the Great Campaigns Bar-Kochva
From Samarkhand to Sardis (best on Seleukids) Sherwin-White and Kuhrt
The Seleucid Army: Organisation and Tactics in the Great Campaigns Bar-Kochva
Roman War of Antiochos the Great by Grainger
Ptolemies
The House of Ptolemy Edwyn R. Bevan !!read it online!!
A History of the Ptolemaic Empire (very good) G. Holbl
Cleopatra, Ernle Bradford- Begins with a concise and informative overview of the Ptolemies, and includes the most interesting analysis of Caesar's character I have ever seen. Made me think.
Rome and the Ptolemies of Egypt : the development of their political relations 273-80 B.C., Anssi Lampela
Baktria
The Greek Kingdom of Bactria Sidky
The Greeks in Bactria and India W.W. Tarn
The Indo-Greeks A.K. Narain
The Greeks in India : A Survey in Philosophical Understanding, Demetrios Th. Vassilides
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...eek+references
Intercourse Between India and the Western World H.G. Rawlinson
Persian/Parthian
The Persians Maria Brosius
From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire Pierre Briant
The Parthians Malcolm Colledge
Older book that traces the Parni throughout til the Sassanids.
Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War Kaveh Farrokh
History of Persia, Sir Percy Sykes. Old but good. Go for the first volume since it deals with the EB timeframe and beyond.
A History of Parthia, George Rawlinson Old but excellent.
Ancient Persia : from 550 BC to 650 AD, Josef Wiesehöfer (trans. Azizeh Azodi), excellent modern study covering Achaemenid, Arsacid and Sasanian Period (Seleucids are largely ommited, sadly) it is A MUST!
Rome and Persia in late antiquity : neighbours and rivals, by Beate Dignas and Engelbert Winter, very good overview of the development of mtual relations from Carrhae to the fall of Sasanian Empire, studying not only mutual wars, but also the development of the diplomatic protocol, trade and cultural interchange.
History of the Persian Empire, A.T. Olmstead
Pontus
The Foreign policy of Mithridates VI Eupator King of Pontus B.C McGing
Colloquica Pontica
Cambridge Ancient History V. 9, Pontus and its Neighbors, M. Rostovtzeff, H.A. Ormerod
Mithridates the Great, Rome's Indomitable Enemy, Philip Matyszak
The Poison King, Adrienne Mayor
Haydasan
History of Armenia Movses Khorenatsi. A classic.
The Armenians A.E. Redgate
The Kingdom of Armenia M. Chahin
The Pre-History of the Armenians in 2 volumes. Gabriel Soultanian
The Peasantry of Ancient Armenia, The Art of Dionysius Grammarian and his Armenian Interpretations, Political parties in Ancient Armenia, Armenia in the Period of Justinian, all by Nicolas Adontz
Tigranes II and Rome, Hakob H. Manandyan
A History of Armenia, Vahan M. Kurkjian(entire book online)
Rome
Rubicon by Tom Holland
The Ancient Roman City John E. Stambaugh
History of Rome Theodor Mommsen
History of Rome Indro Montanelli
Claudius by Barbara Levick
War and Imperialism in Republican Rome W.V. Harris
Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome (Lesley and Roy Adkins)
As the Romans Did: A Sourcebook in Roman Social History (Jo-Ann Shelton)
The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic (Various)
Greek and Roman Medicine (Ian Dawson)
The Roman World; The Oxford History of the Classical World Boardman, Griffin, Murray ed.
In the Name of Rome:The Men Who Won the Roman Empire Adrian Goldsworthy
The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest Peter S. Wells
Good book about the Battle of Teutoburg Forest that is backed up with archaeological evidence. The author, Wells, goes into cultural aspects of Germania during that time. He also talks about how that Battle haunted Rome and inspired the Germanic people for years to come.
Roman Religion, Valerie Warrior
Roman Art, Ramage and Ramage
The Jews in the Roman World, Michael Grant- also pretty much anything he ever wrote is worth looking at
The Enemies of Rome by P. Matyszak
greatest leaders that fought Rome, from Hannibal to Attila. addressed to general public somewhat lacks depth. it is obviously impossible to tell every character's story thoroughly in a single volume. fine read nevertheless.
Scipio Africanus, B. Liddell Hart
The Roman Army at War 100 BC - AD 200, The Complete Roman Army, Roman Warfare, Adrian Goldsworthy
Weapons of the Romans, Michel Feugere
Rome and Her Enemies: An Empire Created and Destroyed By War, Jane Penrose (Ed.). An Osprey Title.
Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History, Christopher S. Mackay.
Caesar Lt. Col. Theodore Ayrault Dodge
Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome
Stephen Dando-Collins
Carthage
Carthage: A History Serge Lancel
The Fall of Carthage by Adrian Goldsworthy
Motya, Unearthing a Lost Civilization, Gaia Servadio
The Carthaginians in Spain, an article in vol. 7 of The Cambridge History A. Schulten
The North African Stones Speak Paul MacKendrick Archeology and its relation to history
Tripolitania DJ Mattingly Very detailed about this part of North Africa
The Phoenicians and the West; Politics, Colonies and Trade Maria Eugenia Aubert Not Carthage specific but a lot of cultural info
The World of the Phoenicians, Sabatino Moscati A decent survey of Carthaginian history on the second half but really worth it for the chapters on culture, religion and language
Hannibal, Ernle Bradford
Hannibal Lt. Col. Theodore Ayrault Dodge
Hannibal's last battle: Zama and fall of Carthage, B. T. Carey.
good narrative on Punic wars, but the beauty of this book is in detailed graphic reconstructions of all major engagements, both at sea and on land.
Celts/Gauls/Germans
The Prehistory of Germanic Europe Schutz
The Ancient Celts Barry Cunliffe
Die Germanen Herwig Wolfram
Die Roemer in Germanien Reihhard Wolters
Der Limes, Geschichte einer Grenze Egon Schallmayer
Die Goten und ihre Geschichte Herwig Wolfram
Geschichte der Kriegskunst, Die Germanen, Vom Kampf der Römer und Germanen bis zum Übergang ins Mittelalter Hans Dellbrück
The Celts Edited by Sabatino Moscati, Otto Hermann Frey, Venceslas Kruta, Barry Raftery, Miklós Szabó 1991.
Celts and the Classical World David Rankin 1996.
Gallia Narbonensis: Southern Gaul in Roman Times A.L.F. Rivet 1990.
The Historical Atlas of the Celtic World, John Haywood- Stretches to modern times but half the book is pertinent to the EB time frame. Good maps.
Lusotannan
The Romans in Spain, 217 BC – AD 117, C.H.V. Sutherland
Roman Spain: Conquest and Assimilation, Leonard A. Curchin
Rome's Enemies (4): Spanish Armies, R. Martinez, R. Trevino, A. McBride
(Osprey, but what the hell)
Hispaniae: Spain and the Development of Roman Imperialism, 218-82 BC, J. S. Richardson
The Decline of the Roman Republic, George Long Download it as a PDF.
Britain and Ireland
Roman Ireland Vittorio di Martino
Agricola invaded Ireland! Maybe.
Roman Britain Plantagenet Somerset Fry
The standard work on Roman sites in Britain with plenty of history. Also a good book for IBFD.
Sab'yn
Monuments of South Arabia 1983 Falcon-Oleander Press. Brian Doe- from Teleklos Archelaou
Arabia Felix From the Time of the Queen of Sheba: Eighth Century B.C. to First Century A.D. 1999 University of Notre Dame Press Jean-Francois Breton -from Teleklos Archelaou
Hellenism in the East Amelie Kuhrt, Susan Sherwin-White ed.
A compilation, I read the article The Arab-Persian Gulf under the Seleucids by Jean-Francois Salles- a lot more was going on there than you might think
Ancient South Arabia Klaus Schippman -Qwerty
Das Reich der Königin von Saba, Gabriel Mandel
Getai/Thrace
The Ancient Civilization of Romania E.Condurachi and C. Daicoviciu
The Thracians R.F. Hoddinott
Bulgaria in Antiquity R.F. Hoddinott
All three contain sections on the Getai and their environs in the EB time frame, also tons of photos and cultural info, plus a lot about the Celtic kingdom of Komontorius from ca. 280 to 220 BCE.
Sarmatians/Yuezhi/Saka Rauka
Scythians and Greeks; Cultural Interactions in Scythia, Athens and the Early Empire ed. David Braund Mostly translations of Russian academic works that have not been available in English
The Sarmatians T. Sulimiroki
The World of the Scythians Renate Rolle (translated from German)
The above two books not specific to EB time frame per se but lots of pics and cultural info
UNESCO History of Civilizations of Central Asia, vol. II: The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 BC to AD 250. Ed. by Janos Harmatta, with co-editors B.N. Puri and G.F. Etemadi. 1994. Chapters on Parthia, the greek kingdoms of Central Asia, Nomads in east central Asia, the Yueh-chih, The Sakas and Indo-Parthians, the Kushans, languages and scripts in GraecoBactria and the Saca kingdoms, etc.
The Tarim Mummies, JP Mallory and Victor H. Mair
Warriors of the Steppe, Hildinger
Misc
Ancient Cyprus, Veronica Tatton-Brown- A publication of the British Museum
A Bibliography of the Classical Sources germane to EB.
I think it is important to remind people that some (many) of these works are not themselves primary sources, even though they are old. Livy's history of the early republic is a secondary work of scholarship in the same way that Tom Holland's Rubicon is. "Primary" vs. "Secondary" is not better vs. worse, but merely a distinction of kind.
Most of these are available online at either the Library of Ancient Texts Online or the Perseus Project, and they are in the Loeb Library.
Herodotus, The Histories
Xenophon, Anabasis, Hellenica, Cyropaedia, Constitution of Sparta, Ways and Means, The Cavalry General, On Horsemanship
Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War
Aristotle, Athenian Constitution, Politics, Nicomachean Ethics
Plutarch, The Parallel Lives, The Moralia
Aeschines, Against Ctesiphon
Demosthenes, Philippics, Orations
Appian, Roman History
Titus Livius, Ad Urbe Condita
M. Tullius Cicero, Too Many to List;try the Verrine Orations and the Caesarian Speeches to start
G. Suetonius Tranquillus, Lives of the Twelve Caesars
Josephus, The Jewish War, Jewish Antiquities, Against Apion
Tacitus, The Histories, The Annals of Imperial Rome, Germania, Agricola
Cassius Dio, Roman History
G. Sallustius Crispus, The Catiline Conspiracy, The Jugurthine War
G. Plinius Caecilius Secundus, Epistulae
Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities
Podcasts and Other Web Resources
A very selective and short list of some of the better online resources that might be of interest to the EB community. Not intended to be comprehensive.
12 Byzantine Rulers: The History of the Byzantine Empire . Another fantastic podcast, not in the EB time frame but still worth a listen.
In Our Time. Well known BBC radio programme hosted by Melvyn Baron Bragg. A wide range of subjects, some quite germane to EB. Also on iTunes.
iTunes U offers podcasts of university lectures and courses for free. The sound quality is often mediocre as these are not recorded specifically for webcasting but just as a byproduct of a lecture or symposium. Still some good stuff. You find these by going to the iTunes Store and clicking on iTunesU.
Stanford;
Geography of World Cultures, Martin Lewis
Egypt's Hold on the Greek Imagination, Marsh McCall
Santa Clara University;
History 110 Roman Republic, Isabelle Pafford
Loyola Marymount University
King Leonidas and the 300 Spartans, 2nd Annual Classics Archaeology Symposium
Indianapolis Museum of Art;
Roman Art at the Louvre
Berkley
History4A: The Ancient Mediterranean World
Google Books is a good resource for those who don't mind reading online, however unless the book is out of copyright you will only get a partial preview at best.
Digital Book Index is a much better source for etexts and pdfs to download: the Ancient History category is 7 webpages long. Most are free: the more recent books are for sale.
The Ancient History Sourcebook has a good selection of classical texts and extracts, some not easily available elsewhere.
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