Europa Barbarorum Bibliography

Bar-Kochva's The Seleucid Army is reputed to be good.

I haven't been around for a while, but I'm glad to see that there's still some activity on the bibliography. Thanks people, I'll post your suggestions.

I have found the ultimate beginners guide to the EB time period. The Hellenistic Age, a short history, Peter Green. Covers the years 336 BCE to 30 BCE in only 130 pages, and yet is full of detail and commentary. If you read nothing else read this one!

Also found an old gem. Hannibal, Harold Lamb. From 1958, a straightforward narrative biography. Not bad.

First post updated.

This doesn't really relate to EB's subject matter, but Comparative Mythology by Jaan Puhvel is quite interesting. The name pretty much tells what it's about. Basically a study of Indo-European mythology.

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Originally Posted by oudysseos

I haven't been around for a while, but I'm glad to see that there's still some activity on the bibliography.

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As am I. I recently decided to fulfil my end of the EB user agreement and bought "Carthage: A History" and am liking it quite a bit. The two books you just mentioned sound intriguing as well, and I plan on getting "The Prehistory of Germanic Europe" later on. I give my thanks to all who contributed to this excellent thread. :book:

Any particular reason this thread was destickied? I realize there's a desire to clean up clutter, but this is a really useful thread.

Thats why it is now linked in the "Important Information For Forum Users" Sticky.

Foot

Totally managed to skim over that, oops. :embarassed:

So I have books like junkies have smack. Anyways, I picked up Xenophon's Retreat, Greece, Persia and the End of the Golden Age by Robin Waterfield. Provides the background to the Anabasis that non-Classicists might lack. Although 125 years before the EB timeframe it's still very pertinent- the discussion of logistics and the military lifestyle of hoplites is a good read.

First post updated.

I'd just like to point out that the book The House of Seleucus (the first source on the list about the AS) is available free online from Google Books. Link: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&...result#PPR3,M1

Um, Rodrico, that seems to just be a link to a citation for the book along with the opportunity to buy it. I don't see any hyper-text anywhere. Am I missing something?

Edit: I just noticed that the views count is over 20,000. Most excellent.

I couldn't find an online version of Bevan's House of Seleucus, but faffing around on the internet while my wife was cleaning the kitchen turned up two great things:

A History of Armenia, Vahan M. Kurkjian
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/...RARM/home.html

I haven't done more than skim the table of contents, but it looks great, and finally something really substantive for the Haydasan faction.


History of the Later Roman Empire, John Bagnall Bury
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/...RLAT/home.html

More into the IBFD time-frame but still looks cool.

First post updated. 20,000 bibliography fans can't be wrong.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by oudysseos

Um, Rodrico, that seems to just be a link to a citation for the book along with the opportunity to buy it. I don't see any hyper-text anywhere. Am I missing something?

Edit: I just noticed that the views count is over 20,000. Most excellent.

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Really? The link works for me. It takes a minute, and then a page like this one comes up:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://i193.photobucket.com/albums/...ofseleucus.jpg

There's also a link to download it as a pdf on the right.

Nope, this is all I get:
http://books.google.com/books?id=gj6...eleucus&pgis=1
Which explains to me why I can't read the whole book online.

But I'm thinking that there may be different copyright issues in my country. I also can't access a lot of iTunes content, for example. Anyway I'll stick the link up on the first post and hope that some people can use it. Thanks Rodcrico.

A great book about specifically the IndoGreeks is
The Greeks in India : A Survey in Philosophical Understanding/Demetrios Th. Vassilides. New Delhi, 2000, xvi, 261 p., plates, map. ISBN 81-215-0921-1.

https://www.vedamsbooks.com/no15423.htm

some excrepts from there...

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...eek+references

This book is priceless as the Greek author, a PhD in Hindu literature and a top awarded Sanskrit scholar, he has gone into all the relevant sources to find all mentions of "Yavanas", and exclude the IndoGreeks from all other invaders of India collectively called Yavanas after the IndoGreeks. (for more on that, click on the second link I include). He presently resides (and teaches I think) in Varanasi, India.

Having the Indian references from Vassiliades (about 200 references per chapter of his book), the books from Tarn and Holt and the online refernces and pics, a lot can be found out about IndoGreeks. More than is presently thought.

There is of course the Native Indian opinion on the IndoGreeks.
The Indo-Greeks : Revisited and Supplemented/A.K. Narain. Reprint. Delhi, B.R. Pub., 2003, x, 585 p., maps, plates. ISBN 81-7646-349-3.
https://www.vedamsbooks.com/no32919.htm

and a regular Indo Greek post...

Their legacy,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_of_the_Indo-Greeks

Currently reading "Fall of Carthage" by Goldsworthy

Like the way it is written, the flow and style of writting and the fact it falls neatly over the EB time frame.

Recommended not as a historian, or man of letters, only as a closet enthusiast for all of this. :)

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Originally Posted by keravnos

There is of course the Native Indian opinion on the IndoGreeks.
The Indo-Greeks : Revisited and Supplemented/A.K. Narain. Reprint. Delhi, B.R. Pub., 2003, x, 585 p., maps, plates. ISBN 81-7646-349-3.
https://www.vedamsbooks.com/no32919.htm

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Isn't Narain the scholar who believes that the entire Indo-European language family dispersed from Gansu westwards based on the fact that classical Chinese sources locate the Yuezhi there?

Well, I trust that he has more expertise when it comes to Indo-Greek studies than general Indo-Euoropean ones.

I'm not sure if this belongs in the EB bibliography, but since the Yuezhi used to be a faction and still make an appearance I'm gonna recommend The Tarim Mummies by JP Mallory and Victor H. Mair.

It's written so that even a fairly well informed layperson can read it without compromising content. The main focus is on the two most prominent candidates for the identity of the mummies, the Tocharians and the Indo-Iranians, but discusses several other issues, such as the origin of Indo-Europeans and the exact amount of western influences on the rise of Chinese civilization.

Highly recommended for anybody who wants to know more about the obscure people known to us as Tocharians/Yuezhi/Kushans/Kucha-Agneans.

First Post updated with submissions from Keravnos, Zeibek and HFox.

Also, I picked up Daily Life in Greece at the Time of Pericles, Robert Flaceliere.
Technically a little early for the EB timeframe but still a worthwhile read for the sake of imagining yourself there, and besides, a lot of the day to day facts of life didn't change for hundreds of years.

Oh, and I found a link to the Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 6, The Fourth Century B.C. It's a Google Preview so they left out some pages but still a lot of good background reading, online, for free.

http://books.google.ie/books?id=vx25...result#PPP1,M1

I suppose it's obvious that if there's one volume of the Cambridge History on Google Books then there probably are more. Here's a link to volume 7, The Hellenistic World, aka Europa Barbarorum.

http://books.google.com/books/cambri...mit=Go#PPP1,M1

I've gotten interested in the Lusotannan because of the whole Ambakaro Epones face mask thingy, and though I haven't found any actual books here in Dublin, I have found some previewed on Google Books. I'm not wild about online books, but since I don't have anything at all on this faction, I'll post these citations along with links. Remember, Google Books only has partial previews, so you can't actually read the whole thing.

Roman Spain: Conquest and Assimilation, Leonard A. Curchin
http://books.google.com/books?id=0sg...tcover#PPP1,M1

Rome's Enemies (4): Spanish Armies, R. Martinez, R. Trevino, A. McBride (Osprey, but what the hell)
http://books.google.com/books?id=jz5...tcover#PPP1,M1

Hispaniae: Spain and the Development of Roman Imperialism, 218-82 BC, J. S. Richardson
http://books.google.com/books?id=rCX...tcover#PPP1,M1

The Decline of the Roman Republic, George Long: older book from 1864, but contains a good chapter on Viriathus. Since it's old the preview is complete, no missing pages. You can even download it as a PDF.
http://books.google.com/books?id=9nl...q=lusitani&lr=

First post updated. Now if only there was something on Pontus.

P.S. If you go to this site ( http://www.archive.org/search.php?qu...iatype%3Atexts ), you can download PDF files of many books, in this particular instance complete volumes of the Cambridge Ancient History, something no EB fan should be without, Be warned! PDF files are large and laggy: go for the black and white PDF if you have the option.

heres a list of good reads that i have in my collection

The Punic Wars by Adrian Goldsworthy

Scipio Africanus by B.H.Liddle Hart

Warriors of the Steppe by Hildinger

Hannibal by Ernle Bradford

First post updated to include suggestions by Goth47 that weren't already there.

Also, I scored a major coup and bought a complete set of the Cambridge Ancient History (used). Volume 9 includes a section on Pontus!! By M. Rostovtzeff and H Ormerod. So I did some scanning. This is a large chunk of the article, scanned to PDF and then copied to text. I left out anything significantly later than the 3rd century BCE. Even so it's a couple of pages long, thus the spoiler tags.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Pontus was subdivided into districts or provinces called eparchies as in Parthia, probably with strategoi as governors^. As in Cappadocia, fortified strongholds both of the kings and of the nobles were scattered all over the country. Strabo mentions the Kainon Chorion^ Ikizari (or Kizari), Sagylion, Kamisa, Pimolisa and Kimiata. The owners of these castles, then feudal barons, were most of them of Iranian origin ; one of them known from a Greek inscription is called Pharnabazus, while his vassal bears a Greek or hellenized name—Meriones^. No cities existed in Pontus except the Greek cities of the coast. Those which are mentioned in our sources as Greek cities, not as native quasicities, were created by the Mithridatid dynasty and will be dealt with later. The typical form of settlement was the village. Therich plain near Amasia had the name of Chiliokomon (thousand villages) and we are told that Murena overran in one raid four hundred villages (p. 353). Temples of exactly the same character as those of Cappadocia play a great part in the life of the country. It is interesting to note that though these were dedicated to gods of various origin (the Cappadocian Ma, the Anatolian Men Pharnaku, the Iranian Anaitis with her two acolytes, and the hellenized Zeus Stratios), they all were organized in the Oriental fashion with a chief priest, with a large number of sacred slaves or serfs of both sexes, some of the women slaves being temple-prostitutes, and with vast stretches of land from which the income went into the treasury of the temple or the chief priest. Near the large komopolis of Ameria was situated the temple of Men, a god important enough to play the leading role alongside the Tyche of the king in his royal oath. The temple at the large village of Comana in Pontus was the counterpart of that in Cappadocia. Comana itself was the chief emporium for commerce with Armenia, and the temple, with its 6000 sacred serfs, and the town were noted for their luxury and dissipated life, a paradise for soldiers and for merchants. No less famous was the temple of Anaitis near Zela. The excavation of one or more of the Pontic or Cappadocian temples, which has hitherto not been attempted, would throw a much needed light on the organization and culture of these great centres of Anatolian life. Of the variety of races which lived together, the various cults which met in the Pontus are eloquent and our sources speak of twenty-two languages spoken in the region, a fact which indeed is not surprising in view of the many languages which were in use during the Hittite period. Such in short was the land which was organized into a solid state by the efforts of the dynasty of the Mithridatidae of which the greatest representative was Mithridates VI Eupator, who at last, in 89 B.C., ventured to challenge the power of Rome.
^
II. THE MITHRIDATID DYNASTY
It is beyond doubt that the dynasty of the Mithridatidae, which ruled in Pontus from at least 302 B.C. until the last offspring of it, Darius, son of Pharnaces II, was removed from the throne, belonged to the highest Persian nobility (their claim to be descendants of the Persian king has, of course, no foundation), to a family which was connected with Asia Minor for many generations. The identity of the earliest two representatives of the family, Mithridates and Ariobarzanes, is still a matter of controversy. It seems, however, more or less certain that the Mithridates whose end was reported by the historian Hieronymus^ was one of the lesser city-dynasts of Asia Minor of the late Persian and early Hellenistic period. His city was Cius on the Propontis. Whatever his early history may have been, in the closing years of the fourth century, when he was more than eighty years of age, he supported Antigonus and planned to betray him. Whether he was at that time with Antigonus or in his own city of Cius while his son, also named Mithridates, was with Antigonus, or whether both of them were in Antigonus^ camp we do not know. So much is certain, that the king became suspicious and decided to get rid of his former allies, both father and son. Warning was given of it to the younger Mithridates by his friend, the prince Demetrius, who was almost of the same age, and Mithridates fled, perhaps together with his father, who was soon killed either on his flight in Paphlagonia, or near his own city.
In the turmoil of the events after Ipsus Mithridates the younger, who established his residence in Paphlagonian Kimiata, one of the Pontic strongholds, gradually succeeded in building up for himself a kingdom which he successfully defended against Seleucus I. Whether, however, he or his father is to be regarded as the founder (Jktistes) of the kingdom and dynasty is a matter of controversy. Almost all modern scholars are inclined to give the credit to the younger Mithridates, but this opinion must be revised in the light of an inscription which, though several times published, has not been taken into account by recent historians of the Pontic kingdom^. The problem is closely connected with the question of the Pontic Era. It is known that Mithridates the Great used an era which started with the year 297 b.c, the first year of the Bithynian Era^. This era was still in use in the Bosporan kingdom in imperial times, and we have a synchronism which admits of no doubt as regards its starting-point. The same era was apparently used by Eupator's predecessor and father Mithridates Euergetes, as is shown by an inscription found at Ineboli (Abonuteichos) and dated by the king Euergetes and the year 161 of an unknown era^. If this era be the Bithynian and Pontic Era, the inscription belongs to the year 137/6 b.c. If we assume the Seleucid Era, the adoption of which by the Mithridatidae is perhaps less difficult to explain than the adoption of the Bithynian Era, then the date corresponds to 1 5 1 e.g., a; date which fits equally well, since Euergetes was no doubt ruling as early as 149. The era of Euergetes may then be either the Bithynian or the Seleucid. But, twenty years ago, the important inscription mentioned above was found in the ruins of Chersonesus in the Crimea (see further below, p. 221). It contains the oaths taken by the city of Chersonesus and a king Pharnaces of Pontus and is dated as in the year 1 57 of the era of Pharnaces, This era cannot be the same as that used by Eupator, for if it is the Bithynian, it gives the date 140 B.C., when Pharnaces I was long dead and buried, and Pharnaces II was not yet born; and if it is the Seleucid, it gives the date 155, which is also too late for Pharnaces I, since his brother and successor Mithridates Philopator Philadelphus was ruling in 156^. The era of Pharnaces must then have some other starting-point, which may be discovered. A treaty between Chersonesus and Pharnaces is most intelligible if it followed closely upon the war which raged from f. 1 83 to 179 B.C. between Pharnaces and a coalition of Anatolian states. In the peace which ended the war Chersonesus was included, and it seems logical to connect the treaty of the inscription with the peace-treaty, and to place it about the year 179. If that is so, then the era used by Pharnaces will begin in 336 B.C., which is precisely the year in which, according to Diodorus, the elder Mithridates began to rule in Cius. From this it follows that Pharnaces used an era which went back to the rule of the elder Mithridates and thus treated him as the founder of the dynasty^. Why Mithridates Euergetes changed to the Seleucid or the Bithynian Era and why Eupator used only the Bithynian we cannot tell. If then we place the ruler of Cius at the head of the dynasty as Mithridates I, it becomes possible to avoid the expedient of inserting a hypothetical Mithridates into the list of the kings in order to make Eupator what our sources declare him to have been, the sixth Mithridates and the eighth king of Pontus^. It also becomes possible to explain the number of royal graves at Amasia, the capital of the early kings. There are four of these and a fifth still unfinished. It was Pharnaces I who moved to Sinope and probably was buried there so that the unfinished fifth tomb may well be his ; and if so the other four just suffice for the elder and younger Mithridates, Ariobarzanes and Mithridates the father of Pharnaces*. We may then assign to the younger Mithridates the credit, not of founding the dynasty, but of building up the power of Pontus. His endeavours, as those of his immediate successors, were directed towards the same goal as those of his neighbours of Bithynia, Pergamum and Cappadocia. Amid the political chaos of the times they sought to extend their borders and, above all, to include within them as many Greek cities as possible. From time to time in the course of these endeavours the Pontic kings emerge for a moment into the light of history, and it is possible to detect some of the stages in the growth of the monarchy from its beginning to the accession of Mithridates VI . It is not known when they succeeded in adding to their kingdom the city of Amisus and its rich territory inhabited by people who in Roman times were reputed excellent agriculturists^. In about 255 B.C.2 Amisus was certainly dependent on Mithridates III, since the city supplied the king and his army with grain sent through Heraclea at the time of a Gallic invasion. Since, however, the Pontic kings never thought of making the city their capital, it seems that Amisus retained a good deal of its autonomy and probably was, at least in theory, an allied not a subject city. It is equally unknown when the Pontic kings, while leaving alone for the moment the territory of Sinope, first reached the coast to the west of that city. Since Amastris was given to Ariobarzanes^ the son and co-ruler of Mithridates II, by Eumenes its dynast as early as 279^, the cities to the east of Amastris were no doubt reduced to obedience still earlier (we know that Abonuteichos was Pontic in 137/6 or 151/0 e.g.). Thus from 279 onwards the river Parthenius marked the frontier of Pontus to the west. How far the first four Mithridatid kings extended their power to the east and south we do not know. Armenia Minor was probably a vassal state, and Pontus had control of the rich mining districts of the Chalybes, perhaps even before the conquest of Pharnaces I. It was under the first four kings that a close connection was established between their dynasty and the Seleucids, when Mithridates III married Laodice, sister of Seleucus II and daughter of AntiochusII,andgave his own daughter Laodice toAntiochus III.
Scanty as is the information which we possess on the first Mithridatidae we can recognize the general lines of their policy. Their chief aim was to consolidate and to increase their kingdom, and to this end they used all the available means, no more disturbed about their moral or immoral character than all their crowned and uncrowned contemporaries. One of these means was the use of the resources which Greek civilization offered them. This, along with the increased income which could be derived from the Greek cities, made them strive first and foremost to incorporate their Greek neighbours in their kingdom. What they needed from them was their help in organizing an efficient army and navy, in improving the organization of their revenues and in assisting them to acquire a good reputation in the eyes of the Greek world, for which they cared very much indeed. How far they intended to hellenize the non-Greek parts of their kingdom it is very difficult to say. No doubt they had not the slightest desire to force urban life upon Pontus as a whole. Only one city designated by a dynastic name and at all comparable with those which were created in scores by the Seleucids was created by the predecessors of Eupator. It was Laodicea, known to us only from coins and from the survival of the name (modern Ladik)^. The synoecism of Cerasus and Cotyora and the creation of Pharnaceia by Pharnaces I have nothing to do either with urbanization or with hellenization. So long as no one of these Greek cities has been excavated, we have no means of knowing how the Pontic kings treated the few cities which they incorporated in their realm. A priori it is probable that Amisus, Amastris and the other cities which were annexed before Pharnaces I enjoyed a larger amount of autonomy than Sinope, the capital of the later Mithridatidae, and the new creations Pharnaceia and Laodicea. On the other hand Pharnaceia as well as Amastris was allowed to mint copper earlier than the reign of Eupator^.
Thus from the Greek point of view, Pontus after two centuries of the rule of the Mithridatid dynasty remained a country of villages and temples not of cities. This does not mean, however, that more or less hellenized urban centres did not develop there. The capital of Pontus before Pharnaces I and the home of Strabo, Amasia, had no doubt a large Greek population. The same is probably true of so important a market and caravan city as Comana. By intermarriage and social intercourse the Greeks must have done much to hellenize the native aristocracy. The best instance of it are the kings themselves, who were proud of their close family connection with the Seleucids and who, all of them, spoke and wrote Greek and showed a great appreciation of Greek literature and art. The same is true of the nobles with native names who were sent out as ambassadors, for example, to Rome. And yet the kingdom never became really hellenized. Until the end of its independent existence it remained as it used to be before the founding of the dynasty. Proud as they were of their Greek training, the Mithridatid kings, especially Pharnaces I and his successors, were still more proud of their Iranian connections. They claimed to be descendants of the Persian kings, and they remained devoted to their native gods, especially to those who, like themselves, were of Iranian origin. If we look at the coins of the Mithridatid kings we notice one interesting phenomenon. The rare coins of the predecessors of Pharnaces I are almost exact reproductions of the coins of Alexander and of those of the early Seleucids, Greek through and through^. With Pharnaces, however, the reverse types of the coins become more individual and Iranian. Pharnaces I indulges in a certain mystic syncretism, which was in the air in this period. His god, the mysterious youthful god of hiscoins^, was a beautiful youth wearing a bashlyk^ holding the attributes of Hermes and those of Tyche and feeding a little stag with a branch of ivy or vine. This young god is no doubt related to Zeus : over his head there appears the thunderbolt. At the same time he belongs to the gods of the astral religion as shown by the crescent and star which from this time on become the main symbol or coat of arms of the dynasty. The god has been explained recently^ as the Graeco-Oriental Aion, the divine son of Zeus who symbolizes the Saeculum frugiferum^ the same mystic being, perhaps, as the similar figure on Roman coins and the divine child of the Fourth Eclogue of Virgil. However this may be, the god of Pharnaces is more Iranian than Greek (in this like the god of the kings of Commagene—Apollo-Helios-Hermes- Mithras), though it was a Greek artist who fashioned the cult statue figured on the coins. Zeus, his father, is no doubt Ahuramazda rather than Zeus, and his essence is nearer to the essence of Mithras and Hvareno (the kingly glory) than to that of Hermes and Tyche. We find the same Greek travesties of Iranian political and religious ideas on the coins of Pharnaces' successors: Perseus, the mythical ancestor of the Persians, appears on the coins of Philopator, and his horse Pegasus on those of Eupator^. No doubt we must regard the Dionysus of Eupator as an Anatolian not as a Greek god, a symbol, like the Ephesian stag, of his Anatolian empire. It is worthy of note that nothing in the coins reveals any influence of Iranian art; they were made by Greeks in the purest Greek style. The portraits of the kings before Eupator are wonderful in their brutal realism^. We see before us the astute and cruel rulers of Pontus in all their original ugliness. Eupator dropped this style and preferred to appear as a new Alexander the Great with his hair floating romantically around his head^. While the portraits of the coins are real productions of a great art, Greek in their very essence, most of the reverse types of the coins, equally Greek, are trivial and of no artistic importance. It seems that the Hellenistic period interrupted an evolution which started in North Asia Minor in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. This period produced interesting monuments in a peculiar style which we call Graeco-Persian. To this style belong many objects found in the Bosporan kingdom^, the front of the rock-grave of Kalekapu in Paphlagonia^, the beautiful Persolonian silver vases, one said to have been found in Armenia (one part is now in the Louvre, the other in the Berlin Museum)^, another found in a fifth-century grave at Duvanli in Bulgaria*, and, finally, the interesting Graeco-Persian gems ^. On the other hand the Hellenistic period has not yielded anything similar to it, any object of art which would be an attempt at a synthesis of the Greek and Iranian artistic creative power. The attempt to create a new version of Graeco-Persian art came later, simultaneously in India, Parthia, Mesopotamia and even Commagene, at a time when Pontus had played its part in world history to a close ^. Thus the Iranian and the Greek elements in Pontus were never fused in Hellenistic times into one unit: they lived on quietly side by side. Each had its special part in the policy of the Pontic kings. The same phenomenon may be noticed in the life of the Parthian Empire in the Hellenistic period (p. 595). The leading political idea of Eupator, the creation of a Pontic Graeco-native empire including large parts of Asia Minor, was not first devised by Eupator. No doubt Pharnaces I had the same ideals, which he transmitted to his brother, his son and his grandson. This Pontic empire was not a national State like the Parthian empire : it was an unification of all the Pontic Greeks around one dynasty which was supported by the strength and cohesion of their Oriental subjects. It was an empire with a Greek sea-front and an Oriental hinterland.

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Originally Posted by Goth47

The Punic Wars by Adrian Goldsworthy

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Just bought it in Dutch :)

Also bought this one:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA240_.jpg

Quote:

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Glory. Death. Well-born Athenian cavalry officer, Kineas, fought shoulder to shoulder with Alexander in his epic battles against the Persian hordes. But on his return from the east to his native city, he finds not glory but shame - and exile. With nothing to his name but his military skills, Kineas agrees to lead a band of veterans to the city of Olbia, where the Tyrant is offering good money to train the city's elite cavalry. But soon Kineas and his men find they have stumbled into a deadly maze of intrigue and conspiracy as the Tyrant plots to use them as pawns in the increasingly complex power games between his own citizens, and the dread military might of Macedon. Caught between his duty to the Tyrant, his loyalty to his men and a forbidden love affair with a charismatic Scythian noblewoman, Kineas must call on all his Athenian guile, his flair on the battlefield, and even - he is convinced - the intervention of the gods, to survive.

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"Just" historical fiction but it looks like a fun read :)

Just wanted to draw everyone's attention to the vast improvement in iTunes U. Many more Colleges and Universities have contributed material and you can now browse by subject matter. It's really worth a look.

Stanford;

Geography of World Cultures, Martin Lewis
Hannibal, Patrick Hunt
Alexander in Fact, Alexander in Fiction, Alexander's Predecessors John L'Heureux
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

These are only some of the EB-pertinent programmes, and of course there are many other categories to browse through.


I also added a link for the Digital Book Index http://www.digitalbookindex.org/_sea...stancienta.asp which has thousands of etexts and pdfs. Most are free, although newer books might be for sale. You gotta check this out.


Intercourse Between India and the Western World H.G. Rawlinson
Hellenistic History and Culture, Peter Green ed.

I was only able to look at both of these in the library (damn reference copies) but the Rawlinson book in particular looks fantastic. I found some preview links for them and stuck them on the main post.

Great Battles of the Ancient World, Garrett Fagan
This is a really excellent course of lectures by Professor Fagan, running the gamut from the wars of the Assyrians and Babylonians to the late Roman Empire. Available in video or as audio download, Fagan is a remarkably even-handed informant and manages to follow not only the historical threads but also some of the academic contretemps that surround them. These lectures and many others are available from The Teaching Company.
http://www.teach12.com/storex/course...and%20Medieval
Please don't pirate them.
First post updated (and cleaned up a little)

Got some goodies for Christmas including

The World of the Phoenicians, Sabatino Moscati

Philip II and the Sacred War, John Buckler

and I found a used (but pristine) box set of Theo Dodge's Caesar, Alexander and Hannibal. Score!

The second book sounds very interesting!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by oudysseos

Got some goodies for Christmas including

The World of the Phoenicians, Sabatino Moscati

Philip II and the Sacred War, John Buckler

and I found a used (but pristine) box set of Theo Dodge's Caesar, Alexander and Hannibal. Score!

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Awesome. I really liked Dodge's "Hannibal" and I'm waiting for "Alexander to arrive from Amazon. I'll dfinitely be sure to check out the first book you mentioned to sate my Phoeniciomania (is that a word?).

History of Persia, by Sir Percy Sykes. Old but good. Go for the first volume since it deals with the EB timeframe and beyond.

I think this was asked earlier, but does anyone know of good books specific to Greek colonies like Massalia, Syracuse and Chersonesos? I've been reading "The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek" and found out that I really want to know more about such places.

There are some books I know, but almost all of them are in Greek.

Basileos, I've added your suggestion. Also found The Romans in Spain, 217 BC – AD 117, C.H.V. Sutherland in my cousins used book store (we have a deal going). Despite its title there are substantial chapters about pre-Roman times and about the history of Carthage in Iberia.

Also A History of Parthia, George Rawlinson Old but excellent.

First post updated.

Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History, Christopher S. Mackay. 2004.

Set in chronological order spanning around 800 BC - 650 AD. Provides detailed maps of major time periods of Roman expansion, as well as 20 some pages of high quality photos of archaeological examples. Covers the early kingdom to the beginnings of the republic with good comparisons between archaeological evidence and written sources, and explains the Punic Wars very well. I'm only about 80 pages in, but found it very informative thus far.

I would add Herodotus, Xenephon.

Cellarlife, I'll add that one in.

Um, hipsott, there is an extensive classics section down towards the bottom of the post. Herodotus and Xenophon are *cough* the first and second authors cited.

First post updated. Oh, and good luck, Obama. You're gonna need it.

finally, a book on Pontos on Mithridates VI Eupator: "Mithridates the Great, Rome's indomitable enemy"!
:smash:

a long-overdue biography of one of the dominant figures of the first century BC
written by an athour of bestselling "Ancient Rome on five denarii a day" and "Enemies of Rome", Philip Matyszak.

havent read it yet, just got it yeaterday as a birthday present from my wife. but so looking forward to reading it!:grin2:

I would also contribute a few books I have read recently:

• Religions of the ancient world : a guide, by Sarah Iles Johnston (general editor), Harvard University Press, 2004 - 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, by John M. Wilkins and Shaun Hill, Blackwell, 2005 - informative, interesting perspective into sociology and everyday life of the ancient times.
• War and peace in the ancient world, by Kurt A. Raaflaub (general editor), Blackwell, 2007 - 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!
• Ancient Persia : from 550 BC to 650 AD, by Josef Wiesehöfer (translated by Azizeh Azodi), I.B. Tauris, 2001 - 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, Cambridge University Press, 2007 - 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.
• Rome and the Ptolemies of Egypt : the development of their political relations 273-80 B.C., by Anssi Lampela, Societas Scientiarum Fennica, Helsinki 1998
  
  
• The secret of the Hittites : the discovery of an ancient empire, by C.W. Ceram (translated from the German by Richard and Clara Winston), A.A. Knopf, 1967 - outside EB timeframe, yet interesting read, especially on how the information from past is transfered to us and how our understanding develops through careful examination and re-interpretation of historical and archeological evidence.

A Companion to the Roman Army By Paul Erdkamp (from the Roman kingdom to the era of Justinian)


http://books.google.com/books?id=hR73TNL7YMAC&pg=PA1&dq=companion+to+the+roman+army#PPP1,M1

Google book link.

Just a side note, it is rather expensive, but it is worth the price.

It is a shame that this thread fell off down to sixth(!) page - should be stickied probably:idea2:

To bring it up, let me point out to another excellent on-line source of knowledge: The Ancient History Sourcebook:book:

VT, I'm sorry that I have been so tardy in adding in your previous suggestions. Done now. The thread is indeed stickied, under Important Information for Forum Users.

Cheers.

First post updated.

oudysseos, you could add the above mentioned "Mithridates the Great, Rome's indomitable enemy" by Philip Matyszak.
im almost done with it, a fine read. thought i wish he'd go more into details at times and wouldnt rely on Appian so heavily when it comers to army numbers and there are alternative sources available to double cross check. ~;)
all in all a good book though.

in bibliography i also found one of the earliest and rear books on Mithridates' ally and son in law, Tigranes the Great of Armenia. written by K. Armen, Hrand (1940). "Tigranes the Great: A Biography."
tried to purchase it online but to no vain, its out of print and unavailable. :disappointed:
if anyone got any info on this book let me know please.

Sarkiss, sorry, I should have gotten that one too. Done now.

I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet, but

History of the Persian Empire (1959) by A.T. Olmstead is in my opinion a definitive study of Achaemenid Persia, the nations that came before it, the geopolitics, economics, religion, policies, military strategies and mindset of the Persians, as well as an objective look at the causes for the decline and fall of the empire.

My dad had a copy from years ago, I think it was an earlier edition. I finally got around to reading it, and it changed my entire view of the Persians. It takes into account the importance of Babylon to Achaemenid internal policies and follows the birth of distinctive Persian government, cultural, architectural, military and religious fashions and policies. Calling it a must read is a grave and unjust understatement.

Chairman

Okedoke, CHairman, I'll add thát in.

Just wanted to point out to you all that there are some quality podcasts at the moment: The History of Rome Podcast is back after a hiatus and has reached the Crossing of the Rubicon! Really good, you must try this one out (on iTunes and there's a link at the bottom of the first post of this thread). Also, BBCs In Our Time's latest podcast is The Destruction of Carthage! So get wired, people!

I just wanted to say that this thread has been enormously helpful to me in finding good history books. Thank you.

Recently I've found this one: Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare Philip Sabin, Hans van Wees,Michael Whitby.

Didn't read it yet, but certainly planning to do it when I'll have time. Sounds quite interesting.

I was very lucky to find "Philopoemen" by R.M. Errington (Oxford University Press). The edition I found is over 40 years old, yet it is a treasure trove of information for the Achaian League (Achaike sympoliteia).

2 more books I have to recommend, even if I probably won't find them to read are...

Greek Federal States by J.A.O Larsen and

Foreign Clientelae (264-70 B.C.) by E. Badianby, both by Oxford University Press.

The Romans 850 B.C.-337 A.D., Donald R. Dudley (1970): A pretty well organized intuitive read.

Lost Battles, Philip Sabin, 2008. He comes up with a universal mathematical model that can be used both for wargaming as well as for playing out actual historical battles, assuming sufficient information is known (i.e. Ipsus isn't covered here). For example, the sources differ greatly on the size of the Persians at Gaugemela. This model can let one re-fight with differing Persian sizes and see what the different results would be.

Nomadic Empires: From Mongolia to the Danube by Gerard Chaliand

It's brief and expansive (as the title suggests), but it's a readable introduction to the mass confusion that is the migrations and invasions in Central Asia. It deals with the Yuehzi on a few separate occasions.

Wow guys! I haven't checked this thread for a while: sorry. I'll add all those excellent suggestions to the main post soon.

Hey Oudysseos, would it be ok to post books that I haven't read?

just a quick question... Why isn't this thread stickied anymore? I almost forgot about it, and now i always have to do a forum search to find it:book:

It's part of the Important Information for Forum Users sticky.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sarkiss

finally, a book on Pontos on Mithridates VI Eupator: "Mithridates the Great, Rome's indomitable enemy"!
:smash:

a long-overdue biography of one of the dominant figures of the first century BC
written by an athour of bestselling "Ancient Rome on five denarii a day" and "Enemies of Rome", Philip Matyszak.

havent read it yet, just got it yeaterday as a birthday present from my wife. but so looking forward to reading it!:grin2:

---

So did you read the book by now? Or anyone alse for that matter? I'm really interested of buying it, but i saw some mixed reviews online so i don't know....

Oh, and thanks john. Didn't notice it:yes:

buy it. whilst i wish he would go into more details on some occasions it does provide a good info and sums everything you need to know about Mithridates Eupator quite nicely.

not sure this was mentioned before, there is a magazine called Ancient Warfare.
it featured a few interesting articles (in the issue i received) on Successor wars, "Alexander's funeral games". it really grows on me! a very fascinating time frame. im now looking forward to expanding my knowledge of Diodohi and their struggle for absolute supremacy (and to playing an upcoming Gaza campaign, of course!!!) shame there is not much literature dedicated to it and the books that there are cost a fortune.:worried2:

I remember that there was an actually good online book about the Diadochi. I didn't want to read it on the screen so I printed it and it was over 400 pages long. A shame I had not enough luggage space to carry that huge block of papers and left it at home... I will try to do a net search and find it again.

God, this game has been the single biggest drain of my time! All the time that could've been spent doing something constructive spent on this game!!!! Daaaamn you!!!

But seriously, awesome mod, made RTW worth the money I spent and hell, it got me back into ancient history. I've been trying to look up stuff on the Thracians and the Sweboz without much luck so thanks a lot for posting the links.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Silence Hunter

I remember that there was an actually good online book about the Diadochi. I didn't want to read it on the screen so I printed it and it was over 400 pages long. A shame I had not enough luggage space to carry that huge block of papers and left it at home... I will try to do a net search and find it again.

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I would be very interested in that one :yes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by anubis88

just a quick question... Why isn't this thread stickied anymore? I almost forgot about it, and now i always have to do a forum search to find it:book:

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You can make it a personal sticky, if you like (under Thread Tools).

I Am Herenow

I'm sure I enjoy military history as much as the next person in this community, but (shock horror), it isn't my main area of interest. :sweatdrop:

I'm very much interested in political history and also political philosophy, and I've noticed my collection of books/.pdfs are rooted very much from the Renaissance onwards (Machiavelli, Rousseau, J.S Mill, Marx etc.). I'd be interested if anyone has material based on the subject rooted more in Antiquity - for though I've learnt a lot about the social and military history of the time thanks to this mod and the community, I haven't seemed to have picked much up on the politics side of things.

Anyone have any good books to recommend, be they contemporary works or classical pieces? :book:

Something like this?

I Am Herenow

Quote:

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Originally Posted by I Am Herenow

Something like this?

I Am Herenow

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Yeah, that was the sort of thing I was looking for. It seems very imformative and of decent depth, thanks. :2thumbsup:

While on classical pieces, I did try reading Plato's Republic (in english) a while back but the Socratic dialogue style of prose just didn't really appeal to me and made reading it a chore. Well that was my personal opinion of it and I think it might be worth a revist if I can slog it through.

To provide some variety (since most of the titles listed so far tend to be military/political history):

The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World, Charles Freeman. A breezy, cursory overview of Greek history that I picked up recently.

Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew, Bart D. Ehrman. Provides a brief layman's overview to the religious battles amongst Christian communities (Gnostic, Ebionite, proto-Orthodox, etc.) in the late Roman empire. His other works come highly recommended as well.

To Think Like God: Pythagoras and Parmenides, The Origins of Philosophy, Arnold Hermann. An account of pre-Socratic Greek philosophical history.

Homosexuality and Civilization, Louis Crompton. Has a scope far wider than ancient history, from Asia to England to Islamic Spain, but does an solid job of covering the Greek and Roman ethos. His views on sexual history seem more along the lines of Boswell than Foucault, whose work I admire greatly, but still very insightful.

Mohammed and Charlemagne, Henri Pirenne. A classic history on the fall (or rather, continuance) of the Roman Empire that runs contrary to Gibbon, mentioned earlier. No contemporary scholar would accept his thesis, of course, but it remains a seminal work.

I apologize for double posting, but I was unable to include URLs as that was my first post.

A lecture series on ancient Greece available from Yale University: https://www.youtube.com/view_play_li...3BCE5134243987. The course page with MP3 and MOV downloads is available at http://oyc.yale.edu/classics/introdu...greek-history/. I have only just begun watching it, but thus far the professor seems well-informed about the period. Aside from his annoying habit of clearly his throat after nearly every sentence and a Nietzsche caricature that he presents in several lectures, I recommend it.

The controversial New Testament scholar Robert M. Price also has a large recommended reading list with numerous titles on Roman and Near Eastern history, along with other less topical, but still excellent, books: http://webulite.com/node/1818.

Mithridates VI and the Pontic Kingdom Edited by Jakob Munk Højte, Aarhus University Press 2009

available in PDF
http://www.pontos.dk/publications/books/BSS%209

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Luduan

A lecture series on ancient Greece available from Yale University: https://www.youtube.com/view_play_li...3BCE5134243987. The course page with MP3 and MOV downloads is available at http://oyc.yale.edu/classics/introdu...greek-history/. I have only just begun watching it, but thus far the professor seems well-informed about the period. Aside from his annoying habit of clearly his throat after nearly every sentence and a Nietzsche caricature that he presents in several lectures, I recommend it.

---

That professor, Donald Kagan, is one of the leading experts on the Peloponnesian War. His book, The Peloponnesian War, also available in four volumes, is a very detailed and well written account of the conflict. Highly recommended. The lectures are also very good, I've seen them.

Giving this a bump because it's a great resource, and I've read several books listed here and plan to read many more. Also, I'm looking for a good biography of Augustus, and figured this would be a fine place to ask about it. I'm currently looking at the one by Anthony Everitt, but I would love some suggestions.

EDIT: Also, if someone could show me a link to a pdf (or other online version) of From Sardis to Samarkhand, I would be very grateful.

"Tigranes the Great" by Herant K. Armen

the first biography of Tigranes II the Great to be ever published in English. ("Tigranes II and Rome" by Professor H. Manandyan has been published the same year, in 1940, in Armenian in Yerevan and was only recently translated into English)

this work, unlike all others i come across so far, is addressed to general public (the above mentioned work of Professor Manandyan being more of an academic study). its author for the first time tells the story from Armenian point of view. by scrutinizing and cross checking primary sources he draws a more balanced and accurate picture than those drawn by biased Roman authors who are often inconsistent and even contradict themselves (Plutarch is a great example).

i highly recommend this book to all interested in the history of Antiquity.

Plutarch was a major disappointment for me when studying Armenian history. What a joke he must've been. Sheesh.

Thanks for the book Sarkiss jan.

Cmon mods this thread worth a Sticky please. :book:

I do not know if this has been posted here already, but if it hasn't I think it belongs here.

Yale University puts some of its courses online, free to download for everyone. Among it is an entire 24 class course called Introduction to Ancient Greek History.

This is the describtion:

Quote:

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This is an introductory course in Greek history tracing the development of Greek civilization as manifested in political, intellectual, and creative achievements from the Bronze Age to the end of the classical period. Students read original sources in translation as well as the works of modern scholars

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And these are the classes:

1. Introduction
2. The Dark Ages
3. The Dark Ages (cont.)
4. The Rise of the Polis
5. The Rise of the Polis (cont.)
6. The Greek "Renaissance" - Colonization and Tyranny
7. The Greek "Renaissance" - Colonization and Tyranny (cont.)
8. Sparta
9. Sparta (cont.)
10. The Rise of Athens
11. The Rise of Athens (cont.)
12. The Persian Wars
13. The Athenian Empire
14. The Athenian Empire (cont.)
15. Athenian Democracy
16. Athenian Democracy (cont.)
17. The Peloponnesian War, Part I
18. The Peloponnesian War, Part I (cont.)
19. The Peloponnesian War, Part II
20. The Peloponnesian War, Part II (cont.)
21. The Struggle for Hegemony in Fourth-Century Greece
22. The Struggle for Hegemony in Fourth-Century Greece (cont.)
23. Twilight of the Polis
24. Twilight of the Polis (cont.) and Conclusion

I have put the entire course on my Ipod to listen to during long train rides and I am really enjoying it. I thought maybe some of you would feel the same.

Here is the link:

http://oyc.yale.edu/classics/introdu...downloads.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rubicon

I have put the entire course on my Ipod to listen to during long train rides and I am really enjoying it. I thought maybe some of you would feel the same.

---

i was doing that for quite some time now but with different course as well as getting bits and pieces from here and there. thanks for the info, downloading now :beam:

I wanted to post that course. I found it on this page. There are more courses from various universities. Unfortunately, that one is the only one about ancient history, but if you are interested in modern history, engineering or natural sciences, you will find some good stuff there.

I am not sure if it was mentioned, but interesting books are:
Flavius Vegetius Renatius: Art of war (translation?)
Sextus Iulius Frontinus: War lies (translation?) - short lines about unusual tactics
Onasandros: Commander (translation?), how should a good commander act
All three could be a good source for EB quotes.

Montvert Publications - Seleucid and Ptolemaic Reformed Armies 168-145 BC.
Author: Nick Sekunda, Art by Angus McBride

2 volumes, one for the Seleucids and one for the Ptoleis.

And sticky this thread!!! :smash:

I don't know if available in wide spoken languages, but this man has awesome books. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vojtech_Zamarovsk%C3%BD
History written by Rome and The Greek wonder cover EB period or its part.

Is the following book:

"From Samarkhand to Sardis (best on Seleukids) Sherwin-White and Kuhrt"

Really 300+ euros????:dizzy2:

Am I searching incorrect? Is there a way around? Or if I really want to enlighten myself I just have to pay that amount?:gah:

~Fluvius

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fluvius Camillus

Is the following book:

"From Samarkhand to Sardis (best on Seleukids) Sherwin-White and Kuhrt"

Really 300+ euros????:dizzy2:

Am I searching incorrect? Is there a way around? Or if I really want to enlighten myself I just have to pay that amount?:gah:

~Fluvius

---

Try your library.

The book itself had an incredibly short print run mainly because it was targeted toward a solely academic audience. The book has been out of print for a very long time. The information within is excellent (although there isn't much concerning the military), if you can find it.

Yep it's me again...

Also this book:

"The Fall of the Roman Empire Peter Heather"

was advised and I want to buy it, which should I choose???

Author: Peter Heather & P.J. Heather

Paperback

592 pages | Pan Macmillan | New edition | may 2006

OR

Author: Peter Heather

Paperback

572 pages | Oxford University Press | june 2007

Thanks for the help.

~Fluvius

Sorry to bother again...:sweatdrop:

"Xenophon's Retreat:Greece Persia & the End of the Golden Age, Robin Waterfield"

There is a more expensive 2006 title and also a cheaper 2007 version, exactly same title and writer. Which one?

They say the last one has 100 more pages, but that may not mean it is better.

~Fluvius

Is there nobody who knows an answer to my question? it has been around 3 days since a posted without the slightest reply. If someone knows which ones to buy please tell me.

Thanks in advance!

~Fluvius

The Google Books link for Edwyn R. Bevan's The House of Seleucus isn't working for me, but I've found it (and some of his other books) available on archive.org:


Vol. 1:
http://www.archive.org/details/house...ucus01bevauoft

Vol.2:
http://www.archive.org/details/TheHouseOfSeleucusVolII

Great, thanks!

I read Bevans house of ptolemy a few years ago and loved it, but then couldn't find the house of seleucus.

Too bad the second volume is only available on DjVu, though.