Essential reading for the RTW period

[Mount Suribachi]

With the game imminent, what books should all self respecting RTW players have read?

I ask, as I have never read a book on the Roman Empire!!

[Barkhorn1x]

With the game imminent, what books should all self respecting RTW players have read?

I ask, as I have never read a book on the Roman Empire!!

For fiction, you can start w/ Colleen McCullough's series from 110BCE to 36(?)BCE;
The First Man in Rome
The Grass Crown
Fortunes Favorites
Caesars's Women
Caesar, a Novel
The October Horse

Just be prepared for politics.

Barkhorn.

[Lucius Lucullus]

Im rereading Gibbons book "The fall of the Roman Empire" at the moment

[Lonewarrior]

I looking at a movie about the roman empire, then there's a book I wanna read too.

[historycaesar]

For fiction, you can start w/ Colleen McCullough's series from 110BCE to 36(?)BCE;
The First Man in Rome
The Grass Crown
Fortunes Favorites
Caesars's Women
Caesar, a Novel
The October Horse

Just be prepared for politics.

Barkhorn.

Drop ever you are doing and read these now

[Steppe Merc]

All the Osprey books are very good. Very pretty pictures.

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

The fall of rome books, fictional books about the early life of Julius Caeser. Great books man.

[DthB4Dishonour]

I just gotta give my endorsement to the Roman series by Collen McCullough. You might have to slightly lookup in an encyclopedia the Roman senate and voting procedures to entirely enjoy but even without the book would eplain alot of it albeit a little slower. Also there is a bunch of great references in the back of her books. Caesar and First man of Rome were my favorites in the series. You learn a bunch of interesting stuff while simoultaneously being enveloped in a dramatic epic story of war and political manuvering. She is extremely well researched in actually events although she does use literay license with her dialgue but even so its believable.

[Steppe Merc]

Hmm, that Rome series looks interesting. I'm not that big into Rome itself (they end up giving the more interesting people a bad name, as demonstarted by the depictions of CA), but next time I'm at a book store I'll look this author up. Now if only she also wrote a book about Parthia or Sarmatia...

[Nelson]

Regarding McCullough's series, the extensive glossaries are worth reading even if the novels don't grab you.

[Angadil]

Warfare in the Classical World by John Warry is a good, solid introduction to the whole period and all/most the major powers in just one book. Next I'd go for Peter Connolly's Greece and Rome at War. Then, there are scores of more specialized titles. But if you want just one book, which is nicely illustrated, readable and that will get you acquainted with the basics of warfare in the period of RTW, then you can hardly go wrong with Warry's piece.

Cheers
A.

[-Isapostolos-]

Im rereading Gibbons book "The fall of the Roman Empire" at the moment

Bah, I despise Gibbon's work. All he did was make the Byzantine empire as black as he could. He did not recognize it's remarkable cultaral and artistic advances from the Roman empire nor the immense debt the western world holds to this "convulsion" of the Roman empire.

He even made "Byzantine" a dirty word.

So I wouldn't recommend his work :P

But this thread was about the Roman empire wasn't it. right now I'm reading History of the late Roman army. It's quite good. But it doesn't really cover the period of RTW.

Does anyone know any good books about the punic wars? Or the conquest of the Aegaen?

[Talbot]

For the Punic wars I would recommend

The Punic Wars by Nigel Bagnall

Very good book looking at the tactical, operational and strategic levels of the wars.

[Stuie]

I enjoy reading the classical authors. Livy comes to mind - wrote some great descriptions of military campaigns during the Republic. Sure he embellishes some of the details, but you just need to take it all with a grain of salt as they say. I find it interesting to read Roman history written by someone writing for a Roman audience.

[Barkhorn1x]

For the Punic wars I would recommend

The Punic Wars by Nigel Bagnall

Very good book looking at the tactical, operational and strategic levels of the wars.

And also "The Punic Wars" by Adrian Goldsworthy

Barkhorn.

[The_Emperor]

There's always books of, Polybius' Rise of the Roman Empire and the Annals of Tacitus.

[Spartiate]

The Fall of Rome series are good.
Anything by Colleen McCullough-October Horse.
**RUBICON** by Tom Holland is a must read.It really gets behind the motives and intentions of the leading players of the day.Not about strategy as such.More about politics.

[mambaman]

yes i would agree with Spartiate that Rubicon is a must reda-one of the most enjoyable History books i ever read-in fact it grips like a novel-in short does what it says on the tin

and for Historical fiction try the Colleen McCullough books for Rome and try Ross Leckie's Hannibal for a poetic vision from Carthaginian side-excellent

[Mount Suribachi]

Well, I went and bought The First Man in Rome. The first 50 or so pages were bewildering, too many characters with long names being introduced too quickly. And the gay sex scene with the 14 year old boy was

But from the moment Gaius Marius went to the house of Gaius Julius Caeser its got much better. No more waves of new characters and more story & intruege About 100 pages in and starting to really enjoy it.

[ShadesWolf]

It depends on what info you want. This is the list of book that I have

The conquest of Gaul - Caesar
Caesar civil war - Osprey
Caesars gallic war - Osprey
Roman Legionary - Osprey
The Punic wars - Osprey
Barbarians against Rome - Osprey
The complete Roman army - Thames and Hudson
Thye Rise of the Roman empire - Polybius
Roman warfare - Adrian Goldsworthy
Greece and Rome at War - Peter Connolly
Ancient Egypt - Oxford press
Historic atlas of Rome - pengium
Historic atlas of Greece - pengium

Also I have a number of others including guides to Greek and Roman ruins, as i have visited quite a few in England and Greece

[todorp]

Here there are some Full texts Roman era books:

Julius Caesar:
The African Wars

The Alexandrian Wars

The Civil Wars

The Gallic Wars

The Spanish Wars

Polybius (c.200-after 118 BCE):
Rome at the End of the Punic Wars

Tacitus: (b.56/57-after 117 CE)
THE ANNALS

Life of Cnaeus Julius Agricola, c.98 CE

Germania

Germania another translation

Suetonius (c.69-after 122 CE):
The Lives of the Caesars, The Deified Julius

The Divine Augustus

The Lives of the Caesars: Caius Caligula

Aelius Spartianus:
The Life of Hadrian

There are plenty more excellent Roman books. I have more links and I'll add them tomorrow.

Enjoy

[TinCow]

I am currently reading Goldsworthy's The Complete Roman Army. Very interesting.

[SpencerH]

In order to play RTW one should not read any history of the era, it will only cause anguish. The game supposedly has units of armoured camels, flaming pigs, and screaming valkyrie barbarians for heavens sake! History be damned.

Avoid 'I Claudius' like the plague, its way too cerebral.

Instead, watch action movies like Gladiator, Spartacus, Ben Hur, etc and read novels on the same theme. You'll be happier in the end.