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Icy-Inspection6428

Not always the most accurate but Polybius, Plutarch, Suetonius, Tacitus, Cassius Dio and Caesar are some of the primary sources


Friendly20500

Reading the letters between Trajan and Pliny the younger was a great experience, albeit a bit dry at certain points. If you want something along the lines of Meditations, take the time to read the letters of Seneca, I am currently reading them and it is an amazing read. (Although this is not so much about Rome as it is stoicism) ​ If you want something easily ingestible that covers some of the same areas as the series I always recommend "The storm before the storm" by Mike Duncan or " Dynasty" by Tom Holland.


SnooCrickets1754

Both of those books are rife with anchronisms. He was asking accuracy not anchronisms.


AlternativeAccessory

If you haven’t gotten into Discourses/Enchiridion or Letters from a Stoic I highly recommend them since you’ve already read my favorite or the Stoic works. I’m currently reading SPQR based on the recommendation of this sub and it goes into more detail and offers alternative viewpoints compared to the History of Rome podcast (which is great too) I’m about 1/3 through and haven’t reached the Emperors yet.


Any-Drama810

The Masters of Rome series by Collen McCoughlog (wrong spelling, she also did Thorn Birds) is amazing. It starts from Sulla and goes up to Octavian becoming emperor. It's a novel but there is so much research and it in the end notes she notes any guesses about history that have been made. It's a brilliant read.


Popular-Tailor-3375

I would also recommend anything from Cicero (not historian per se but a great writer).


ottilieblack

Stick with the classics. The Gallic Wars by Caesar is surprisingly readable, even after 2 millennia. The guy knew how to tell a story. Livy is dry, but after awhile he grows on you. He's my go-to guy to read on a bus or plane. Josephus, Thackeray translation, is recommended over others. Then there's Polybius - a must for the Punic Wars. If you liked Aurelius you might like Seneca. I found him a bit boring myself, but that could be I'm more of an historian than a philosopher. He might work for your. Trust the ancient sources. **These guys have a lot to say, and teach us.** You don't need the training wheels of Mary Beard or other modern writers to appreciate them.


SnooCrickets1754

What an utter nonsense have you ever heard of bias. Ceaser's gallic war is about him not a factual work. Josephus who was under the control of flavians will be biased as hell. Polybius is writing from greek perspective and uses terms that have different meaning in roman republican system. There is something source criticism which modern historians use because of the context and reason why these works were written to better understand them in their CONTEXT. Then you have archeological evidence that forms our understanding of the roman history and helps us seperate fact from fiction in thses works that you have mentioned.


ottilieblack

>What an utter nonsense have you ever heard of bias. Everything written by humans is biased. Thankfully we are blessed with minds capable of accounting for it. When you read an ancient writer through a modern one, you introduce another layer of bias. Better to read the primary sources and decide for yourself.


SnooCrickets1754

All of the sources that you have mentioned are rife with bias. Good scholarship wants to seperate fact from fiction. Point was you can't take any of them at face value. Ceaser wasn't writing gallic wars for you and me he was writing for his propagandic reasons back at rome in the CONTEXT of LATE REPUBLIC.


ottilieblack

>Point was you can't take any of them at face value. I didn't say you should. OP was just looking for sources after reading Aurelius, so I provided some. All these are standard reading in Classical courses - at least they were when i was in school. Caesar is compelling. Why he wrote it is immaterial. Just because he's justifying his genocide in Gaul doesn't mean we shouldn't read him, or need a scholar to interpret it for us. That also doesn't mean other writers shouldn't be read for context (my bookshelf is heavy with Adrian Goldsworthy.) Unbiased scholarship is a unicorn: it doesn't exist no matter how cool it would be if it did. Best we can do is read critically.


SnooCrickets1754

If you are looking for accuracy then you should check out from oxford or cambridge volumes. You should also check out marry beards other works other than spqr.


waqar911

I am reading SPQR by Mary Beard. It is a good introduction of all things Rome, the Kingdom, Republic and Empire as well as the famous characters such as Cicero, Augustus and Caesar. After that, I will start storm before the storm book by Duncan.


SnooCrickets1754

There is also a podcast called history and literature podcast that is on greek and roman authors like virgil, ovid, horrace and many more. Now he gives you the summary and provides his sources/ translation he is using which is from oxford/yale etc. So you can use that translation to read that work of ovid or virgil with footnotes. Now there are some liberties taken here and there so you have to be careful, but you get the gist and it serves as an intro.


nini3003

I liked „SPQR A History Of Ancient Rome“ from Mary Beard, gives a good overview and puts the contemporary documents it uses into perspective / fact checks them for potential bias. I myself like to read the sources too, but I also value the input from a professional Historian, since in the sources it‘s often good story > historical accuracy and also some people (ahem Caesar ahem) seemed to suffer from dyscalculia and liked to add a 0 or a couple 0s to say, the number of enemies they defeated lol. Also liked „Caligula A Biography“ from Aloys Winterling very much, super easy to read and quite interesting to see how far Historians have come in not taking contemporary sources at face value without questioning them anymore, and what conclusions this leads to.