Citation Information
Article Title: Ancient Rome
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 02 August 2019
URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Rome
Access Date: August 25, 2019
Additional Reading General works
A wealth of information on ancient Roman civilization is provided by the volumes in The Cambridge Ancient History (1923– ), some in newer 2nd and 3rd editions; by N.G.L. Hammond and H.H. Scullard (eds.), The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd ed. (1970, reprinted 1984); and by John Boardman, Jasper Griffin, and Oswyn Murray (eds.), The Oxford History of the Classical World (1986). Michael Grant and Rachel Kitzinger (eds.), Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome, 3 vol. (1988), discusses the geography, inhabitants, arts, language, religion, politics, technology, and economy of the area from the early 1st millennium bc to the late 5th century ad. Broad coverage of the physical and cultural settings and of archaeological discoveries is also provided by Tim Cornell and John Matthews, Atlas of the Roman World (1982); and Nicholas G.L. Hammond (ed.), Atlas of the Greek and Roman World in Antiquity (1981). Overviews of the histories of Roman civilization include M. Cary and H.H. Scullard, A History of Rome Down to the Reign of Constantine, 3rd ed. (1975); and Michael Vickers, The Roman World (1977, reissued 1989). Many ancient historical sources are available in The Loeb Classical Library series, with original text and parallel English translation; in the series Translated Documents of Greece and Rome; and in Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold (eds.), Roman Civilization: Selected Readings, 3rd ed., 2 vol. (1990). Emily D. Townsend Vermeule Simon Hornblower John Ferguson Nancy Thomson de Grummond Gary Edward Forsythe Richard P. Saller Ramsay MacMullen Rome from its origins to 264
Archaeological evidence on early Rome is discussed and analyzed by Raymond Bloch, The Origins of Rome, rev. ed. (1963; originally published in French, 1946); T.J. Cornell, “Rome and Latium Vetus,” Archaeological Reports, 26:71–88 (1979–80); and Robert Drews, “The Coming of the City to Central Italy,” American Journal of Ancient History, 6:133–165 (1981). The archaeology of early Italy in general is covered in David Trump, Central and Southern Italy Before Rome (1966). Livy’s work on early Rome is carefully annotated and commented on in part by R.M. Ogilvie, A Commentary on Livy, Books 1–5 (1965, reissued 1984). A good survey of Livy’s annalistic predecessors is E. Badian, “The Early Historians,” in T.A. Dorey (ed.), Latin Historians (1966), pp. 1–38. The single best modern treatment of the regal period and the early republic is Jacques Heurgon, The Rise of Rome to 264 B.C. (1973; originally published in French, 1969). A complete chronological listing of all known magistrates of the Roman Republic with full ancient citations can be found in T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, 2 vol. and a supplement (1951–60, reprinted 1984–86). A collection and modern analysis of ancient sources concerning Rome’s economic development is Tenney Frank (ed.), An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome, 6 vol. (1933–40, reprinted 1975). The legal evidence from early Rome is treated by Alan Watson, Rome of the XII Tables: Persons and Property (1975).
The evolution of Rome’s foundation myth is discussed by E.J. Bickerman, “Origines Gentium,” Classical Philology, 47(2):65–81 (April 1952). Bickerman treats a number of important methodological questions on early Rome in “Some Reflections on Early Roman History,” Rivista di Filologia e di Istruzione Classica, 97:393–408 (1969). Richard I. Ridley, “Fastenkritik: A Stocktaking,” Athenaeum, 58(3–4):264–298 (1980), surveys various modern views on the reliability of the consular fasti. The single best treatment of the Roman ruling class is Matthias Gelzer, The Roman Nobility (1969; originally published in German, 1912). The Roman assemblies and voting procedures are thoroughly examined by George Willis Botsford, The Roman Assemblies from Their Origin to the End of the Republic (1909, reprinted 1968); and Lily Ross Taylor, Roman Voting Assemblies from the Hannibalic War to the Dictatorship of Caesar (1966). Taylor has also carefully studied the origin and development of the 35 urban and rural voting tribes in The Voting Districts of the Roman Republic (1960). E. Stuart Staveley, “Forschungsbericht: The Constitution of the Roman Republic 1940–1954,” Historia, 5:74–122 (1956), surveys modern scholarship on a number of important constitutional problems of early Roman history. Staveley has discussed the problem of the distinction between patricians and plebians in “The Nature and Aims of the Patriciate,” Historia, 32:24–57 (1983). A collection of essays by different scholars addressing this same problem is Kurt A. Raaflaub (ed.), Social Struggles in Archaic Rome: New Perspectives on the Conflict of the Orders (1986), which contains an excellent bibliography on early Rome. A detailed and novel approach to the problem of patricians and plebeians is Richard E. Mitchell, Patricians and Plebeians: The Origin of the Roman State (1990). The single best treatment of the military tribunes with consular power and related questions is Kurt von Fritz, “The Reorganization of the Roman Government in 366 B.C. and the So-called Licinio-Sextian Laws,” Historia, 1:3–44 (1950).
The best modern discussion of Roman imperialism is William V. Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome, 327–70 B.C. (1979). Harris’ Rome in Etruria and Umbria (1971), examines Rome’s relations with those two regions. Other informative works on Roman expansion include R.M. Errington, The Dawn of Empire: Rome’s Rise to World Power (1971); Erich S. Gruen, The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome, 2 vol. (1984); and E. Badian, Foreign Clientelae, 264–70 B.C. (1958). E.T. Salmon, Roman Colonization Under the Republic (1969), surveys the methods, aims, and consequences of Roman colonization. Gary Edward Forsythe The middle republic (264–133 bc)
H.H. Scullard, A History of the Roman World: 753–146 BC, 4th ed. (1980), provides a reliable narrative. Gaetano de Sanctis, Storia dei Romani, 4 vol. (1907–65), is more detailed. The standard reference work on Polybius is F.W. Walbank, A Historical Commentary on Polybius, 3 vol. (1957–79). On the wars with Carthage, Ulrich Kahrstedt, Geschichte der Karthager von 218–146 (1913, reprinted 1975), provides source criticism. Military aspects of this period are presented in Johannes Kromayer and Georg Veith, Antike Schlachtfelder, vol. 3 in 2 parts (1912); Johannes Kromayer and Georg Veith (eds.), Schlachten-Atlas zur antiken Kriegsgeschichte, 5 parts (1922–29); J.H. Thiel, A History of Roman Sea-power Before the Second Punic War (1954), and Studies on the History of Roman Sea-power in Republican Times (1946); J.F. Lazenby, Hannibal’s War: A Military History of the Second Punic War (1978); and H.H. Scullard, Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politician (1970). Stéphane Gsell, Histoire ancienne de l’Afrique du Nord, 3rd ed., 8 vol. (1928); and B.H. Warmington, Carthage, rev. ed. (1969), deal with Carthage. Works on the provinces include David Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor to the End of the Third Century After Christ, 2 vol. (1950, reissued 1988); G.H. Stevenson, Roman Provincial Administration till the Age of the Antonines (1939, reprinted 1975); and C.H.V. Sutherland, The Romans in Spain, 217 B.C.–A.D. 117 (1939, reprinted 1982). The transformation of Rome and Italy during the middle republic