Velleius Paterculus (c. 19 B.C.–after A.D. 31) served under Tiberius, whom he uncritically admired. His brief history of Rome is of uneven quality, but contains some valuable character sketches.
Toward the end of his life Augustus prepared an official record of his career, the Res Gestae. He tells no lies, but sometimes fails to tell the truth.
Plutarch, a Greek who lived between c. A.D. 46 and c. A.D. 120, wrote a series of Parallel Lives in which he recounts the life stories of eminent Greek politicians or generals and compares them with those of leading Romans, with whom he finds points of resemblance. He aims to bring out the moral character of his subjects rather than to narrate political events, and does so largely through anecdotes. His biographies of Brutus and Mark Antony are fine pieces of work, and throw much light on the period. However, he probably passes on propaganda against Antony without due skepticism, and sees Antony and Cleopatra’s relationship in overly romantic terms.
Suetonius, who lived from c. A.D. 70 to c. 160, was one of Trajan’s and Hadrian’s secretaries, and had access to the imperial archives. His lives of the Caesars run from Julius Caesar to Domitian. His biographies of Augustus and Tiberius are of particular importance. His work is anecdotal and thematic, rather than narrative, but, while reflecting the interests and attitudes of his time, contains valuable information.
Cicero’s letters and his great series of speeches against Mark Antony, the Philippics, are useful (if handled with caution) for the period up to his death in 43 B.C.
Nicolaus was a Greek historian who flourished at the end of the first century B.C.; a courtier of Herod the Great, he met Augustus and won his friendship. His fragmentary life of Augustus gives a detailed account of the conspiracy against Julius Caesar and his assassination, and includes plausible stories about Augustus’ childhood (perhaps told him by his subject).
Strabo, who lived from c. 64 B.C. to A.D. 19, was a near contemporary of Augustus. He came from Pontus and traveled widely. He wrote a geographical study of the known world which contains useful economic information as well as descriptions of places.
Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23 or 24–A.D. 79) was an industrious writer, whose Natural History was an attempt to sum up all human knowledge. It contains much fascinating (sometimes nonsensical and bizarre) information about the arts, sciences, and beliefs of the day (including material about Augustus and his contemporaries).
Relevant and usually plausible anecdotes can be found in Attic Nights by the Latin author Aulus Gellius (probably born early in the second century A.D.); in Saturnalia, a fictional dialogue in which a wide range of different subjects are discussed, by Macrobius, a Roman philosopher who flourished about A.D. 400; and in Memorable Facts and Sayings by Valerius Maximus, who lived about the time of Tiberius.
Poets such as Virgil and Horace commented on political issues and events in their work and celebrated the Augustan regime. Ovid fell foul of the authorities in a major political and sexual scandal that implicated Augustus’ granddaughter, and much of his later poetry took the form of appeals against his banishment.
The literary sources are complemented by an abundance of inscriptions, including Fasti (chronological lists of consuls and triumphatores) and Calendars, which cataloged festivals and other events by the days of the year. Octavian, Antony, and other leading personalities minted coins whose imagery conveyed important political messages. Octavian and Agrippa used architecture as a means of managing public opinion and asserting their political vision.
Translations of Appian’s The Civil Wars, Dio Cassius’ The Reign of Augustus, Horace’s Odes, Epistles, Epodes, and Satires, Livy’s History of Rome, Ovid’s Erotic Poems (Amores and Ars Amatoria), Poems of Exile (Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto), Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, selected lives by Plutarch, Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars, Tacitus’ Annals, and Virgil’s Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid, have been published by Penguin Books, and editions of all the authors listed above, except for Macrobius and Nicolaus, are available in the original languages with facing-page English translations by the Loeb Classical Library of Harvard University Press. English translations of some texts can be found on the Lacus Curtius website (see below). Macrobius’ Saturnalia has been translated by D. P. Vaughan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969), and Nicolaus’ Life of Augustus by Jane Bellemore (Bristol, Eng.: Bristol Classical Press, 1984).
FURTHER READING
For a succinct overview of the period, I commend H. H. Scullard, From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 B.C. to A.D. 68, fifth edition (London: Methuen, 1982). The Cambridge Illustrated History: Roman World (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 2002) is an excellent survey for the general reader. Werner Eck’s The Age of Augustus (Oxford, Eng.: Blackwell, 2003) (originally published in 1998 in German as Augustus und seine Zeit) is a compact, insightful study. The Ancient City: Life in Classical Athens and Rome (Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 1998) is a readable introduction to daily life in ancient Greece and Rome by Peter Connolly and Hazel Dodge, notable for the elegant illustrations that evoke the two cities as they were in their heydays. Gilles Chaillet’s extraordinary Dans la Rome des Césars (Grenoble, Fr.: Editions Glénat, 2004) reconstructs the entire city as it would have looked at the beginning of the fourth century A.D.; it shows (sometimes speculatively) the appearance of Augustan buildings and Rome’s general layout.
My researches into Augustus’ life and times were guided, in the first instance, by Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution, first published in 1939 by the Oxford University Press (OUP paperback, 1960), a classic that remains essential reading, both for its analysis of the politics of the Augustan regime and for its study of the Roman ruling class; and his The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 1986) further explores the history of, and interconnections between, leading Roman families in the late first century B.C. and the first century A.D.
The massive Cambridge Ancient History, volume X: The Augustan Empire, 43 B.C. to A.D. 69, is comprehensive and authoritative, and includes a full bibliography. The old Cambridge Ancient History, published between 1923 and 1939 by Cambridge University Press, is still worth consulting.
Other modern works I found variously helpful include
Barrett, Anthony A. Livia: First Lady of Imperial Rome (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002)
Carcopino, Jérôme. Daily Life in Ancient Rome (London: Penguin, 1956 [originally pub. 1941])
Carter, John M. The Battle of Actium (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1970)
Castle, E. B. Ancient Education and Today (London: Penguin, 1961)
Dilke, O.A.W. Greek and Roman Maps (London: Thames & Hudson, 1985)