Tom Holland
British historian, translator and broadcaster; author of Rubicon and Dominion and co-host of The Rest Is History podcast.
Pagans and Christians by Robin Lane Fox
Robin Lane Fox's book is the best modern account that I can think of which will give people the sense of how this remarkable revolution took place.
on fivebooks.com · 13 Sep 2011
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
But the truth is that it remains incredibly readable. As I said before, it takes Tacitus as its model, who was famous for his waspish style, and a careful balancing and modulating of the sentences so that irony would be generated. This is what Gibbon does as well, and it means that not only is it an incredible work of scholarship but it is also compulsively entertaining. I really think that anyone who is prepared to give it a chance will find themselves smiling at the very least throughout it.
on fivebooks.com · 13 Sep 2011
The Roman Revolution by Ronald Syme
This again is an absolute classic which is completely informed by Tacitus. It has that very mordant take on the way that power works and operates.
on fivebooks.com · 13 Sep 2011
The Roman Triumph by Mary Beard
But there is also a deep pleasure in looking at some of the things that we think we know about Rome, or the myths that we know are not actually true, taking the mystery to pieces and examining the works and seeing what is there. This is what Mary Beard does in her book.
on fivebooks.com · 13 Sep 2011
The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius
Suetonius's work is a collection of biographies of the first 12 Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar through to Domitian. And it really had a crucial sense of shaping our understanding of Imperial Rome as a place of vice and savagery and sexual depravity and violent, brutal, bawdy splendour.
on fivebooks.com · 13 Sep 2011
Everything Tom Holland recommends — not just books — on rcmnd →