Reddit reviews SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
We found 12 Reddit comments about SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Liveright Publishing Corporation
If you're set on a book that's a fairly broad discussion of Rome, Mary Beard's SPQR is one of the better ones I've read, though it stops at 212 A.D. and doesn't go all the way through the fall of the Western Roman Empire, so you will want something else for that. Anytime this question comes up though, I have to add a caveat: the best introductory material on Rome I've ever found isn't a book but a podcast: The History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan. There really is no better introduction to get the basic story of the whole history of Rome from it's mythical beginnings to the end of the Western Roman Empire and in my opinion this is the true answer to your question.
Hard to answer that question accurately. I've read a lot of books, but it's a long time ago now. I seem to recall that SPQR - A History of Ancient Rome. By Mary Beard was interesting. /r/askhistorians has a fairly comprehensive list of books on the topic of Ancient Rome. And I am sure if you ask around in those areas of reddit you might get better suggestions than I can provide.
Also here is a list of thread about the Gracchi on askhistorians
The standard textbook history right now appears to be The Romans: From Village to Empire.
Klaus Bringmann's A History of the Roman Republic also still seems to be the standard introduction to that period (i.e. the time period of Imperator).
If you want to read about the end of the Roman Republic and Caesar/Augustus, it's hard to turn down Caesar: Life of a Colossus which is great for the general reader, alongside his Augustus: First Emperor of Rome.
He also writes pretty solid books on other major Roman figures, such as In the Name of Rome: The Men who won the Roman Empire.
If you want to get a pretty good introduction to Roman History, but more of what life was like for the average citizen, SPQR by Mary Beard is actually a good choice.
Older, but still solid, is Peter Garnsey's The Roman Empire: Economy, Society, and Culture which covers a lot of things Beard doesn't.
For the Roman army, Adrian Goldsworthy's The Complete Roman Army is a solid introduction.
However you'll want to break that down into several books if you want to go deeper:
Roman Military Equipment by MC Bishop and JCN Coulston
The Roman Imperial Army of the First and Second Centuries AD by Graham Webster
A Companion to the Roman Army by Paul Erdkamp
For the collapse of the Western Roman Empire I'd recommend both Peter Heather's The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians combined with the more scholarly Guy Halsall's Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West.
For the forgotten half of Roman History, often mistakenly called the "Byzantine Empire," it's hard to cover with just one book, but Warren Treadgold's A History of the Byzantine State and Society has become the standard reading. John Haldon's The Empire that would not Die covers the critical transition during the Islamic conquests thoroughly.
Of course I have to include books on the two IMO most overrated battles in Roman history on this list since that's what people love:
The Battle of the Teutoberg Wald: Rome's Greatest Defeat by Adrian Murdoch
The Battle of Cannae: Cannae: Hannibal's Greatest Victory is sort of the single book to read if you can only pick one. However, The Ghosts of Cannae is also good. But if you actually want to go really in depth, you need Gregory Daly's dry-as-the-Atacama book Cannae: The Experience of Battle in the Second Punic War. When I say dry as the Atacama, I mean it, but it's also extraordinarily detailed.
I'd complement this with Goldsworthy's The Punic Wars.
For other interesting topics:
The Emergence of the Bubonic Plague: Justinian's Flea and Plague and the End of Antiquity.
Hadrian's Wall: Hadrian's Wall by Adrian Goldsworthy
Roman Architecture: Roman Architecture by Frank Sear (definitely a bit more scholarly but you can probably handle it)
I may post more in addendum to this list with further comments but I think I'm reaching the character count.
Det at de tok til seg andre gudetroer er helt korrekt, det du ikke tar med er at de med andre gudetroer/religioner MÅTTE forholde seg til, akseptere og ofre til de romerske gudene også, derfor var blant annet kristendommen så i konflikt med romerne i starten, siden de ikke lenger ville ofre dyr pga Jesus. Det ble til og med notert og ført lister over alle som hadde ofret og ikke enda hadde ofret, noe man måtte gjøre for å respektere Roma. Kulturen måtte de også akseptere og assimileres til, selvom de fikk beholde mye av sin egen kultur. Det er denne grunnen at Cambridge professoren i "Classics" Mary Beard som faktisk er for multikultur, EU og imot blant annet Trump tar opp dette.
Anbefaler denne https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/1631492225
I’m reading SPQR right now since Roman history is cool and I don’t really know much about it aside from what you pick up in popular media like Gladiator
I've read some good ones. I'll try to list all that I can remember from when I was getting my history degree and ones I've read for fun. I read the Iliad, odyssey, Thucydides, Herodotus. I read a lot of those guys. Unfortunately I don't have very many of my books and I can't remember all the titles. But, I do work in a library and have seen some good ones. Here are some links to some:
https://www.amazon.com/Wonders-Ancient-World-Metro-Books/dp/1435129660/ref=sr_1_18?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1495553357&sr=1-18&keywords=Wonders+of+the+ancient+world
https://www.amazon.com/History-Ancient-World-Earliest-Accounts/dp/039305974X/ref=sr_1_27?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1495553171&sr=1-27&keywords=Ancient+Greece
https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Athens-Worlds-Greatest-Civilization/dp/0812994582/ref=zg_bs_4880_22?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=C0JCVQDM2MA8DDZ43TYV
https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/1631492225/ref=pd_sim_14_33?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1631492225&pd_rd_r=0HRJM2DS4HWZMWWQXP8B&pd_rd_w=OTprV&pd_rd_wg=vT33O&psc=1&refRID=0HRJM2DS4HWZMWWQXP8B
https://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Greeks-Illustrated-History/dp/142621670X/ref=zg_bs_4880_43?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=RXBQK8K2K31NX6BE98ME
I promise, I do not receive any remuneration from this link:
https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/1631492225
This book is amazing, even if you're not into Roman poop. Audiobook available too.
I was washing dishes today and listened to it again, chapter six, for the, hmmmm, fourteenth-time?
Get out of my head.
For the last week or so (I recently read a new history of Rome and have been wanting to do an 'imperial' paintjob on a model. Apparently there's already a white/gold Zaku in "Build Fighters Try," so I was thinking of adding violet stripes onto gold trim on a white background to resemble a Roman senator or priest's toga.
As a general rule, historians love books -- and this one, if he hasn't read it already, is a great text for someone who loves Rome: https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/1631492225
Beyond that, it's hard to give advice without knowing him. Possible gifts could include books, movies, documentaries, games, jewelry and other reproductions, militaria, or real (or replica) Roman coins.
I'm personally always fond of reproduced artefacts, and you can get pretty much anything depending on his taste. For myself, the perfect gift would be some reproduction Roman pottery or glass -- but I'm always looking for something cool to eat or drink out of, and other people like other sorts of things so it's difficult to advise without really knowing him.
David J. Loehr
Comics
Books
Erika Ensign
Monty Ashley
Comics
Books
TV
Movies
Steve Lutz
Movies
Old Games
Podcasts
Jason Snell
Movies
TV
Books
Comics
Podcasts
I have always been fascinated with ancient Greece. I'm currently more than half way through Ancient Greece, Pomeroy et. al so a natural progression would be reading something on the roman empire.
I've been eyeing SPQR. It is a widely praised book, so it could be a good substitute of "The Storm Before the Storm", although it covers a wider period. "The Storm Before the Storm" also looks good, and I would be more than willing to read it. "Red famine" and "1491" also attracted my attention, I remember hearing about "1491" in Rogan's conversation with Colin.
Here’s a noted professor from Cambridge:
https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/1631492225/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=GF7KG2HEHPB7148QEDFZ
Perhaps she can answer your questions on the topic.