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Rubicon by Tom Holland is perhaps the most popular of recent histories. It's a very well written history of the fall of the Republic. Holland has a particularly modern style. I recommend it.

Swords Against the Senate covers roughly the same period, but focuses on the influence and actions of the Roman Army during the period. Slightly more "scholarly", but equally interesting, particularly if you have an interest in the Roman military.

Anthony Everritt's much lauded biographies of famous Romans includes the excellent Cicero and Augustus, both of also deal with the autumnal years of the Republic, but obviously in the context of these two great men and the events that they lived through. I think Cicero is perhaps one of the best biographies I've ever read. Everitt also wrote a bio of Hadrain, which I have yet to get to, and the fascinating sounding The Rise of Rome, to be published later this year.

On a more broad scale, there is Robin Lane Fox's best selling The Classical Age, which covers Greek and Roman history from the earliest times to the Fall of the Empire.

Finally, Emperors Don't Die in Bed sounds exactly like what you're looking for. It's not the cheapest book, but it does offer potted biographies of the the most famous Roman Emperors and their down-fall. Fascinating stuff!

More?

Hey :-)
It depends on what you mean by book (as in to purchase or if you have a University Library that you could grab from). I'll assume you want to purchase one (if not, let me know).

Here is a short list of works that contain some great information about Diocletian (but are not solely about him):

Gibbon's Decline and Fall - it has it's issues but they are easily moved to the side, this work has been probably the most influential with regards to this era of Roman History (This is not exactly the most fun read, being over 1000 pages, but it is too important for me not to mention)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Decline-Empire-Wordsworth-Classics-Literature/dp/1853264997/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409976827&sr=1-1&keywords=edward+gibbon

For a shorter read Averil Cameron's The Later Roman Empire is a great introductory work and has a good chapter on Diocletian (as well as the Tetrarchs in general), an advantage of this book is that is costs like £0.40 used so even if you hate it, you've not invested in it much!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Later-Empire-Fontana-History-Ancient/dp/0006861725/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409976976&sr=1-1&keywords=later+roman+empire

Otherwise any really good scholarly books I can think of are more of a University book and cost around £25+ each. I have a good list of books like this if you have a want for them :-)

If you're really an enthusiast and can afford to build yourself a nice collection, you could look into getting some Loeb Classical Library volumes which have the Latin original on one side and the English translation on the other. Others have already suggested Livy, Suetonius, Juvenal and Julius Caesar, though as I said, if you're an enthusiast, they will all be of value. I'd add Tacitus and Pliny also for good measure.

"From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome 133 BC to AD 68" by H.H. Scullard has been recommended, though it doesn't (entirely) cover the period you're interested in, it's very good in explaining the lead-up to the Roman Empire. I'm not sure about other's views on Scullard, so best to ask them.

Edward Gibbon has already been mentioned, I'd probably also add Colin Wells' "The Roman Empire", A. Cameron's "The Later Roman Empire" and M. Goodman's "The Roman World 44 BC-AD 180".

Best of luck with everything and congratulations on your new house!

Hope I'm not too late to the party. In this thread you'll find a lot of material on Rome, but I wouldn't go as far as calling them sources. HBO's Rome is a historical fiction TV series, and Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, of which I'm a fan, should never substitute genuine academic work or ancient literature. If you're looking for books, there's a plethora of works to choose from.

In the lighter end of literature, you'd do well reading Mary Beard, Adrian Goldsworthy or Tom Holland - all educated in Classicism from either Oxford or Cambridge. I'd categorise most of their work as popular history, so they're easy reads, yet made with authority on the subject.

If you want your information straight from the horse's mouth, you can also look into works written by the Romans themselves, such as Livy, Plutarch or Suetonius. Reading these can be a little challenging/dull at times though, as they don't conform to our modern ways of structuring a narrative.

As for fiction, which, if done right, does have something to offer, you'd benefit from checking out I, Claudius, Memoirs of Hadrian or Julian imo.

https://www.amazon.com/Legions-Rome-Definitive-History-Imperial/dp/1250004713/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1554330687&sr=1-1 This a reference book rather then a story but one of the best books on the subject.

https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Romans-Robert-Knapp/dp/0674284224/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=invisible+romans&qid=1554330866&s=books&sr=1-1

Looks more at the average people

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https://www.amazon.com/Day-Life-Ancient-Rome-Curiosities/dp/1933372710/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2SQM52LIXLPEI&keywords=a+day+in+the+life+of+ancient+rome&qid=1554330990&s=books&sprefix=a+day+in+the+life+of+Anc%2Cstripbooks%2C175&sr=1-1

This one is more story then dry text book.

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https://www.amazon.com/Around-Roman-Table-Feasting-Ancient/dp/0226233472/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3HXK35FACBK1&keywords=around+the+roman+table&qid=1554331210&s=books&sprefix=around+the+roman+%2Cstripbooks%2C168&sr=1-1

Translating Roman recipes mostly from Apicius but with other sources.

Not all may be what you are looking for but I own them and have enjoyed them. I really mean it about the first one.

And if you buy good condition used books your not even half way through your allotment at this point.

I've found Maccay's book to be pretty easy for people with no knowledge of Rome to digest. It's simple, straight forward, and packs a lot of info into a short book. It's not something I'd want to see in an academic paper, but it's a good introduction that provides enough info for someone to then go on and find those specific topics they were interested in easier. https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Rome-Military-Political-History/dp/0521711495

One of the best and most dramatic works I can recommend is The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic, by Robert L. O'Connell. The battle of Cannae was a turning point for Rome, and O'Connell captures the horror and drama of the battle and surrounding events excellently. I HIGHLY recommend it.

In terms of Roman historians... It really depends on what period you're looking at. Want an awesome insight into the military? Go with Caesar's Commentaries of the Conquest of Gaul. Punic Wars? Check out Livy. Definitely check out Plutarch's Parallel Lives as well.

Of course, the quintessential book on the Roman Empire is Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. One can hardly consider themselves a Roman scholar without reading it, and nearly every historian will refer to it at some point.

Oh! And there's an interesting one I came across, for a bit more of a lower-look. By a Roman no less! Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome*, by Apicius is very interesting. Might not be worth it to put on your list, but definitely check it out.

TL;DR: If I have to pick two to add, take the Ghosts of Cannae and Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By a Roman, pick from what's relevant.

All the questions you've asked have incredibly complex answers to the point where entire books have been written on each. Unfortunately any succinct efforts we put in here would be about on par with Wikipedia and so you'd be better off just going there if you're a day away from submission. If you're interested in some research books, I can suggest the following:

Rome: An Empire's Story

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

The Fall of the Roman Empire

There are a million more but these are the three that I've personally read.

Of course your primary sources like Tacitus and Livy are available for free online.

Other less citable but more succinct (and free) sources are available in the form of the History of Rome Podcast (listen to episode 179 - The End and the episodes dealing with the slave revolts) and in the In Our Time: History Archives (look into the 5-6 episodes on Rome).

He was Syrian by birth, but he called himself a Greek.

'Though he himself appears to have been from the non-Greek, Semitic population of Samosata, the culture by which he defined himself was Greek.' Which is from the introduction of this book.

In any case, you're clearly reposting the link in several different subs. I think even /r/Byzantium would be more appropriate since his works were quite popular in that era, though he was not of it himself.

This below is not specifically about those subjects, and is more like a general reference to Roman life - but it’s a great book.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Handbook-Life-Ancient-Lesley-Adkins/dp/0195123328/ref=sr_1_8?crid=CMEZ67073OBU&keywords=lesley+adkins&qid=1556053126&s=gateway&sprefix=Lesley+ad%2Caps%2C138&sr=8-8

A day in the life of Ancient Rome was really interesting and a fun read.

I enjoyed John Norwich's three volume series: Byzantium: The Early Centuries, The Apogee, and Decline and Fall. If that is a bit too verbose for your liking, he has also published a Short History of Byzantium which summarises his trilogy.

This is one of my favorite books on Roman history, and it focuses closely on the relationship of the Empire and the Germanic tribes on its borders. It's written in an engrossing narrative style and is very easy to read.

"The Fall of the Roman Empire" by Peter Heather.

https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Roman-Empire-History-Barbarians/dp/0195325419/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Ronald Syme's Roman Revolution would be my 'scholarly 'recommendation.

Chronicle of the Roman Republic/Empire would be my recommendation for a true introductory look and for use as a quick reference when reading more in depth texts, plus its pretty.

A good middle of the road intro text to the republic although the translation is a little clunky

This book also comes highly recommended but I haven't read it myself.

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

https://smile.amazon.com/Insult-Abuse-Insinuate-Classical-Latin/dp/076071018X

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Never forget to smile again | ^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot

I'd recommend "Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome" By Leslie and Roy Adkins. Its full of diagrams and maps. Its a pretty accessible read, few topics are covered in more than a couple of paragraphs.

http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Life-Ancient-Lesley-Adkins/dp/0195123328

Fantastic list. I would add:

Christians and the Fall of Rome. This short book is basically just the most important and famous chapter of the much larger work, Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

• The Complete Roman Army by Adrian Goldsworthy (2011).
  
  
• Roman Warfare by Adrian Goldsworhy (2005).
  
  From the /r/AskHistorians book wiki:
  
  
• Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History by Christopher S. Mackay (2004). A survey primarily covering political and military history. It provides a solid understanding of events, their significance and implications on the Roman state. It covers both Empire and Republic very efficiently. (This book is required reading for history undergrads at my university)

These are all really interesting questions. I think I know the answers to some, but let me preface all this by saying that I am just a fan of history. I'm definitely not a trained historian. Also, this is all from memory (I'm not opening any books) so I could very well be wrong and would love to be corrected by someone who actually knows WTF they are doing.

>Who was the intermediate authority who commanded groups of legionaries?

I think that would be the Centurions. It was their job to keep their century cohesive and following the general strategy. I think they were also the ones who were cycling the lines after Marius' reforms (e.g. front line would fight for a minute, then fall back so the next line could fight, so that there were always the most fresh men doing the fighting). I think they are analogs to modern Sergeants, in that they had immediate command over the smallest unit of division.

>How were orders relayed when battle was already underway?

I'm trying to think if I've ever actually read about this. I want to say that it was with a combination of sounds (horn blasts, etc.) and runners passing along orders from the general. I'm not entirely sure, though, and I think a lot of it is based on speculation (I listened to a History Podcast that had a discussion with historians specifically about how Caesar managed to get his charging army to halt at the Battle of Pharsalus). I think a lot of it came down to Centurions being very aware of the situation and enforcing the orders that came down the chain of command.

> What were the rules legions followed to stay cohesive?

I think there are a lot of answers for this. For one thing, discipline was very, very strict. As in the legionaries were more afraid of their commanding officers than the enemy so they stayed in formation and kept moving forward.

Another thing was staying near their standards. I think each Cohort had it's own standard (maybe century? I'm not sure of the details) but they were supposed to stay near their standard and head towards it if they ever were split up.

> How did legions deal with limiting obstacles like gates, bridges and forests that would limit their movement and formation options?

I'm not sure, really. I don't think I've read anything about that. I would assume that they would do their best to stay in formation (as their are several disasters in Roman military history that came from marching in sloppy formation and being ambushed) and probably go around/through obstacles in cohorts or smaller units. That's just my guess, though.

> How did they deal with assaulting cities where they could easily be ambushed?

Definitely not standard practice, but The Battle of Alesia is a really good example of Roman engineering mastery. Basically, Caesar built a ring of defensive works facing the city and then a second one facing towards incoming reinforcements.

For the most part, though, I don't think the Romans really dug in for a siege if they were vulnerable to an attack. In general (and this seems especially true for their wars against "barbarians"), ancient armies would throw their armies at each other in the field and a decisive victory could easily mean your opponent had no army in the field. Also, I think the main point of a real siege was to deny food and water going into the city as opposed to breaking through the walls like in Rome: Total War, so a smaller force could do the job letting most of the army to battle anything in the field.


Again, like I said, I'm just a fan of this stuff. If I made any mistakes please do correct me. I like learning about this stuff and would find that really valuable.

Also, Anomalyzero, if you're interested in this stuff a really good book that I've read (well, actually got it as a download from Audible but the effect is the same!) is Caesar's Legion by Stephan Dando-Collins. It has a lot of details about the day-to-day life of the legions. Also, for more general Roman History I can't recommend The History of Rome podcast enough. It's great stuff.

Hope you found any of that interesting/helpful.

There is a penguin edition of his best political speeches. I still occasionally pick and read one of the chapters.

http://www.amazon.com/Cicero-Selected-Political-Speeches-Classics/dp/0140442146/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311275439&sr=8-1

I recommend Klaus Bringmann's A History of the Roman Republic. I also recommend a reader, such as Dillon and Garland's Ancient Rome: From the Early Republic to the Assassination of Julius Caesar. These two books together should give you an excellent look at the Republican era.

Legions of Rome by Stephen Dando-Collins. I think it's definitely worth a read. It might be exactly what you're looking for.

Tom Holland's Rubicon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078T53QZ8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to respond so thoroughly.

Are you familiar with the book Thinking in Time? Your statement about comparing across eras ("the academic discipline of history is premised upon keeping in mind that every historical event emerges out of different context, and that it's dangerous to compare across eras.") brought it to mind. One of its main points is the dangers of using analogies to previous events without taking the time to truly determine how similar or different they are.

OP you wanna look into the 10th Legion. These guys were some serious badasses and they belonged in Gaius Julius Caesar's army

http://www.amazon.com/Caesars-Legion-Julius-Elite-Armies/dp/0471686131

They were recruited in I think southern spain, and they were some fierce warriors. they fought with Caesar throughout the entire Gaullic conquests and through all of his civil war battles too. so that's a full SIXTEEN YEARS of full on military experience. actually caesar kept them in the service for longer than 16 years because he knew his only chances resided in keeping those super disciplined and skilled warriors.

they were especially useful in the battle of pharsephelus

http://fe867b.medialib.glogster.com/media/8e/8e6e1f0c5614b07a711bcc0e9aab1acffc08bc69f1a3a353e9db6324255c4e1e/pharsalusbattle.jpg

think of them as those 6 cohorts on the right flank that pushed back towards pompeys left. caesar had his legionairies lie down in the tall grass and keep their pila (spears) out. caesar knew pompey was gonna depend on his cavalry on his left flank to try to overrun and outflank him so caesar knew he HAD to stop this cavalry charge. well, he ordered his 6-7 cohorts of 10th legionaries to stay hidden in the grass until they saw pompeys cavalry come up close enough and then to STAND UP and STAB SHIT when the horsemen got within range. his men did exactly that because they loved caesar and were incrdibly well disciplined just from being with caesar for so long.

of course they stood up and scared all of pompeys cavalry away doing an incredibly job at defending the flank. this allowed caesar's troops to outflank pompey and all was lost.

sorry for the shitty pictures but my laptop is dying. feel free to answer me literally anythign about this battle even if its a really hard question!

You may like How to Insult, Abuse & Insinuate in Classical Latin, check it out.

https://www.amazon.com/Insult-Abuse-Insinuate-Classical-Latin/dp/076071018X