Imperium, Lustrum, and Dictator chart the disintegration of Rome’s republic and the inexorable rise, then sudden fall, of Julius Caesar. Told from the vantage point of Cicero, the most persuasive speaker of the age, it’s thrilling from the outset, an epic political thriller that seems to foreshadow the beginning of the modern world. The events are so incredible, so momentous, you have to keep reminding yourself they’re true.

Mystery writer Steven Saylor’s recreations of late Republican Rome are the best out there. The Venus Throw finds Saylor’s detective, Gordianus the Finder, investigating the death of an Egyptian ambassador visiting the city. Through Gordianus’ search we meet a range of Romans known from historical sources including a noble woman, a love poet, and a eunuch priest of the eastern goddess Cybele. Saylor captures the variety of the city’s inhabitants and its places. You step into elegant houses, a dive bar with sour wine, and public baths where the floor is “heated to just the right temperature by the hot-water pipes underneath.” The Venus Throw is not the first entry in the Gordianus series but you can start with it, as I did, and then read all the others. One of these books’ many strengths is attention to the lives of slaves.

Mouritsen’s short, detailed, survey of Roman politics in the Republic packs such a punch in terms of its sophisticated, but brief, analyses of Roman political systems including the fall of the Republic. In short, I think Mouritsen has done as good a job as any historian, page-for-page examining in brief the mechanics of Republican politics and their collapse. I certainly relied on his broader analysis of Roman political systems and their collapse on a number of occasions in my book as we investigated the turbulent tenures of this and that aristocrat. Politics in the Roman Republic is an excellent first step to Mouritsen’s thoughtful analysis, since it will provide the stories of essentially all the key aristocrats who form the evidence for his analysis. For those who want even more understanding of the political and competitive systems as they operated, Mouritsen’s book is a terrific next step.

Though Plutarch is not our only source for the political and military anecdotes detailing Roman aristocrats, their achievements, and their foibles, good translations of his biographies provide some of the most accessible and enjoyable reading for those who want to get a little closer to the source material. Waterfield’s translation is contemporary and excellent. The selection of Plutarch’s biographies in this volume span the sweep of the Middle and Late Republic, Cato the elder to Caesar. And he narrates with his usual style including all manner of interesting oddities and side comments about Roman society to spice the details up. An outstanding choice for learning more about the ancient historical record in a very readable set of biographies.

Ben instantly became one of my favourite authors after this. It’s not often you can feel an author’s passion for their work, but it shone from every page in this book. I was already hooked on ancient Rome, but I just found this stood out amongst its peers. Ben didn’t concentrate on the generals and senators that would write their names into history, but on the everyday soldiers that lived by the edge of their sword. It is a book I will certainly never forget

Crassus is one of the most important yet least known of the major characters inhabiting the late Roman Republic in its transition to Empire. Cicero, Pompey, Mark Antony, and Julius Caesar are much more prominent in the public eye, yet the huge wealth of Crassus was decisive in promoting the upward trajectory of Caesar himself.

Crassus is mainly noted from the film Spartacus, where, portrayed by Sir Laurence Olivier, he crushed the gladiator and slave revolt led by Spartacus. But Crassus also met a tragic end when invading Parthia with inadequate resources.

His story is related in magnificent prose by former Times editor Peter Stothard, whose description of Crassus’ heart-rending demise, as molten gold was poured down his throat by the victorious Parthians, brings the adventure to a spectacular and climactic termination.

Even though the details of specific aristocratic women in the late Republic are often fleeting, serious digging into our sources provides a much fuller and richer picture of Roman women, a critical half of the Roman people. McClachlan offers a brief, but rich introduction to the available literary evidence. The book extends before and beyond the Republic, painting a picture that transcends the political structure of Monarchy, Republic, and Empire. The English translations are very readable (not always the case to be sure).

What makes her work so engaging for those who want to dig into the Romans’ own words, is that McLachlan essentially writes in each chapter a combination of narrative, context, and commentary that work seamlessly with the passages from the ancient sources to deliver an engaging narrative about the topics from Legendary Dido, to the historical women protesting the Oppian laws. It is such an accessible way… show more.

This is a focused survey of the most fascinating period in Rome's history, when the ancient Republic evolved into an empire: the era of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and the emperors Augustus, Nero, and others. During this period Rome's expansion meant major internal changes and a century of instability, and I know of no better book that explains why and how this happened.

This trilogy by Robert Harris includes his bestselling novels Imperium, Lustrum, and Dictator and takes the reader through the life and times of Rome and the Roman statesman, lawyer, and scholar—Marcus Cicero. 

I found these books to give a fascinating view into the period of the history of late BC. I think they provide a spellbinding insight into a history that most have only read about in textbooks—brought alive in Richard Harris’s inimitable style.

Cicero is shown as the brilliant politician that modern-day imitators would be proud of.

Duncan walks the reader through the generations leading up to the fall of the Republic, examining the political, economic, and social conditions that led to civil war and, eventually, the transition to Empire. While Duncan provides biographies of key figures like the Gracchi brothers, he also sets them in the context of their world: its constraints, its faith, its competing pressures. The Storm Before the Storm opens a window into an under-examined period of history, one which has echoes in modern-day politics.