Looking for another historian to read

[stevesarak]

Hi,

I’m currently reading the writings of Livy. I believe he had a flair for writing and have found his books smooth, interesting (not dry) and informative (Keeping in mind the validity of his research)

I’m looking for another historian on Rome, one with a knack for writing (holding your interest) but also basically accurate.

I’ve only read Livy, but liked his style.

It needs to be translated to English, and I would think it matters who does the translation, am I correct?

Who would you recommend, and why.

Plutarch
Lucius Claudius Cassius Dio
Polybius
Or someone else

Thanks

Steve

[Paullus Scipio]

Possibly all of these, but especially Polybius, who was one of Livy's sources...his descriptions of the Punic Wars are very clear and lucid, and more importantly very readable.......the "Penguin Classics" version, translation by Ian Scott-Kilvert should be widely available and not expensive, especially in paperback...

[stevesarak]

Thanks, I'm going to log onto Penguin Classics right now.

[Ioannes_Ahenobarbus]

Cassius Dio is pretty good, not quite as well written (or maybe well translated?) as Livy, but again enjoyable. Polybius should be your first choice, though.

[stevesarak]

Cassius Dio is pretty good, not quite as well written (or maybe well translated?) as Livy, but again enjoyable. Polybius should be your first choice, though.

Thanks, I'll do some research into him.

[Kate Gilliver]

Polybius is very good if you want to cover some of the same periods as Livy, and makes an interesting contrast. Appian is very good for the periods his work survives for (especially the Civil War). Sallust offers a very interesting different perspective. Unfortunately his History only survives in fragments, but his monograph on the Jugurthine War is good (if overly concerned with damning Rome for its lack of morality). If you want to have a stab at the later Roman empire, Ammianus Marcellinus is a cracking read. And if you've already read Caesar, what about the continuation of his campaigns in the "Caesarian Corpus" written probably by an officer or officers - Alexandrian War, African War and Spanish War.

Many of these are available in translation on the net (lots through Bill Thayer's excellent Lacus Curtius website which has the usually pretty reasonable Loeb translations online). If you're into buying books though, I'd strongly recommend considering the Oxford World Classics in preference to the Penguin Classics when they're available. They're increasing their coverage pretty swiftly, they don't leave bits out (Penguin Polybius, Livy etc. grrrr) and on the whole they're very good modern translations. These days I'm finding myself nearly always recommending the Oxford translations over the Penguin ones on reading lists.

[stevesarak]

Polybius is very good if you want to cover some of the same periods as Livy, and makes an interesting contrast. Appian is very good for the periods his work survives for (especially the Civil War). Sallust offers a very interesting different perspective. Unfortunately his History only survives in fragments, but his monograph on the Jugurthine War is good (if overly concerned with damning Rome for its lack of morality). If you want to have a stab at the later Roman empire, Ammianus Marcellinus is a cracking read. And if you've already read Caesar, what about the continuation of his campaigns in the "Caesarian Corpus" written probably by an officer or officers - Alexandrian War, African War and Spanish War.

Many of these are available in translation on the net (lots through Bill Thayer's excellent Lacus Curtius website which has the usually pretty reasonable Loeb translations online). If you're into buying books though, I'd strongly recommend considering the Oxford World Classics in preference to the Penguin Classics when they're available. They're increasing their coverage pretty swiftly, they don't leave bits out (Penguin Polybius, Livy etc. grrrr) and on the whole they're very good modern translations. These days I'm finding myself nearly always recommending the Oxford translations over the Penguin ones on reading lists.

Thanks, this is very good information, I’m going to have to print it out. You’ve mentioned some historians I’m not familiar with, which is good, I’ll do some research into them.

I’ve done a lot of reading on Caesar but haven’t come across the “Caesarian Corpusâ€

[Praefectusclassis]

Hi Steve,
The 'Caesarian Corpus' is often sold with Caesar as its author on the cover. The individual titles are the African War, the Spanish War and the Alexandrian War. The are available as one volume in the Loeb series.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Hi Steve,
The 'Caesarian Corpus' is often sold with Caesar as its author on the cover. The individual titles are the African War, the Spanish War and the Alexandrian War. The are available as one volume in the Loeb series.

As in Gaius Julius Caesar? I knew he had written prolifically, but this is the first time I have heard of any of the titles......or am I barking up the wrong tree..?

[Praefectusclassis]

It's the right Caesar, but as Kate indicated, they were probably not written by him. They used to be chalked up to him though.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Ahhh sorry Kate, I totally missed that :oops: I think I have read that actually somewhere.....it's now on my list too tho'..... 8)

[D B Campbell]

I think I have read that actually somewhere.....

If you've got the Penguin Classics Caesar's Civil War, then you've got the Caesarian corpus, Byron!

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Yes, that would be it....I was all excited there for a minute too! :roll: :oops:

[Bill Thayer]

The Loeb translations are very variable, some (Pliny the Younger's Letters) being very good, others running the range down to mediocre and even in spots poor (laughable — and simple — translation errors in Pliny the Elder, inconsistencies in Celsus for example); with proofreading generally on the mediocre side. They are, however, the most commonly available; and because they generally failed to comply with the procedures of the then US law, they've very often fallen into the public domain far earlier than they should have: as a result, yes I've picked up a bunch of them on Lacus. Still, if you can treat yourself to hardbound, I'd spring for the Oxfords.

I'm not much of a military buff, even if this is the wrong forum to be admitting it, so I have no opinion on the quality of Loeb's Caesar. In general, what's not on my site is at Forum Romanum, including ps-Caesar's Alexandrine, Spanish, and African Wars (here). That one page looks like gibberish because of coding errors — David Camden is essentially no longer maintaining the site — but the links are there and the texts themselves are fine. Forum Romanum is your first stop for all of Latin literature; LATO for Greek (also not really maintained these days, but the text sites don't decay anywhere near as fast as other websites).

[stevesarak]

Hi Steve,
The 'Caesarian Corpus' is often sold with Caesar as its author on the cover. The individual titles are the African War, the Spanish War and the Alexandrian War. The are available as one volume in the Loeb series.

Hi Jasper,

I have the “The Civil Warâ€