The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire (67 page)

Note: Appendix A is not available.

Appendix B
 
Finding the Romans on Earth and in Cyberspace

Now that you've gotten a broad overview of the history of Rome, you probably have areas you'd like to learn more about. To that end, I've put together a selected list of resources in print and online for your further conquests.

Good books on the Romans are legion. I've listed a few by category below, but by all means, head to your local library and bookstore and browse the stacks! For translations of ancient authors, the budget-conscious Penguin Classics feature good introductions and translations, and are usually available for a great price. Here are some books that you should be able to find in bookstores.

Ancient Romans
by Chester G. Starr Jr.Paperback—262 pages (November 1971)Oxford University PressISBN: 0195014545

The Oxford History of the Classical World. Vol. II: The Roman World
by John Boardman, Jasper Griffin, and Oswyn Murray, EditorsPaperback—455 pages, Reprint edition (July 1997)Oxford University PressISBN: 0192821660

The Roman Way
by Edith HamiltonPaperback—Reissue edition (August 1993)W.W. Norton & CompanyISBN: 0393310787

As the Romans Did: A Sourcebook in Roman Social History
Paperback—512 Pages, 2nd Edition (September 1997)Oxford University PressISBN: 019508974X

The Roman Republic
by Andrew LintottPaperback—116 pages (March 1, 2001)Sutton PublishingISBN: 0750922230

The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire
by Lawrence KeppiePaperback—272 pages (March 1998)University of Oklahoma PressISBN: 0806130148

The Last Generation of the Roman Republic
by Erich S. GruenPaperback—Reprint edition (March 1995)University of California PressISBN: 0520201531

Caesar: A History of the Art of War Among the Romans Down to the End of the Roman Empire, with a Detailed Account of the Campaigns of Gaius Julius Caesar
by Theodore Ayrault DodgePaperback—816 pages, Reprint edition (October 1997)Da Capo PressISBN: 0306807874

Caesar: Politician and Statesman
by Matthias Gelzer and Peter Needham (Translator)Paperback—Reprint edition (October 1985)Harvard University PressISBN: 0674090012

Caesar
by Christian MeierPaperback—528 pages (February 1997)HarperCollinsISBN: 046500895X

Augustan Culture
by Karl GalinskyPaperback—488 pages, Reprint edition (January 1998)Princeton University PressISBN: 0691058903

The Urban Image of Augustan Rome
by Diane FavroPaperback—368 pages (September 1998)Cambridge University PressISBN: 0521646650

The Cambridge Ancient History: The Augustan Empire, 43 B.C.–A.D. 69
by Alan K. Bowman (Editor), et al.Hardcover—2nd edition, Vol. 10 (May 1996)Cambridge University PressISBN: 0521264308

Cruelty and Civilization: The Roman Games
by Roland AugustPaperback—222 pages, Reprint edition (May 1994)RoutledgeISBN: 041510453X

Gladiators and Caesars: The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome
by Eckart Kohne (Editor), et al.Paperback—160 pages (December 2000)University of California Press ISBN: 0520227980

Emperors and Gladiators
by Thomas WiedemannPaperback—232 pages, Reprint edition (August 1995)RoutledgeISBN: 0415121647

Agrippina: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Early Empire
by Anthony A. BarrettPaperback—320 pages (July 1999)Yale University PressISBN: 0300078560

I Claudia: Women in Ancient Rome
by Diana E. E. Kleiner (Editor), et al.Paperback—228 pages (October 1996)Yale University Art GalleryISBN: 0894670751

I Claudia II: Women in Roman Art and Society
by Diana E. E. Kleiner (Editor) and Susan B. Matheson (Editor)Paperback—224 pages (July 2000)University of Texas PressISBN: 0292743408

Women in the Classical World: Image & Text
by Elaine Fantham, Sarah B Pomeroy, Natalie B. Kampen, Helene P. Foley, and H. A. ShapiroPaperback—448 Pages (March 1995)Oxford University PressISBN: 0195098625

Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome
by Christopher ScarreHardcover (October 1995)Thames & HudsonISBN: 0500050775

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire/Volumes 1, 2, & 3
by Edward Gibbon and Hugh Trevor-Roper (Introduction)Hardcover—Boxed edition, Vol. 1–3 of a 6-volume set (October 1993)KnopfISBN: 0679423087

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Boxed Volumes 4–6
(Everyman's Library)by Edward Gibbon and Hugh Trevor-Roper (Introduction)Hardcover—Boxed edition, Vol. 4–6 (October 1994)KnopfISBN: 067943593X

Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third
by Edward N. Luttwak and J. F. GilliamPaperback—255 pages (February 1979)Johns Hopkins University PressISBN: 0801821584

The Roman Empire
by C. M. WellsPaperback—2nd Reprint edition (October 1995)Harvard University PressISBN: 0674777700

Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire
by D. S. Potter (Editor)Paperback—280 pages (February 1999)University of Michigan PressISBN: 0472085689

Roman Circuses: Arenas for Chariot Racing
by John H. HumphreHardcover (January 1986)University of California PressISBN: 0520049217

Warfare in the Classical World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons, Warriors and Warfare in the Ancient Civilizations of Greece and Rome
by John Gibson WarryPaperback—224 pages (October 1995)University of Oklahoma Press (Trd)ISBN: 0806127945

Roman Warfare (History of Warfare)
by Adrian Goldsworthy and John Keegan (Editor)Hardcover—224 pages (April 2000)Cassell AcademicISBN: 0304352659

The Roman Imperial Army: Of the First and Second Centuries A.D: 3rd Edition
by Graham Webster and Hugh Elton (Introduction)Paperback—400 pages, Reprint edition (March 1998)University of Oklahoma PressISBN: 0806130008

Warfare in Roman Europe, Ad 350–425 (Oxford Classical Monographs)
Paperback—328 pages, Reprint edition (February 1998)Oxford University PressISBN: 0198152418

Principles of Roman Architecture
by Mark Wilson Jones, et al.Hardcover—280 pages (March 2001)Yale University PressISBN: 0300081383

The Architecture of Rome: An Architectural History in 400 Individual Presentations
by Stefan Grundmann (Editor)Paperback—350 pages (October 1998)Edition Axel MengesISBN: 3930698609

The Story of the Roman Amphitheatre
by David BomgardnerHardback—304 pages (October 2000)RoutledgeISBN: 0415165938

Roman Art
by Eve D'AmbraPaperback—176 pages (November 1998)Cambridge University PressISBN: 0521644631

Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph: The Art of the Roman Empire Ad 100–450
(Oxford History of Art)by J. R. ElsnerPaperback—320 pages (November 1998)Oxford University PressISBN: 0192842013

Roman Painting
by Roger LingPaperback (March 1991) CambridgeUniversity PressISBN: 0521315956

The Christians as the Romans Saw Them
by Robert L. WilkenPaperback—Reprint edition (February 1986)Yale University PressISBN: 0300036272

Chronicle of the Popes: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Papacy over 2000 Years
by P. G. Maxwell-StuartHardcover—224 pages (November 1997)Thames & HudsonISBN: 0500017980

Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity
by Peter BrownPaperback—Reprint edition (December 1989)University of California PressISBN: 0520068009

Pagans and Christians in Late Antiquity: A Sourcebook
by A. D. LeeLibrary Binding—352 pages (October 2000)RoutledgeISBN: 0415138922

The Formation of Christendom
by Judith HerrinPaperback—544 pages, Reprint edition (August 1989)Princeton University PressISBN: 0691008310

A History of the Byzantine State and Society
by Warren TreadgoldPaperback—874 pages (November 1997)Stanford University PressISBN: 0804726302

Byzantium: the Early Centuries
(see also
Byzantium: the Apogee
and
Byzantium: the Decline and Fall
)by John Julius Norwish and Elizabeth SiftonHardcover—408 pages (March 1989)KnopfISBN: 0394537785 (
Apogee,
0394537793,
Decline and Fall,
0679416501)

The Fall of Constantinople, 1453
by Steven RuncimanPaperback—270 pages, Reprint edition (February 1991)Cambridge University PressISBN: 0521398320

Barbarians & Romans: The Birth Struggle of Europe A.D. 400–700
by Justine D. Randers-PehrsonPaperback—400 Pages (March 1993)University of Oklahoma PressISBN: 080612511X

Charlemagne
by Roger CollinsPaperback—292 pages (September 1998)University of Toronto PressISBN: 0802082181

Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne (Middle Ages)
by Pierre Riche and Jo Ann McNamara (Translator)Paperback—336 pages, Reprint edition (March 1988)University of Pennsylvania PressISBN: 0812210964

Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry: Legends of Charlemagne
by Thomas BulfinchHardcover (March 1993)Modern LibraryISBN: 0679600469

The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment
by Carl J. RichardOxford, 1995ISBN: 0-674-31426-3

The Pythia on Ellis Island
by Nancy KassellOxford, 1998ISBN: 0-7618-0942-2

The End of the Past. Ancient Rome and the Modern West
(
Revealing Antiquity
13)by Aldo Schiavone, trans. by Margery J. SchneiderPaperback (2000)Harvard University PressISBN: 0674000625

The Romans have an empire in cyberspace. It may surprise you, but Classicists (scholars who study ancient Greece and Rome) were some of the first to venture into this territory to exploit its archival and educational opportunities.

As you know, the Web is full of both diamonds and Zircons, and it's hard at times to tell between them. So let me share with you a few wonderful places to start before you type “Rome” into that shop-vac of a search engine and suck in 19 million URLs. Before I do, however, my profound apologies to all my colleagues across the world, whose sites are truly worth citing and to whom I can only say, “
mea culpa, mea culpa
”—I just don't have room to cite them all. To you, the reader, I encourage you to take a moment to notice the people who maintain these sites, whose efforts at bringing you the past are truly Herculean.

If you want to find reliable information about Rome and the Romans, it's best to begin with sites hosted by educational institutions. There are many wonderful sites on Roman civilization and culture. If you're looking in general, however, I suggest starting first with these two sites from which you can get to practically everything else:

• ROMARCH
  (acad1.depauw.edu/romarch/index.html). The ROMARCH site provides a central location from which to access a wealth of Web resources concerning the Roman world from the late Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. Moreover, the linked resources are rated, which makes it easier to find good information. ROMARCH originated at the University of Michigan, grew at the University of Cincinnati and at Stanford University, and is presently hosted by DePauw University.
  
• Bill Thayer's Roman Sites (
  www.ukans.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/E/Roman/RomanSites*/home.html
  ). It is a gateway to over 2,150 Web sites, broken down by category, and linked with its parent site, LacusCurius (
  www.ukans.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/E/Roman/home.htm
  ).
  

You can find additional information concerning Rome and the Romans on sites that are geared more toward Ancient, Classical (Greek and Roman), Medieval, and Ecclesiastical topics. Here are some suggestions:

• Perseus
  (
  www.perseus.tufts.edu/
  ). Perseus is “The Mother of All Classics Web Sites” and more than lives up to its goal of being “an evolving digital library of the ancient world and beyond.” There are interconnected encyclopedias and overviews, texts in both original languages and translations, archeological sites, catalogues of vases and sculpture, maps of nearly every description, search tools, Latin texts, and more and more and more. If you're interested in the ancient world, you gotta go there. Perseus is housed at Tufts University.
  
• Exploring Ancient World Cultures (EAWC)
  (
  eawc.evansville.edu/eawcindex.htm
  ). I recently discovered this site and highly recommend it. The EAWC is part of a project to produce a high-quality textbook on the Internet. The Index contains linked resources for the Near East, India, Egypt, China, Greece, Rome, Early Islam, and Medieval Europe. You can investigate these cultures through an Internet Index, which points you to a chronology, essay, image, and primary text index for each of these cultures.
  
• Maria Pantelia's Electronic Resources for Classicists: The Second Generation
  (
  www.tlg.uci.edu/~tlg/index/resources.html
  ). This site is geared primarily for people in the field, but you'll find links to everything you need for first-rate information. It covers most aspects of learning, teaching, and encoding the ancient world. ERC2 is housed at the University of California at Irvine.
  
• University of Michigan Classics and Mediterranean Archeology Links
  (
  rome.classics.lsa.umich.edu/welcome.html
  ). Maintained by Sebastian Heath, this is a searchable (good thing, because it's l-o-n-g) list of links to almost every imaginable area of general and specific interest.
  
• The Stoa
  (
  www.stoa.org
  ). The Stoa is a consortium of forward-minded academics and other individuals who are dedicated to fostering both academic and broader publications and information in the age of the Internet. You'll find links to many interesting projects concerning the ancient world, including an ongoing translation of the Suda, the enormous tenth century Byzantine Encyclopedia. (For the Suda-On-Line, go to
  www.stoa.org/sol
  ).
  

If you know what you want to find, there are quick ways to get to good information about the Romans and the ancient world. These include ancient world–specific search engines and topical sites. A few to mention are . . .

• Argos
  (
  argos.evansville.edu
  ). Argos is a search engine limited to the ancient and medieval world. If you know specifically what you want, and it's about the Romans, start here. This search engine will not give you personal and promotional Web pages, but it will give you solid access to what you want to know. Argos is housed at the University of Evansville.
  
• Diotima.
  Materials for the Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World (
  www.stoa.org/diotima
  ). Diotima offers enormous access to information concerning women in the ancient world. Diotima is edited by Suzanne Bonefas (Associated Colleges of the South/Miami University) and Ross Scaife (University of Kentucky).
  
• Hippias
  (
  hippias.evansville.edu/
  ). Hippias is a search engine limited to philosophy housed (like its parent, Argos) at the University of Evansville.
  
• The Labyrinth
  (
  labyrinth.georgetown.edu
  ). The Labyrinth is the primary starting point for resources for Medieval study sponsored by Georgetown University.
  
• Ancient Medicine/Medica Antiqua
  (
  www.ea.pvt.k12.pa.us/medant
  ). If you're interested in ancient medicine, this is the place to go. It features texts, research, and links relating to medicine from Bronze Age Greece through the end of the Roman Empire. AM/MA is sponsored by The Episcopal Academy and maintained by Lee T. Pearcy.
  

• The
  Latin Language and Literature
  (
  www.csbsju.edu/library/internet/latin.html
  ) page housed at the College of St. Benedict and St. John is a terrific place to start. You can find dictionaries, texts, language aids, even Latin for Travelers!
  
• For Latin texts (in Latin), be sure to visit the enormous resources of the
  Latin Library
  (
  patriot.net/~lillard/cp/latlib
  ), housed at Ad Fontes Academy.
  
• Wheelock's Latin
  is one of the standby texts for learning Latin, and has a number of resources to accompany the book. One of the best is
  Paul Barrette's Electronic Resources for Wheelock's Latin
  (
  cheiron.mcmaster.ca/latin/
  ).
  
• Need to look up a Latin word? You can do this online at
  Perseus
  (
  www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/resolveform?lang=la
  ). Need the Latin for an English word? You can do this at Perseus as well (
  www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/enggreek?lang=la
  ).
  
• Figuring out Roman dates is a pain. If you need to know what your birthday (or any date) is on the Roman calendar or what MMDCIV times MMCCCVIII is,
  you can find handy conversion programs on
  Steven Gibb's Roman Numeral and Date Conversion
  page (
  www.guernsey.net/~sgibbs/roman.html
  ).
  
• Roman Law Resources
  (
  iuscivile.com
  ) is an informative and comprehensive site for the study of Roman law.
  
• If you're looking for other people interested in the Romans, check out the
  TheVines
  Ancient History site (
  ancient.thevines.com/
  ). This is a terrific site for Rome and the Romans, which is well laid out and geared to engage a community of people with interests in Rome.
  

For a list of professional organizations and associations, check the list on
Maria Pantelia
's page (
www.tlg.uci.edu/~tlg/index/organizations.html
).

Many books on the Romans end with the fall of the western Empire. We've continued into Byzantine and Medieval history. If you're interested in these areas, I can suggest two sources with which to begin, besides the ones mentioned above:

• ORB: The On Line Reference Book for Medieval Studies
  (
  orb.rhodes.edu/default.html
  ) is a super-site of interrelated texts and other resources. It's incredibly impressive.
  
• How does he do this? I mean the sites maintained by
  Hal Halsall
  (
  www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1.html
  ). His history
  Sourcebooks
  (includes Ancient, Medieval, Byzantine, Modern, and a number of regional “sourcebooks”) are exceptionally well done. The
  Sourcebooks
  will put you in touch with a remarkable array of well-explained and interesting primary sources for the study of history (as well as movie reviews, historical outlines, and discussions of methodology). He also has one of the best
  Byzantine Studies
  pages (
  www.bway.net/~halsall/byzantium.html
  ) that I've seen.