Real Roman History

Introduction to Real Roman History. Start with Episode 1. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/real-roman-history/donations

Sources and Historiography The proscriptions and the dictatorship are covered by Plutarch's Life of Sulla and Appian's Civil Wars. The proscription numbers—roughly ninety senators and several thousand equestrians—come from Appian and are treated as plausible upper bounds rather than precise figures by most modern scholars. The first list, published as a proconsular edict shortly after Sull...

Sources and Historiography Plutarch's Life of Sulla is the primary source for this episode, and Plutarch had a particular personal investment in it: he was born at Chaeronea and his account of the battle there is the most detailed we have, likely drawing on local traditions and possibly on the now-lost Memoirs of Sulla himself. The Memoirs covered at least the Greek campaign; their influence o...

Sources and Historiography The Cinnan period is one of the most poorly sourced stretches of the late Republic. The problem Robin Seager identified in the Cambridge Ancient History cannot be overstated: almost everything we have is filtered through the victorious Sullan tradition. Sulla wrote memoirs. He won the subsequent civil war. His account of Cinna's years as chaos, terror, and illegitima...

Sources and Historiography The principal ancient source for this episode is Plutarch's Life of Marius, covering the flight, exile, return, and death. Plutarch's account of the Minturnae episode and the Carthage reply is the most sustained and vivid in the tradition. He drew heavily on Sallust's Histories for the civil war period and on a range of now-lost sources for the flight narrati...

Sources and Historiography The Social War is one of the more poorly sourced events of the late Republic, which is ironic given its importance. Livy covered this period in detail, but those books survive only in the brief summaries called the Periochae. Appian's Civil Wars, Book One, gives us the most substantial surviving account, though Appian was writing in the second century CE and worked f...

Works Cited Primary Sources Appian.  Civil Wars , Book 1, chapters 55–64. The march on Rome and its immediate aftermath. Plutarch. “Life of Sulla.” The primary portrait, drawing on Sulla's own memoirs; essential throughout. Sallust.  Histories  (fragments). The character sketch of Sulla; brief but precise. Secondary Sources Badian, Ernst. “Sulla's Cilician Command.”  Athenaeum , 1959. Esse...

Works Cited Primary Sources Appian.  Civil Wars , Book 1, chapters 28–33. The Saturninus episode in fuller political detail. Plutarch. “Life of Marius,” chapters 10–30. The primary narrative; the Aquae Sextiae and Vercellae accounts, the Saturninus episode. Secondary Sources Badian, Erich.  Roman Imperialism in the Late Republic . 1968. Essential background on the political context of Marius's...

Works Cited Primary Sources Plutarch. “Life of Marius.” The primary portrait; essential, psychologically rich, read with awareness of Plutarch's moralizing framing. Plutarch. “Life of Sulla,” chapters 1–6. The introduction of Sulla and the Africa chapters; the rivalry's origin. Sallust.  Bellum Jugurthinum . The military and political narrative of the African campaign. Secondary Sources Go...

Works Cited Primary Sources Plutarch. “Life of Marius.” The most detailed character portrait; covers the Jugurthine War, the Cimbrian War, and the later career. Sallust.  Bellum Jugurthinum . The primary narrative source; essential and brilliantly written, read with awareness of Sallust's political thesis. Secondary Sources Beard, Mary.  SPQR . 2015. Good on the Marian reforms debate and what...

Works Cited Primary Sources Appian.  Civil Wars , Book 1, chapters 17–26. The analytical account of Gaius's program and fall. Cicero. Various speeches and letters. The most important near-contemporary source; hostile to Gracchan methods, respectful of Gracchan goals. Plutarch. “Life of Gaius Gracchus.” The fullest narrative; read alongside the “Life of Tiberius” for the brothers as a pair. Sec...

Works Cited Primary Sources Appian.  Civil Wars , Book 1, chapters 7–17. The analytical account of the agrarian crisis and the tribunate. Cicero.  De Re Publica  and  De Legibus . A hostile-sympathetic perspective; Cicero respected Tiberius's goals but condemned his methods. Plutarch. “Life of Tiberius Gracchus.” The fullest narrative account; read with awareness of its moralizing purposes. Se...

Works Cited Primary Sources Appian.  Iberica (Hispanic Affairs) . The primary narrative source for both the Celtiberian and Lusitanian wars. His account of Viriatus, the Galba massacre, and the assassination is the fullest we have. Diodorus Siculus.  Library of History , Books 31–33 (fragmentary). Supplements Appian on Viriatus and the Lusitanian conflict. Livy.  Periochae , Books 47–59. Summaries...

Works Cited Primary Sources Appian.  Roman History: The Punic Wars . The fullest surviving ancient narrative of the Third Punic War and the siege of Carthage. Polybius.  Histories , Book 38 (fragmentary). The eyewitness account, including the scene of Scipio's tears. Secondary Sources Goldsworthy, Adrian.  The Fall of Carthage . 2000. Excellent on the Third Punic War's military narrative....

Works Cited Primary Sources Cato, Marcus Porcius.  De agricultura (On Agriculture) . The only complete work that survives. Translated and edited by W. D. Hooper and H. B. Ash, Loeb Classical Library. Cicero.  Cato Maior de Senectute . The idealized dialogue “On Old Age,” worth reading for the character of Cato as Cicero imagined him. Plutarch. “Life of Cato the Elder.” The essential primary biogra...

Works Cited Primary Sources Livy.  Ab Urbe Condita , Books 31–45. Fuller in detail than Polybius, less reliable on causation. Plutarch. “Life of Aemilius Paullus.” Pydna and its aftermath, including the Epirus enslavements. Plutarch. “Life of Flamininus.” The Isthmian proclamation and the character of Roman-Greek relations. Polybius.  Histories , Books 1–6, 10, 18, and 29–30. The foundational narr...

Sources and Historiography For the post-war careers of Hannibal and Scipio, the primary sources are Livy, Appian, Cornelius Nepos's life of Hannibal, and Plutarch's Life of Flamininus for the circumstances of Hannibal's death. The final years of both men are sparsely documented relative to their wartime careers, partly because the ancient historians were most interested in the great ba...

Sources and Historiography The sources for this period are substantially the same as for the earlier war: Polybius for military analysis and Livy for narrative texture. For the Spanish campaigns, Polybius Books 10 and 11 are essential. For Zama, Polybius Book 15 and Livy Book 30 are the main accounts, and they substantially agree on the broad outlines. The Hannibal-Scipio meeting before Zama is in...

Works Cited Primary Sources Livy.  Ab Urbe Condita , Books 22–27. The fullest narrative of the period. Books 22 and 23 cover Trasimene, Cannae, and the aftermath in detail. Plutarch. “Life of Fabius Maximus.” Essential for Fabius’s character and the political dynamics of the Fabian dictatorship. Plutarch. “Life of Marcellus.” The biography of the Sword of Rome. Polybius.  Histories , Books 3 and 2...

Sources and Historiography. The two primary ancient sources for Hannibal's campaign are Polybius and Livy. Polybius, writing within a generation of the events and claiming to have personally traveled the Alpine route, is substantially more reliable on military matters. His account is analytical and attempts genuine historical method. Livy, writing under Augustus, has beautiful narrative prose...

Works Cited Primary Sources Livy.  Ab Urbe Condita , Book 21. The Roman account of Hannibal’s rise and the war’s outbreak. Vivid, often beautiful, and not always reliable; Polybius is the corrective. Polybius.  Histories , Books 1 and 3. For the Truceless War and the causes of the Second Punic War respectively. Available via the Perseus Digital Library. Secondary Sources Hoyos, Dexter.  Truceless...

Works Cited Primary Sources Polybius.  Histories , Book 1 (c. 140 BCE). The essential primary source. Available free online via the Perseus Digital Library. Secondary Sources Goldsworthy, Adrian.  The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265–146 BC . 2000. Accessible and reliable on military detail; very good on the military narrative. Hoyos, Dexter.  Mastering the West: Rome and Carthage at War . 201...

Works Cited Primary Sources Aristotle.  Politics , Book II (c. 340 BCE). The primary source for Carthaginian constitutional arrangements. Available in translation via the MIT Internet Classics Archive. Polybius.  Histories  (c. 140 BCE). For the treaties with Rome and the Punic Wars; the most reliable ancient source for the period. Secondary Sources Hoyos, Dexter.  Mastering the West: Rome and Car...

Works Cited Primary Sources Appian.  Samnite History (Samnitica) , fragments. Additional material on the Italian Greek perspective. Dionysius of Halicarnassus.  Roman Antiquities . Books 19–20 (fragments). Provides some detail on Heraclea, with substantially inflated casualty figures. Eutropius.  Breviarium  2.11–14. Concise, reliable summary from a fourth-century CE epitomizer; good on the Roman...

Works Cited Primary Sources Cicero.  De Senectute ; Valerius Maximus,  Facta et Dicta Memorabilia . Preserve the main anecdotes about Manius Curius Dentatus, including the turnips story and the Samnite ambassadors. Diodorus Siculus.  Library of History . Books 19–21. Partial parallel account; less complete than Livy for this period but useful for cross-checking key events. Livy.  Ab Urbe Condita ....