Off the beaten path of most requests

Miscellaneous
1

I’m looking for some documentaries or books, real research not historical fiction a la Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome.

What I’d like to find is info from the founding of Rome up, and maybe including Augustus. Most of us have a general to good idea of the Empire. I’d like to learn more about the Republic’s founding to it’s collapse. I know about Sulla, Marius, Caesar, and some about the Brothers Gracchi. I’d like to learn more about the rest of it.

I hope that makes sense in what recommendations I hope to find.

TIA

2

I recommend “Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny” by Edward Watts.

It walks you through the history of the Roman Republic and the events that led to its downfall. A Very good read.

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3

You should watch Gladiator. Or A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

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4

I always wanted to visit the House of Marcus Lycus.

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5

Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” is a nice, irreverent choice given the time of the year.

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6

Perhaps the “Life and Times of Bigus Dickus”

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7

Mary Beard has a couple books - SPQR, is the one i read. But I was coming from not knowing much about it and learned a great deal. She also had some videos on line that i watched too. Maybe it skims too lightly but it was good to me.

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8

Thanks for the reply and suggestion of Mary Beard. I’ve seen pieces of some of her Roman Documentaries. They do seem to gloss over many facts, this could be due to the depth needed to explain it all would take up all of each documentary. She’s personable in her documentaries, and those have been enjoyable to watch.

I’ll have to look more into her SPQR books.

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