Books on ancient Rome/Greece

[adam77]

Can anyone recommend some books on ancient Rome/Greece on classical antiquity, the civilizational structure, or about the soldiers? These topics seem interesting to me, but I’m open to any suggestions of nonfiction books pertaining to that period. Thank you
https://tradevenue.se/

[Dexter]

I'm interested in the same topic, my knowledge of ancient Rome is particularly lacking and I'd like to learn more about it.

I recall that Ancient Rome by Thomas Martin is a good overview, he has one on Greece as well. I bought a used copy of Michael Grant's History of Rome, based on reviews, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

[geo]

I read this a few years back. It's very accessible and a good introduction, to the Greeks at least.

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter - by Thomas Cahill.

In Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea, his fourth volume to explore “the hinges of history,” Thomas Cahill escorts the reader on another entertaining—and historically unassailable—journey through the landmarks of art and bloodshed that defined Greek culture nearly three millennia ago.

In the city-states of Athens and Sparta and throughout the Greek islands, honors could be won in making love and war, and lives were rife with contradictions. By developing the alphabet, the Greeks empowered the reader, demystified experience, and opened the way for civil discussion and experimentation—yet they kept slaves. The glorious verses of the Iliad recount a conflict in which rage and outrage spur men to action and suggest that their “bellicose society of gleaming metals and rattling weapons” is not so very distant from more recent campaigns of “shock and awe.” And, centuries before Zorba, Greece was a land where music, dance, and freely flowing wine were essential to the high life. Granting equal time to the sacred and the profane, Cahill rivets our attention to the legacies of an ancient and enduring worldview.

https://www.amazon.com/Sailing-Wine-Dar ... 492&sr=8-3

[DWill]

I'd Second Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea. The old standby is probably Edith Hamilton's The Roman Way. Both of these books won't bog you down in detail.

[geo]

I forgot about these two books by Stringfellow Barr, which I haven't read (yet). Reading these would be a fairly comprehensive study of the subject.

- The Will of Zeus: A History of Greece from the Origins of Hellenic Culture to the Death of Alexander (1961)
- The Mask of Jove: A History of Graeco-Roman Civilization from the Death of Alexander to the Death of Constantine (1966)

[Robert Tulip]

You don't need to stick to nonfiction. I highly recommend the Imperium trilogy by Robert Harris - historical fiction focused on Cicero covering the period of transition from Republic to Empire.
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-ci ... 1473539617

Also Mary Renault's books on Alexander the Great - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/112 ... er_Trilogy

[KindaSkolarly]

Long ago I read the first 3-4 novels in Steven Saylor's Roman series. His main character is referred to as a "finder," an early incarnation of a gumshoe detective. Saylor did his historical homework.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordianus_the_Finder