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An excellent topic that it so much easier to discuss in the Kindle era. There are 3 historical historians, now 10, that I know about especially relevant to this forum. Edward Gibbon - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I found his name frequently when reading about current events when I was in highschool. Orignally in English. By an Englishman. Saint Gregory of Tours - A History of the Franks. Disappointing. Modern material is better. Specifically, The Dark Ages and Clovis. Originally in Latin Seutonius - The Lives of the Twelve Caesars - this is a historical work as well and I have no idea when it was first published in English. It dates from the 2nd century. Originally in Latin Herodotus - The Histories. About ancient Greece before the fall of Athens in the Peloponnesian War. His name is very famous and I've known it since I was a child. His name appears in the game Civilization and its sequels along with several variations on it partly as a running gag that produces rankings in various metrics for each civilization as the game progresses. In fact, the running gag depends heavily on how well you do. If you do really well you'll get a list of civilizations written by Herodotus or say, Bill Clinton. If you do badly, you get something like Ryu-odotus. Originally in ancient Greek Herodotus does not claim that Etruscans came from Asia Minor. Thucyides - History of the Peloponnesian War. Originally in ancient Greek.

Hi. Stumbled across this film on YouTube this evening. Made in 2014 on a low budget by Polish students it tells the tale of how Otho began his move toward displacing Galba in ad69. IT plays a bit fast and loose with history, principally concerning Poppea Sabina (You'll soon find out why). Nonetheless although technically a 'C' movie the production standards are high, the acting passable, and there's more than a little hint of Gladiator about it. The film is in Latin with Polish and English subtitles. Emperor, Imperator a film by Konrad Łęcki (in Latin and Teutonic :) - YouTube

There are a few other titles that have shown up The History of Rome - Titus Livius (Early history of Rome) The Histories - Polybius (Third Macedonian War - with Rome) Hannibal - Livy (History of the Second Punic War) The Conquest of Gaul - Julius Caesar The -->Histories<-- Annals - Cornelius Tacitus (downfall of Nero) this can be found under two different titles. The Oxford version has the author's full name and I'm sure is the right title. The Civil Wars - Appian (through Trajan) Remember, for a book to be legitimate, it has to have an ASIN number, an ISBN number, and maybe a CDRL (contract data requirements list) number. ASIN numbers are broader than ISBN. According to the wikipedia, ASIN numbers are Amazon? I remember them older than ISBN numbers. I think ISBN numbers are Swiss. ICCN numbers are library of congress numbers and they are somewhat rare. They can be accepted or rejected after being assigned a number. Rejected books can be rejected simply on the basis of historical mispellings, like mispelling Alulim, the first king. There is a quik I do remember about CDRL numbers. A textbook with a CDRL number is indicative of a problematic classroom. A CDRL number means, otherwise, that your customer wants to catalog your work. There is some confusion. A request for a CDRL number from a customer means they want to pay you more money. I don't know of any book with 3 identifying numbers that include the ICCN and not the CDRL. I think CDRL means contract to complete by the government. It means it's a government contract book. When the book has a rejected ICCN number, it is considered fraudulent material. Looking over these books it looks like the Pax Romana wasn't much of a Pax Romana. It looks like the civil wars didn't end until Hadrian, the 3rd of the 5 good emperors. I would start with the History of Rome, because the Battle of Orders really shaped the world's socioeconomic structure more than anything since. What they were missing, and I think is missing from Asian culture, is a class of people who were affluent but not wealthy. Above middle class without the authority to dispense their own justice. I suppose in a western sense is what it did was create the upper middle class, which is what the Clinton era gave us. Weird jokes about teenage girls having trouble finding the keys to the family SUV were indicative of the era. There are an absurd number of variations for Plutarch. What matters is Parallel Lives. Right title, right author.