23 Primary Sources: Rome

Primary Sources: Rome

Roman Republic and Empire

Slavery in the Roman Republic, collected documents

Apuleius: Isis, Queen of Heaven:

Polybius, The Histories:

On the Roman Constitution [pp. 43-48]

Rome vs. The Carthaginians [pp. 48-50]

On Public Funerals [pp. 50-52]

Livy, History of Rome: Plebeian Revolt [pp. 20-23]

Augustus, Res Gestae Divi Augusti

Salvian: The Burden of Taxation, c. 440.

Procopius: The Plague, 542, History of the Wars, II.xxii-xxxiii:

Early Christianity

Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity

Porphyry: Against the Christians.

Augustine of Hippo (354-430): Confessions: His Conversion

Pliny the Younger: Letter on the Christians

Canons of the Council of Nicea, 325

Europe in the Age of the Roman Empire

Julius Caesar: The Germans, c. 51 BCE

Tacitus: (b.56/57-after 117 CE): Boudicca (Annals 14: 29-37)

Tacitus: Germania, shorter excerpts.

Priscus: On the Palace of Attila the Hun, 448.

The Conversion of Clovis: Two Accounts, 496

Combination Primary and Secondary Source: Mary Beard, Meet the Romans

The documentary below is presented by Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge in England. The video is part of a larger series on Roman society. This first part covers how the Romans viewed themselves, what it meant to be Roman, and how all of the various peoples that came together in Rome managed to coexist so successfully for so long.