De Roma
Excerpts from Ancient Writers about Rome
Information about the Ancient Authors
DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS / On the Subject of Roman History
DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS / Early Rules for Clients and Patrons
LIVY / Numa’s Religious Settlement
LIVY / The Capture of the Sabine Women
DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS / Servius Tullius’s Reform of the Comitia Centuriata
LIVY / The Rape of Lucretia
DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS / Coriolanus Opposes the Plebs
DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS / The Tribunes and their Manipulation
FRAGMENTS / The Twelve Tables
LIVY, DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS / The Roman Way of Declaring War
CICERO, DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS / The Mythology of the Farmer General
LIVY / The Defeat of the Latins
POLYBIUS / The Constitution of the Roman Republic
POLYBIUS / The Roman Maniple vs. the Macedonian Phalanx
LIVY / The Samnites’ ‘Linen Legion’ Remains Undaunted
CORNELIUS NEPOS / Hannibal
POLYBIUS / The Battle of Cannæ
LIVY, PRUDENTIUS / The Magna Mater
POLYBIUS / The Siege of Syracuse
POLYBIUS / The Destruction of Corinth
LIVY / Cato Opposes Extravagance
PLAUTUS / From The Menaechmi
APPIAN / On Tiberius Gracchus
PLUTARCH / On Tiberius Gracchus
APPIAN / On Gaius Gracchus
SALLUST / Speech of Marius Against the Nobility
APPIAN AND PLUTARCH / Mithridates Against Rome
APPIAN / Drusus and his Enemies
VARIOUS / Accounts of the Roman State Religion
VARIOUS / Slavery in the Roman Republic
LIVY, APPIAN / Sulla’s Brutality
Q. CICERO / The Roman Candidate
SALLUST / Life in Rome in the Late Republic
SALLUST / Pompey’s Letter to the Senate
CICERO / Against Catiline
APPIAN / Pompey’s Conquest of the East
ASCONIUS / The Murder of Clodius
CICERO / Scipio’s Dream
SUETONIUS / On Julius Caesar
PLUTARCH / The Assassination of Julius Caesar
CICERO / On the Rise of Augustus
CATULLUS / Selections
HORACE / The Secular Hymn
VELLEIUS PATERCULUS / The Battle of Teutoburg Forest
AUGUSTUS / Acts of the Divine Augustus
TACITUS / The Death of Augustus and the Accession of Tiberius
CLAUDIUS / A Speech on Incorporating the Gauls
SENECA / The Pumpkinification of Claudius
TACITUS / The Principle of Adoption
TACITUS / The Legions Proclaim Vespasian Emperor
JOSEPHUS / The Roman Army in the First Century CE
LEGAL TEXT / Law Concerning the Power of Vespasian
PLINY THE ELDER / The Grandeur of Rome
PLINY THE YOUNGER / Panegyric Addressed to the Emperor Trajan
PLINY THE YOUNGER / The Correspondence of a Provincial Governor and the Emperor
STRABO, OXYRHYNCHOS PAPYRI / Egypt under the Roman Empire
SUETONIUS / How Domitian Attempted to Amuse the Populace
VARIOUS / Roman Educational Practices
MARCUS AURELIUS / On the Virtue of Antoninus Pius
EUTROPIUS / The Reign of Marcus Aurelius
HERODIAN / How Didius Julianus Bought the Empire at Auction
VARIOUS / The Lives of Soldiers and Sailors
ZOSIMUS / Imperial Weakness Invites Barbarian Aggression
EUSEBIUS / The Persecution under Decius
VOPISCUS / Aurelian’s Conquest of Palmyra
DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE / Efforts to Stabilize the Economy
EUSEBIUS / The Conversion of Constantine
CONSTANTINE / The Edict of Milan
SOZOMEN / Constantine Founds Constantinople, 324 CE
JULIAN / Letter to Arsacius
AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS / The Luxury of the Rich in Rome
PROCOPIUS OF CAESAREA / Alaric’s Sack of Rome, 410 CE
RUTILIUS NAMATIANUS / The Greatness of Rome in the Days of Ruin, 413CE
JORDANES / The Battle of Chalôns, 451 CE
Appendix: Roman Praenomina