I want to write an essay on the life of a Roman legionnaire, and my goal is to read primary sources and use them as case studies. Sounds simple enough, but I realize that I have no idea what to even look up. The best thing I found was Claudius Tiberius letters. I tried using databases but I got filtered from them, no idea how they work/how to get the other letters of Claudius.How do you actually research history properly? I don't want to use the same points everyone else makes, I want to go to the source and see how they feel/think about it, but now I realize it's a lot harder than I thought.
>>31537897Has NO ONE on 4chan ever heard of Google?I just googled "roman legion primary sources" and found dozens of links.
>>31537897Read Caesar's writingsIts not that hard but you do need to know where to look
>>31537897I just finished my master's thesis so I could gove you some tips. To make an authentic research paper, you will need to gather sources and then frame your paper around those sources. My recommendatiom for you is to go to wikipedia (It's as reliable as anything other research article desu) and read through the page for roman legionaries. Be sure to write down anything that interests you or anything that you have questions about it. Also be sure to check out the sources on the wiki page. If you have access to an institution's search engines, then go from there but if not, either pray materials are open source or you would have to use a public library. This should be enough to get you started and has letters from individual soldiers: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/asbook09.aspNow, as for primary accounts of soldiers' lives, that would be difficult. Most texts probably would not have survived. Also, in history, there has been a shift away from a biographical type of history to a more communal history/ institutional so its best to see how that individual narrative(s) fits within the wider context of the military, roman politics, or society in general.
>>31538771>budding academic says just use wikipedia brohonestly this is pretty based, not OP but i appreciate it given all the flak surrounding sources on there
>>31538771I thought it would be cheating to use wikipedia, but if I have to, then I will.>Now, as for primary accounts of soldiers' lives, that would be difficult. Most texts probably would not have survived. Also, in history, there has been a shift away from a biographical type of history to a more communal history/ institutional so its best to see how that individual narrative(s) fits within the wider context of the military, roman politics, or society in general.That's the rub I realize I'm in. AS >>31538659 pointed out, surviving documents are written by rich, not the low born, who are my focused>>31538612I went straight to letters, I didn't think to look into the legion as a whole.
