I've never read Roman historians before but this is surprisingly good. Suetonius makes some very lively portraits that make me understand better both the emperors and the Roman Empire as a whole.Should I try Livy and Plutarch next?
>>17273862Plutarch, he isn't really a historian but I found his works enjoyable, they are basically a way of getting the main actors for a period.Livy is alright but he's not the kind of author you want to read just on its own because you will very quickly get the feeling that he was in fact writing Annals, and not a history. I'd also look at Appian, Cassius Dio and obviously Caesar for other good histories.
>>17273910Good list. Don't forget the most methodological of them all, Polybius. Ethnically Greek but still counts.
Did any of these write "philosophy of history" so-to-speak? Thucydides was close to it.
>>17273920Should have mentioned him considering he is one of my favourites right next to Thucydides. >>17273930No. Roman (and Greek) histories are mostly histories of power. They are basically just about politics. The closest historian you would get that covers the Romans like Thucydides would be Polybius since he's rather analytical and at times does take a meta look at history, mostly just to shit on people he disagrees with, including Herodotus. The next historian that really writes like that is Procopius, while not super analytical he follows Thucydides' model.In any case OP, some others include Josephus, Tacitus (who is excellent) and sort of Cicero who isn't exaclty a historian but reading some of his speeches and letters gives a good context to the world of the Late Republic. Later sources include Cassius Dio and Herodian, the Historia Augusta too but it isn't anywhere as good as the previous two and is more like a gossip book than anything. The last major historian that gives a narrative before Procopius is Ammianus.
>search polybius pdf>click random linkI'm thinking based.
>>17273950He gives shade to Plato when discussing constitutions of states which I thought was funny
Byzantine historians > Roman historians
