Ancient Rome

=== Primary and Secondary sources ===
{{Main|Roman historiography}}
The two longest ancient accounts of the Roman history, the histories of Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, were composed 500 years later than the date for the founding of the republic and 200 years from the defeat of Hannibal.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Finley |first1=M.I. |title=Ancient History: Evidence and Models |date=2008 |publisher=ACLS History |isbn=978-1597405348 |page=9 |quote=Unfortunately, the two longest ancient accounts of Roman Republican history, the area in which the problems are currently the most acute and the most widely discussed, the histories of Livy and of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, were composed 500 years (in very round numbers) later than the traditional date for the founding of the Republic, 200 years from the defeat of Hannibal.}}</ref> Although there has been a diversity of works on ancient Roman history, many of them are lost. As a result of this loss, there are gaps in Roman history, which are filled by unreliable works, such as the ''[[Historia Augusta]]'' and other books from obscure authors. Historians used their works for the lauding of Roman culture and customs, and to flatter their patrons.<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Marius*.html] Plutarch, ''Parallel Lives'', ''Life of Marius'', XI, 5–7.</ref> [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] wrote his own accounts of his military campaigns in [[Gaul]] and during the [[Caesar's Civil War|Civil War]] in part to impress his contemporaries.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Handford |first=S.A. |title=Caesar: The Conquest of Gaul |publisher=Penguin |year=1951 |location=Harmondsworth |pages=24}}</ref>

In the Empire, the biographies of famous men and early emperors flourished, examples being ''[[The Twelve Caesars]]'' of Suetonius, and Plutarch's ''[[Parallel Lives]]''. Other major works of Imperial times were that of Livy and Tacitus.
* [[Polybius]] – ''[[The Histories (Polybius)|The Histories]]''
* [[Sallust]] – ''[[Catiline|Bellum Catilinae]]'' and ''[[Jugurthine War|Bellum Jugurthinum]]''
* [[Julius Caesar]] – ''[[De Bello Gallico]]'' and ''[[De Bello Civili]]''
* [[Livy]] – ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Livy)|Ab urbe condita]]''
* [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] – ''Roman Antiquities''
* [[Pliny the Elder]] – ''[[Naturalis Historia]]''
* [[Josephus]] – ''[[The Jewish War]]''
* [[Suetonius]] – ''[[The Twelve Caesars]]'' (''De Vita Caesarum'')
* [[Tacitus]] – ''[[Annals (Tacitus)|Annales]]'' and ''[[Histories (Tacitus)|Histories]]''
* [[Plutarch]] – ''[[Parallel Lives]]'' (a series of biographies of famous Roman and Greek men)
* [[Cassius Dio]] – ''Historia Romana''
* [[Herodian]] – ''History of the Roman Empire since Marcus Aurelius''
* [[Ammianus Marcellinus]] – ''Res Gestae''

Interest in studying, and idealising, ancient Rome became prevalent during the [[Italian Renaissance]]. [[Edward Gibbon|Edward Gibbon's]] ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'' "began the modern study of Roman history in the English-speaking world".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beard |first=Mary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x795CgAAQBAJ |title=SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome |date=2015-10-20 |publisher=Profile |isbn=978-1-84765-441-0 |pages=15–16 |language=en}}</ref> [[Barthold Georg Niebuhr]] was a founder of the examination of ancient Roman history and wrote ''The Roman History'', tracing the period until the [[First Punic War|First Punic war]]. During the [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleonic]], ''The History of Romans'' by [[Victor Duruy]] highlighted the [[Julius Caesar|Caesarean]] period popular at the time. ''[[History of Rome (Mommsen)|History of Rome]]'', ''[[Roman constitutional law]]'' and ''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum]]'', all by [[Theodor Mommsen]],<ref name="kirjasto">{{Cite web |last=Liukkonen |first=Petri |title=Theodor Mommsen |url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/mommsen.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140824083420/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/mommsen.htm |archive-date=24 August 2014 |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library}}</ref> became milestones.
* [[Edward Gibbon]] – ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]''
* [[John Bagnall Bury]] – ''History of the Later Roman Empire''
* [[Michael Grant (author)|Michael Grant]] – ''The Roman World''<ref>{{cite book|title = The World of Rome|first = Michael|last = Grant|publisher = Penguin|date= 1987|isbn = 9780452008496}}</ref>
* [[Barbara Levick]] – ''Claudius''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levick |first=Barbara |title=Claudius |date=1993 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0300058314}}</ref>
* [[Barthold Georg Niebuhr]]
* [[Michael Rostovtzeff]]
* [[Howard Hayes Scullard]] – ''The History of the Roman World''<ref>see [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=88132230 online edition]{{dead link|date=January 2024}}</ref>
* [[Ronald Syme]] – ''The Roman Revolution''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Syme |first=Ronald |title=The Roman Revolution |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0192803207}}</ref>
* [[Adrian Goldsworthy]] – ''Caesar: The Life of a Colossus'' and ''How Rome fell''
* [[Mary Beard (classicist)|Mary Beard]] - [[SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome]]