Help me out, Hivemind. I'm looking for respectable, scholarly books, friendly to the layman, on the early beginnings of Christianity. More specifically, I'm interested in its first few centuries. I'm also hoping to attain a better understanding of Gnosticism and its place in Christianity's history. I am NOT looking for New Age-y neognostic inculcations.
I'm learning that many of the customs and traditions that I think of as Roman actually originated from the Etruscans instead. Can anyone recommend some good books, videos, or websites about ancient Etruscan culture and history?
I need to stop reading wikipedia at work, so please give me books instead [more inside]
What tunes would the roman emperor Nero have been likely to have played on his fiddle?
IN which work does the Roman historian Livy state that the Roman empire started to decay when cooks acquired celebrity status? [more inside]
It is a sad thing to realize that your primary history source of late is trashy romance novels. Help me fix this. [more inside]
Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, Tacitus, and the rest of those familiar names are inextricably tied with the historical canon of classical "western" civilization. But who are the "eastern" equivalents? [more inside]
Looking for good introductory books on Ancient Roman history. [more inside]
I'm looking for books about Italy, specifically Rome and Venice, and also books set in Rome and/or Venice. What would you recommend? [more inside]
When was the last time scholars discovered a previously unknown piece of literature from ancient Greece or Rome? Has it happened at all in modern times? If you were to speculate on the chances we'll ever rediscover another play from Euripides, Sophocles, et al, are there any relatively recent discoveries of new works from ancient Greek and Roman authors you could use as examples?
What are your favorite books on the Roman Empire? [more inside]
How do we know so much about Roman history? [more inside]
What did the music of ancient Rome sound like? [more inside]
I'm looking for a good book on Roman history. [more inside]
What is the name for the people who were allowed to sit outside the Roman Senate and shout their opposition to whatever was going on inside?
As a lay...very lay...student of Roman Republic and Empire, and anticipating the upcoming HBO/BBC series Rome with relish, I'm reading everything I can get my hands on about both Republic and Empire. Currently I'm reading an abridgement of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire I just inherited. What next? [insert Latin for "more inside" here].