Historical Books

[Jingles]

Hello everyone. I'm going on Holiday soon and intend to bring lots of good books with me to read. Do you guys recommend any good historical ones? (Fiction or non-fiction)

[misplacedgeneral]

Since we are in the IBDF forum . . .

The History of the Later Roman Empire by Ammianus Marcellinus (Classical Historian)

Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius (Classical writer)

History of the Church in England by the venerable Bede (Classical Writer)

History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours, I am reading this right now, actually.

For more modern works, Peter Heather's The Fall of the Roman Empire is good. And if you want fiction, well, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is awesome (Medieval, Late Antiquity, what's the difference?)

[Jingles]

Cool. Medieval is good, I just finished reading Heretic by Bernard Cornwell, and that was great! A bit ahistorical though

[julianus heraclius]

For fiction, I would say the novel "Eagle In The Snow" set in the arly 5th C on the Rhine frontier. Not completely historically accurate but really sets the mood of the time. I think this book heavily influences SeniorBatavianHorse's writings.

[Elrond]

For non fiction, Edward Gibbons decline and fall of the Roman Empire is basically unmatched over two centuries since it was written - its a heavy read and theres over 3800 pages between the 6 volumes. The first starts in the late 2nd century and the last finishes just after the fall of Constantinople.

A lighter read would be John Julius Norwich's History of Byzantium the first volume covers 300-800AD. Its much easier to read but as detailed.

For an Roman book you could try Rubicon (about the fall of the republic) its written sort of like a novel but its all fact, its really entertaining and well written.

Or you could ready Adrian Goldsworthy's book on the Punic Wars - in about 250-300 pages it pretty much tells you every thing you need to know.

Theres also a good Biography of Caesar by him but its about 600 pages long.

[misplacedgeneral]

Goldsworthy has a lot of good work out there.

"Edward Gibbons decline and fall of the Roman Empire"

I don't like Gibbons much, a bit of a pompous ass who is responsible for the lack of attention paid (in the modern world) to the Byzantines. Who would mention the idea of dark ages if they understood the light that shined in Constantinople.

I forgot to mention any of the works by St Augustine, I have read his Confessions and The City of God and they are absolutely amazing.

Especially in City of God where he is basically laying the smack down on the old gods for a while.