The Sources of Roman History - Part One

Learn the history of Rome as told by the Romans themselves...

“Aeneas and the Cumaean Sybil”, J. M. W. Turner, c. 1815

Here at INVICTUS, we strongly believe that our ancestors deserve a seat at the table of our civilisation. We believe their triumphs are our greatest inspiration — and their failures, our greatest teacher.

It is also our resolute conviction that the most sincere understanding of our past can only be gained when it has passed through the fewest number of hands. In this article therefore, we provide a guide to the sources that will allow you to cut out the middle men that are modern historians and anachronistic ideologies, and go directly to what the Romans themselves wrote about their own history.

The value of studying the city that is mother to all nations of the West, and the very benchmark against which all notions of earthly prestige are measured, needs little justification. Rome is eternal. No other city has achieved such an apex of glory that the prestige of her name is utterly impregnable to her material fortunes.

Fifteen centuries since the collapse of her temporal supremacy, the enchantment Rome holds over the souls of men is unbroken. It would appear indeed that the prophecy recorded for immortality by the verse of Virgil — that the King of Heaven had set upon the Romans no chains of space or time, and that the fame of their city would be bounded only by the stars (Aeneid I.254) — still rings true today.

Over the coming months, therefore, we will be publishing a series of articles that consider Roman history in chronological order, and bring together many of the sources that historians themselves draw upon.

Today, we consider the major sources for the first seven centuries of Roman history, covering the periods of the Roman Kingdom and the Republic, with the latter divided into sections dedicated to its birth, expansion, decay and collapse. For each part, the sources are named and briefly described, and accompanied by a link which will take you directly to a full English translation of said source, for perusal at your leisure.

So, if you would like to know Ancient Rome, and learn of it from those who lived it, read on…