Book recommendation request

[chickenfeet2003]

I want to learn more about the early history of Italy in general and Rome in particular. I'm talking about before the First Punic War and I'm after history not legend. I know the canonical myths and legends. Anybody got any good suggestions?

Comments

[shezan]

If anyone does, it's fpb.

[fpb]

Mommsen's History of Rome. Dumezil's Archaic Roman Religion. These are the basics, and no modern reader can prescind from them. Neither is infallible - no historian is - but they will give you a good foundation. Massimo Pallottino has written a good, short guide to early Italian - rather than Roman - history, but I don't know whether it has been translated into English. Professor Andrea Carandini, although his interpretation is dodgy, has carried out some spectacular archaeological digs on the Palatine, overthrowing a lot of received opinions. There is a lot more, but unless you want to start on an all-out study of an enormous field, these ought to be more than enough to get on with.

[chickenfeet2003]

Thanks

[kalypso_v]

Nah, I'm late Republic, I'm afraid.

[helianthas]

The first puny war? The first pubic war?

Thanks for my postcard, btw! :D