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ROMAN CULTURE AND SOCIETY
ROMAN HISTORIOGRAPHY
ORIGINS OF ROMAN HISTORICAL WRITING

The ‘Annals of the Highest Priest’/ Annales maximi
Cicero, On Oratory 2.51:
‘Well now,’ said Antonius, ‘what sort of orator, how great a stylist does it take to write
history?’
‘If you mean history in the way the Greeks wrote it,’ said Catulus, ‘it takes a very great one. If
you mean our sort, there’s no need of an orator at all. It’s enough not actually to be untruthful.’
‘I must stop you despising our historians,’ said Antonius. ‘The Greeks themselves wrote like
our Cato, Pictor, and Piso at the start. History meant merely the compiling of annals. It was for this
purpose, in other words for the preservation of public records, that, from the beginning of Rome
right up to the pontificate of Publius Mucius, the Pontifex Maximus used to commit to writing the
complete history of each year. He made a fair copy, and put up the tablet in his residence so that
it became public knowledge: even nowadays these are called the ‘Great Annals’. This kind of
writing was imitated by many who have eschewed ornament and left mere records of dates,
people, places, and events.’
Livy 6.1.1-3:
The history of the Romans from the founding of the City of Rome to the capture of the same – at first
under kings and afterwards under consuls and dictators, decemvirs and consular tribunes – their foreign
wars and their domestic dissensions, I have set forth in five books, dealing with matters which are
obscure not only by reason of their great antiquity – like far-off objects which can hardly be descried –
but also because in those days there was but slight and scanty use of writing, the sole trustworthy
guardian of the memory of past events, and because even such records as existed in the
commentaries of the priests and in other public and private documents, nearly all perished in the
conflagration of the City.
 Drama?
Peter Wiseman – eg Accius on Tarquin
 Earliest historians:
Fabius Pictor
Cato the Elder:– Origins
TYPES OF ROMAN HISTORY WRITING
1. ANNALS
 Livy – 59 BC- AD 17. Ab urbe condita (From the foundation of the city).
Livy preface 4:
My subject is, moreover, one involving immense labour, seeing that it has to be traced back more than
700 years, and, setting out from small beginnings, has grown to such an extent that it is now weighed
down by its own magnitude.
o Picture of early Rome
o Sack of Rome. Livy 5.51-54: 390 BC crisis; sacked by Gauls Camillus, speech 5.51-54:
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Livy 5.51
“our envoys violated the law of nations and we, who should have punished that crime, were again so
careless of our duty to the gods as to let it pass. That is why we suffered defeat; that is why Rome was
captured, and offered us again for gold; that is why we have been so punished by gods and men as to be
an example to the world”
5.52 “We possess a City which was founded with the divine approval as revealed in auguries and
auspices; in it there is not a spot which is not full of religious associations and the presence of a god;
the regular sacrifices have their appointed places no less than they have their appointed days.”

The spolia opima. Livy 4.20 = LACTOR 17 The Age of Augustus ed. M.G.L.
Cooley (2003), P4
[5] I follow all previous authorities in recording that it was Aulus Cornelius Cossus who, as
military tribune, first laid up those symbols of success, the 'Spoils of Honour' in the temple of
Jupiter Feretrius. [6] But this account poses its own problems: first, the term is properly applied only to
those 'Spoils of Honour' which an army commander seizes from his opposite number. Secondly, we
acknowledge only one man as 'army commander' - the one under whose auspices the war is conducted.
However, the inscription on the actual 'Spoils' has suggested to those same authorities, and
myself, that Cossus captured the 'Spoils' while holding office as consul. [7] I have since learned
that Augustus Caesar, the founder and restorer of all our temples, claims to have entered the
temple of Jupiter Feretrius, which he had rescued from long years of dilapidation, and there
personally read the inscription on the linen corselet. As a result I have felt it tantamount to sacrilege
to deny Cossus his Spoils by refusing to accept the evidence of his key witness, Caesar, the man who
actually rebuilt the temple. [8] In this matter each must reach his own conclusions as to how such
an error could have led to Aulus Cornelius Cossus being recorded as consul some ten years later,
and then only jointly with Titus Quinctius Poenus. This error occurs both in the ancient annals, the
Magistrates' archives, and in the linen-scroll records stored in the temple of Moneta, which are
repeatedly cited by Macer Licinius as his authorities…[11] Be that as it may, it seems to me that
speculation in any direction is entirely futile. The fact remains that the man who fought the battle
dedicated his new-won 'Spoils' in that sacred spot before Jupiter, to whom he paid his vows, and
beneath the gaze of Romulus himself. We can hardly discount as false the evidence of such
powerful witnesses to the fact that Aulus Cornelius Cossus describes himself as 'consul'.

Tacitus
Annals 4.32-33:
I am aware that much of what I have described, and shall describe, may seem unimportant and
trivial. But my chronicle is quite a different matter from histories of early Rome. Their subjects
were great wars, cities stormed, kings routed and captured. Or, if home affairs were their choice,
they could turn freely to conflicts of consuls with tribunes, to land- and corn-laws, feuds of
conservatives and commons. Mine, on the other hand, is a circumscribed, inglorious field. Peace
was scarcely broken – if at all. Rome was plunged in gloom, the ruler uninterested in expanding the
empire. Yet even apparently insignificant events such as these are worth examination. For they often
cause major historical developments. … So these accounts have their uses. But they are distasteful.
What interests and stimulates readers is a geographical description, the changing fortune of a
battle, the glorious death of a commander. My themes on the other hand concern cruel orders,
unremitting accusations, treacherous friendships innocent men ruined – a conspicuously monotonous
glut of downfalls and their monotonous causes.

Annals 4.50.4-51
Night was coming on with a fierce storm, and the foe, one moment with a tumultuous uproar, another
in awful silence, had perplexed the besiegers, when Sabinus went round the camp, entreating the men
not to give a chance to their stealthy assailants by heeding embarrassing noises or being deceived by
quiet, but to keep, every one, to his post without moving or discharging their darts on false alarms.
The barbarians meanwhile rushed down with their bands, now hurling at the
entrenchments stones such as the hand could grasp, stakes with points hardened by fire, and boughs
lopped from oaks; now filling up the fosses with bushes and hurdles and dead bodies, while others
advanced up to the breastwork with bridges and ladders which they had constructed for the occasion,
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seized it, tore it down, and came to close quarters with the defenders. Our soldiers on the other side
drove them back with missiles, repelled them with their shields, and covered them with a storm of long
siege-javelins and heaps of stones. Success already gained and the more marked disgrace which would
follow repulse, were a stimulus to the Romans, while the courage of the foe was heightened by this
last chance of deliverance and the presence of many mothers and wives with mournful cries.
Darkness, which increased the daring of some and the terror of others, random blows, wounds not
foreseen, failure to recognise friend or enemy, echoes, seemingly in their rear, from the winding
mountain valleys, spread such confusion that the Romans abandoned some of their lines in the belief
that they had been stormed. Only however a very few of the enemy had broken through them; the rest,
after their bravest men had been beaten back or wounded, were towards daybreak pushed back to the
upper part of the fortress and there at last compelled to surrender.

Annals 4.62:
A sudden disaster which now occurred was as destructive as a major war. It began and ended in a
moment. An ex-slave called Atilius started building an amphitheatre at Fidenae for a gladiatorial show.
But he neither rested its foundations on solid ground nor fastened the wooden superstructure
securely… The packed structure collapsed, subsiding both inwards and outwards and precipitating or
overwhelming a huge crowd of spectators and bystanders. Those killed at the outset of the catastrophe
at least escaped torture, as far as their violent deaths permitted. More pitiable were those, mangled but
not yet dead, who knew their wives and children lay there too. In daytime they could see them, and at
night they heard their screams and moans….

Annals 4.58:
Tiberius left with only a few companions… The astrologers asserted that the conjunction of heavenly
bodies under which he had left Rome precluded his return. This proved fatal to many who deduced, and
proclaimed, that his end was near. For they did not foresee the unbelievable fact that his voluntary selfexile would last 11 years. Time was to show how narrow is the dividing-line between authentic
prediction and imposture: truth is surrounded by mystery. For the first assertion proved authentic –
though he came to adjacent points of the countryside or coast, and often approached the city’s very
walls.

Annals 4.67.1-3:
So he took refuge on the island of Capri, separated form the tip of the Sorrentine promontory by 3
miles of sea. Harbourless, it has few roadsteads even for small vessels; sentries can control all landings.
In winter the climate is mild, since kills on the mainland keep off gales. In summer the island is
delightful, since it faces west and has open sea all round. The bay it overlooks was exceptionally
lovely, until Vesuvius’ eruption transformed the landscape. This was an area of Greek colonization,
and the tradition records that Capri had been occupied by the Teleboi.
2. MONOGRAPH:
Cicero’s letter to Lucceius. To his friends 5.12, 56 BC:
I think a fair-sized volume could be made out of events from the beginning of the conspiracy down to
my return. In it you will be able to use your expert understanding of political unrest, both in explaining
the causes of revolution and in suggesting remedies for its evils… Moreover my fortunes will supply
you with plenty of variety, a copious source of pleasure which, given your literary skill, could rivet the
reader’s attention. For there is nothing better suited to please a reader than the changes and chances of
Fortune; and however unwelcome these were for me to experience, they will none the less make good
reading.
Sallust Catiline 4:
I shall therefore write briefly and as truthfully as possible of the conspiracy of Catiline; for I regard that
event as worthy of special notice because of the extraordinary nature of the crime and of the danger
arising from it. But before beginning my narrative I must say a few words about the man’s character.
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3. UNIVERSAL HISTORY
 Diodorus Siculus
DS 1.3.2:
Although the profit which history affords its readers lies in its embracing a vast number and variety of
circumstances, yet most writers have recorded no more than isolated wars waged by a single nation or a
single state, and only a few have undertaken. Beginning with the earliest times and coming down to
their own day, to record the events connected with all peoples; and of the latter, some have not attached
to the various events their own proper dates, and others have passed over the deeds of barbarian
peoples; and some have rejected the ancient legends because of the difficulties in their treatment, while
others have failed to complete the plan which they had undertaken, their lives cut short by fate.
DS 1.9.1.:
I shall undertake to give a full account of all the events which have been handed down to memory and
took place in the known regions of the inhabited world.
 Pompeius Trogus
PT pref.2:
Pompeius demonstrated an enterprise worthy of Hercules in undertaking a universal history,
his books encompassing the annals of every period, king, nation, and people.

Strabo
Characteristics of universal history: comparison & synchronization
Characteristics of writers of universal history
SOURCES

Earlier writers
Account of murder of Younger Agrippina - Tac Ann.13 – ‘My plan is to indicate
such individual sources only when they differ. When they are unanimous, I shall follow them without
citation’. - sense of competition
Ann. 1.69 – to give credence:
Meanwhile behind the Rhine a rumour had spread that the army was cut off and a German force was on
the way to invade Gaul. Some, in panic, envisaged the disgraceful idea of demolishing the bridge. But
Agrippina put a stop to it. In those days this great-hearted woman acted as commander. She herself
dispensed clothes to needy soldiers, and dressed the wounded. Pliny the elder, the historian of the
German campaigns, writes that she stood at the bridge-head to thank and congratulate the returning
column.
assert one’s own authority/research
 Own earlier writings – ‘self-imitation’ Woodman (1979)
Tac., Histories 2.70:
From Ticinum Vitellius took the branch road to Cremona, and after viewing Caecina’s gladiatorial
show, insisted on walking over the battlefield of Bedriacum and inspecting the traces of the recent
victory. It was a dreadful and revolting sight. Less than 40 days had elapsed since the engagement, and
mutilated corpses, severed limbs and the decaying carcasses of men and horses lay everywhere. The
ground was bloodstained and the flattened trees and crops bore witness to the frightful devastation. Not
less callous was the spectacle presented by the high road, where the Cremonese had strewn with laurel
and roses, building altars and sacrificing victims after the fashion of an Oriental monarchy. These
trappings afforded pleasure for the moment, but were soon to prove their undoing. Valens and Caecina
were in attendance, pointing out the various localities connected with the battle: this was the starting
point for the legions’ forward thrust; from that point the cavalry had fallen upon the foe; and in a third
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place the auxiliary forces had surrounded their victims. Even the regimental officers contributed their
quota, each magnifying his own performance in a hotchpotch of lies, truth and exaggeration. The
ordinary soldiers, too, turned off the high road with shouts of glee, retracing the extent of the fighting
and gazing admiringly at the heaps of equipment and corpses littering the plain. There were indeed
some few observers who were deeply affected by the diverse influences exerted by an inscrutable
destiny. They were moved to tears and pity. But not Vitellius. His gaze was unaverted, and he felt no
horror at the multitude of fellow Romans lying there unburied. Blatantly exulting, and little knowing
how near the day of judgement was, he proceeded to offer a sacrifice to the gods of the place.
Tac., Annals 1.61-62
Now they were near the Teutoburgian Wood, in which the remains of Varus and his three divisions
were said to be lying unburied. Germanicus conceived a desire to pay his last respects to these men and
their general. Every soldier with him was overcome with pity when he thought of his relations and
friends and reflected on the hazards of war and of human life.… The scene lived up to its horrible
associations. … On the open ground were whitening bones, scattered where men had fled, heaped up
where they had stood and fought back. Fragments of spears and of horses’ limbs lay there – also human
heads, fastened to tree-trunks. In groves nearby were the outlandish altars at which the Germans had
massacred the Roman colonels and senior company-commanders. Survivors of the catastrophe, who
had escaped from the battle or from captivity, pointed out where the generals had fallen, and where the
Eagles were captured. They showed where Varus received his first wound, and where he died by his
own unhappy hand. And they told of the platform from which Arminius had spoken , and of his
arrogant insults to the Eagles and standards – and of all the gibbets and pits for the prisoners. So, 6
years after the slaughter, a living Roman army had come to bury the dead men’s bones of three whole
divisions. No one knew if the remains he was burying belonged to a stranger or a comrade. …
Germanicus shared in the general grief, and laid the first turf of the funeral-mound as a heartfelt tribute
to the dead.
Tac., Ann. 3.55.5: Or perhaps not only the seasons but everything else, social history included,
moves in cycles.
 Other types of source
Polybius 6.53-54:
When any illustrious person dies, he is carried in procession with the rest of the funeral pomp, to the
rostra in the forum; sometimes placed conspicuous in an upright posture; and sometimes, though less
frequently, reclined. And while the people are all standing round, his son, if he has left one of sufficient
age, and who is then at Rome, or, if otherwise, some person of his kindred, ascends the rostra, and
extols the virtues of the deceased, and the great deeds that were performed by him in his life...
And when any other person of the same family dies, they are carried also in the funeral procession…
They are dressed likewise in the habits that belong to the ranks which they severally filled when they
were alive. If they were consuls or praetors, in a gown bordered with purple: if censors, in a purple
robe: and if they triumphed, or obtained any similar honor, in a vest embroidered with gold. Thus
appeared, they are drawn along in chariots preceded by the rods and axes, and other ensigns of their
former dignity. And when they arrive at the forum, they are all seated upon chairs of ivory; and there
exhibit the noblest objects that can be offered to youthful mind, warmed with the love of virtue and of
glory.…The person also that is appointed to harangue, when he has exhausted all the praises of the
deceased, turns his discourse to the rest, whose images are before him; and, beginning with the
most ancient of them, recounts the fortunes and the exploits of every one in turn. By this method,
which renews continually the remembrance of men celebrated for their virtue, the fame of every
great and noble action become immortal. And the glory of those, by whose services their country
has been benefited, is rendered familiar to the people, and delivered down to future times.

Topography/ monuments
 Lacus Curtius:
o Livy 1.12.10:
In the midst of these vaunts Romulus, with a compact body of valiant troops, charged down on him.
Mettius happened to be on horseback, so he was the more easily driven back, the Romans followed in
pursuit, and, inspired by the courage of their king, the rest of the Roman army routed the Sabines.
Mettius, unable to control his horse, maddened by the noise of his pursuers, plunged into a morass. The
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danger of their general drew off the attention of the Sabines for a moment from the battle; they called
out and made signals to encourage him, so, animated to fresh efforts, he succeeded in extricating
himself. Thereupon the Romans and Sabines renewed the fighting in the middle of the valley, but the
fortune of Rome was in the ascendant.
o Livy 7.5:
In this year, owing either to an earthquake or the action of some other force, the middle of the Forum
fell in to an immense depth, presenting the appearance of an enormous cavern. Though all worked their
hardest at throwing earth in, they were unable to fill up the gulf, until at the bidding of the gods inquiry
was made as to what that was in which the strength of Rome lay. For this, the seers declared, must be
sacrificed on that spot if men wished the Roman republic to be eternal. The story goes on that M.
Curtius, a youth distinguished in war, indignantly asked those who were in doubt what answer to give,
whether anything that Rome possessed was more precious than the arms and velour of her sons. As
those around stood silent, he looked up to the Capitol and to the temples of the immortal gods which
looked down on the Forum, and stretching out his hands first towards heaven and then to the yawning
chasm beneath, devoted himself to the gods below. Then mounting his horse, which had been
caparisoned as magnificently as possible, he leaped in full armour into the cavern. Gifts and offerings
of fruits of the earth were flung in after him by crowds of men and women. It was from this incident
that the designation "The Curtian Gulf" originated, and not from that old-world soldier of Titius Tatius,
Curtius Mettius. If any path would lead an inquirer to the truth, we should not shrink from the labour of
investigation; as it is, on a matter where antiquity makes certainty impossible we must adhere to the
legend which supplies the more famous derivation of the name.
o Varro, The Latin language, 5.150:
Cornelius and Lutatius write that this place was struck by lightning, and by decree of the senate was
fenced in: because this was done by the consul Curtius, who had M. Genucius as his colleague, it was
called the Lacus Curtius.
HISTORY AND RHETORIC
 Truth:
Cicero, On Oratory 2.62:
For who does not know that the first law of history, is not to dare to say anything false? But then is the
next law not to dare to say anything true? Would it be in order to avoid any suspicion of favouritism in
one’s writing? Or so that there should be no pretence?

Literary constructs
Speeches
Tacitus, speeches of Tiberius - compare Ann. 1.22, common soldier speech

Didactic
Livy Preface 10
The special and salutary benefit of the study of history is to behold evidence of every sort of behaviour
set forth as on a splendid memorial; from it you may select for yourself and for your country what to
emulate, from it what to avoid, whether basely begun or basely concluded.
Tacitus, Annals 3.65:
The only proposals in the senate that I have seen fit to mention are particularly praiseworthy or
particularly scandalous ones. It seems to me a historian’s foremost duty to ensure that merit is
recorded, and to confront evil deeds and words with the rear of posterity’s denunciations.
Tac. Annals 4.33
Indeed, it is from such studies – from the experience of others – that most men learn to distinguish right
and wrong, advantage and disadvantage. Few can tell them apart instinctively.
 History as monumentum
Sallust, Jugurtha 4:
I have often heard that Quintus Maximus, Publius Scipio, and other eminent men of our country, were
in the habit of declaring that their hearts were set mightily aflame for the pursuit of virtue whenever
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they gazed upon the masks of their ancestors. Of course they did not mean to imply that the wax or the
effigy had any such power over them, but rather that it is the memory of great deeds that kindles in the
breasts of noble men this flame that cannot be quelled until they by their own prowess have equalled
the fame and glory of their forefathers.
 Entertainment
Woodman (1998)
Cic. Fam. 5.12.4-5
Livy preface:
I do not doubt that Rome’s foundation and early years will bring less pleasure to the majority of my
readers, who will want to press on to recent times…
Pliny Letters 5.8 History cannot fail to give pleasure however it is presented.
Tac. Ann. 4.33.3

Biography and history

Plutarch

Suetonius
IDENTITY OF HISTORIANS
 Status of historians
 Impact of their careers
 Sallust
Sall.: Jugurtha 3-4
But among these pursuits, in my opinion, magistracies and military commands, in short all public
offices, are least desirable in these times, since honour is not bestowed upon merit, while those who
have gained it wrongfully are neither safe nor the more honourable because of it. … But among
intellectual pursuits, the recording of the events of the past is especially serviceable; but of that it
becomes me to say nothing, both because many men have already spoken of its value, and in order thjat
no one may suppose that I am led by vanity to eulogize my own favourite occupation. I suppose, too,
that since I have resolved to pass my life aloof from public affairs, some will apply to this arduous
and useful employment of mine the name of idleness, certainly those who regard courting the people
and currying favour by banquets a s the height of industriousness.
Sallust, Catiline 3:
Although I am well aware that by no means equal repute attends the narrator and the doer of deeds, yet
I regard the writing of history as one of the most difficult of tasks… When I myself was a young man,
my inclinations at first led me, like many another, into public life, and there I encountered many
obstacles; for instead of modesty, incorruptibility and honesty, shamelessness, bribery and rapacity
held sway. And although my soul, a stranger to evil ways, recoiled from such faults, yet amid so many
vices my youthful weakness was led astray and held captive by ambition; for while I took no part in
the evil practices of the others, yet the desire for preferment made me the victim of the same illrepute and jealousy as they.

Livy
 Tacitus
Histories 1.1
My official career owed its beginning to Vespasian, its progress to Titus and its further advancement to
Domitian. I have no wish to deny this.
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HISTORIOGRAPHY, ANCIENT AND MODERN
 How to approach Roman historiography:
 influence of poetry, oratory
 mos maiorum

The legacy of Roman historiography

Is it really ‘history’?
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ROMAN HISTORIOGRAPHY: BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. ORIGINS
Badian, E. ‘The early historians’, in Latin Historians, ed. T.A. Dorey (London 1966)
[DG 206.A2]
Cornell, T.J. ‘The formation of the historical tradition of early Rome’, in I.S. Moxon,
et al., eds, Past Perspectives. Studies in Greek and Roman historical
writing (Cambridge 1986) [DE 8.P2]
Rawson, E. ‘The first Latin annalists’, in Roman Culture and Society (Oxford 1991)
[DG 78.R2]
Wiseman, T.P. Clio’s Cosmetics (Leicester 1979) [DG 205.W4]
‘The origins of Roman historiography’, in Historiography and Imagination
(Exeter 1994) [DG 77.W4]
2. OVERVIEWS
Bispham, E. 'Roman historiography' ch.50 in The Edinburgh Companion to Ancient
Greece and Rome (2006) [DE 59.E3]
Clarke, K., Between geography and history: Hellenistic constructions of the Roman
world (Oxford 1999) [DG 77.C5]
Cooley, A.E., ‘Inscribing history at Rome’, in The Afterlife of Inscriptions, ed. A.E.
Cooley (London 2000) [CN 513.A3]
Dorey, T.A., Latin Historians (Routledge and Kegan Paul: London 1966)
[DG 206.A2]
Feldherr, A., ed. (2009) The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Historians
[DG 205.C3]
Feldherr, A. and Hardy, G. (2011) The Oxford History of Historical Writing vol 1
[D13.O9]
@Gabba, E. ‘True history and false history in classical antiquity’, Journal of Roman
Studies 71 (1981) 50-62
Kraus, C.S. The Limits of Historiography. (Leiden 1999) chapters by Jaeger, Clarke,
Pelling [D 56.L4]
Kraus, C.S. and Woodman, A.J., Latin Historians (Oxford 1997) [DG 205.K7]
@Kraus, C.S., et al. (2010) Ancient historiography and its contexts (OUP) [e-book]
Marincola, J., Authority and tradition in ancient historiography (Cambridge 1997)
[D 56.M2]
Marincola, J. (2011) Greek and Roman historiography [DE 8.G74]
Toher, M. ‘Augustus and the evolution of Roman historiography’, in K.A. Raaflaub &
M. Toher, eds. Between Republic and Empire. Interpretations of
Augustus and his Principate (University of California Press, Berkeley:
1990) 139-54 [DG 279.B3]
Woodman, A.J. Rhetoric in Classical Historiography (London 1988) [DE 8.W6]
3. INDIVIDUAL AUTHORS
 Sallust
Syme, R. Sallust (Berkeley/Los Angeles 1964) [PA 6656.S9]
 Livy
Chaplin, J.D. Livy’s exemplary history (OUP 2000) [PA 6459.C4]
Jaeger, M., Livy’s Written Rome (Ann Arbor 1997) [DG 207.L4]
Luce, T. (1977) Livy: the composition of his history [PA 6459.L8]
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Miles, G.B., Livy: reconstructing early Rome (Ithaca, N.Y., 1995) [PA 6459.M4]
@Syme, R. 'Livy and Augustus' Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 64.
(1959), pp. 27-87
Walsh, P. Livy. His Historical Aims and Methods (Cambridge 1961) [PA 6459.W2]
Livy (Greece & Rome New Surveys1974) [PA 6459.W2]
 Pompeius Trogus/ Diodorus Siculus
@Alonso-Nuñez, J.M., ‘An Augustan World History: the Historiae Philippicae of
Pompeius Trogus’, Greece and Rome 34 (1987) 56-72
Yarrow, L.M. (2006) Historiography at the End of the Republic
[DG 254.2.Y37 + e-book]
 Tacitus
@American Journal of Philology 120.1 (1999) The Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone
Patre
Ash, R. Ordering anarchy: armies and leaders in Tacitus' Histories (London 1999)
[DG 207.T2]
Ash. R. (2006) Tacitus (BCP) [PA 6716.A84]
Cooley, A.E. 'Introduction' in Tacitus. The annals and The histories translated by A.J.
Church and W.J. Brodribb (2005) [DG 207.T2]
Goodyear, F.R.D., Tacitus (Greece and Rome New Surveys no.4: Oxford 1970)
[PA 6716.Z5]
Martin, R. Tacitus (London 1981) [PA 6716.M2]
Mellor, R. Tacitus (Routledge 1993) [PA 6716.M3]
O’Gorman, E. Irony and misreading in the Annals of Tacitus (CUP 2000)
[PA 6705.A9]
Syme, R. Tacitus (Oxford 1958) [PA 6716.S9]
Walker, B. The Annals of Tacitus: a Study in the Writing of History (Manchester
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Woodman, A.J., ‘Self-imitation and the substance of history. Tacitus, Annals 1.61-5
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 Plutarch
Pelling, C.B.R. 'Plutarch and Roman Politics', in I.S. Moxon, J.D. Smart and A.J.
Woodman, eds Past Perspectives: Studies in Greek and Roman
Historical Writing (Cambridge 1986) pp.159-87 [DE 8.P2]
'Truth and fiction in Plutarch's Lives' in D.A. Russell, ed. Antonine Literature
(Oxford 1990) pp.19-52 [PA 3086 A6]
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 Suetonius
Barton, T. 'The Inventio of Nero: Suetonius', in Elsner, J. & J.Masters (1994)
Reflections of Nero [DG 285.R3]
Wallace-Hadrill, A. Suetonius: the scholar and his Caesars (1984) [PA 6702.W2]