Roman/ancient history: Checkmate, Atenists

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Roman/ancient history: Checkmate, Atenists

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

Kemper Boyd posted:

Speaking of the history of christianity and so on, I'm not particularly an expert on the subject but one funny thing that tends to crop in descriptions of early christianity is that it was a religion of the slaves, the servants and the poor because christianity could give them hope of a better afterlife and so on and so on.

Except, when you look at contemporary research which isn't that beholden to idealist views of the religion, it seems like the usual pattern with new faiths being introduced to Rome applies: the rich and the well-to-do get into that poo poo because they have the time to spare and the opportunity to learn about fancy new poo poo.

it was a religion of the urban middle classes, and urban poor, basically, and it took a long time for it to diffuse out into the countryside

# ? Oct 17, 2015 02:32

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# ? Jun 3, 2024 20:22

the JJ: Mar 31, 2011

Rollofthedice posted:

I also think it's cool that he noted that octopi have a reproductive arm that wasn't noticed by anyone else until the 1800's.

On the other hand, he thought that fair women squirted more often than dark women.

# ? Oct 17, 2015 05:35

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Hogge Wild posted:

Some years ago I learned a new racial slur on these forums. Norwegians are called 'Sea Jews'.

Someone was loving with you :ssh:

# ? Oct 17, 2015 11:32

HEY GUNS: Oct 11, 2012; FOPTIMUS PRIME

the JJ posted:

On the other hand, he thought that fair women squirted more often than dark women.

aquinas thought fat men had a lower volume of cum than thin men

# ? Oct 17, 2015 11:33

Munin: Nov 14, 2004

I can't find the post which originally recommended it but I'm really enjoying the lecture series about the Hebrew Bible that someone linked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo-YL-lv3RY&list=PLh9mgdi4rNeyuvTEbD-Ei0JdMUujXfyWi&index=1

I just wanted to add a +1 to that recommendation. It covers an awful lot of ground. The lecturer also prominently mentions the scholars on whose work what she is discussing at the time is based on; so if you want some idea of what further reading might be worthwhile it also has good pointers for that.

Does anyone know if there is a lecture series which follows a similar approach for the new testament and/or the Quran?

[edit] Just to mention, she starts discussing some of the historical merit of various parts of the Hebrew Bible around lecture 5 and 6.

[re-edit] I just had a look and Yale also has a lecture series on the new testament:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtQ2TS1CiDY&index=1&list=PL279CFA55C51E75E0

I haven't had a look at it yet. I hope it also goes into the various interpretations and re-interpretations of the text from antiquity to today. Also perhaps going into the different versions of the bible followed by different creeds of Christianity including things like certain Christians only accepting particular versions or translations of the bible, for example only the NKJV version or only the the NAB version, as acceptable.

Not spotted one about the Quran amongst the playlists.

Munin fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Oct 17, 2015

# ? Oct 17, 2015 15:03

Chelb: Oct 24, 2010; I'm gonna show SA-kun my shitposting!

the JJ posted:

On the other hand, he thought that fair women squirted more often than dark women.

I guess he had an unhealthy preoccupation with things loving.

Is there any good general history book about ancient Mesopotamia? Like with the Sumerians and stuff.

# ? Oct 17, 2015 18:56

the JJ: Mar 31, 2011

HEY GAL posted:

aquinas thought fat men had a lower volume of cum than thin men

I think he got that from Aristotle too.

# ? Oct 17, 2015 19:09

a whole buncha crows: May 8, 2003; WHEN WE DON'T KNOW WHO TO HATE, WE HATE OURSELVES.-SA USER NATION (AKA ME!)

the JJ posted:

I think he got that from Aristotle too.

ask an expert

# ? Oct 17, 2015 19:32

Doctor Malaver: May 23, 2007; Ce qui s'est pass� t'a rendu plus fort

Munin posted:

I can't find the post which originally recommended it but I'm really enjoying the lecture series about the Hebrew Bible that someone linked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo-YL-lv3RY&list=PLh9mgdi4rNeyuvTEbD-Ei0JdMUujXfyWi&index=1

I just wanted to add a +1 to that recommendation. It covers an awful lot of ground. The lecturer also prominently mentions the scholars on whose work what she is discussing at the time is based on; so if you want some idea of what further reading might be worthwhile it also has good pointers for that.

Does anyone know if there is a lecture series which follows a similar approach for the new testament and/or the Quran?

[edit] Just to mention, she starts discussing some of the historical merit of various parts of the Hebrew Bible around lecture 5 and 6.

This is great although a bit intense for me -- maybe because I'm not a native speaker. I wish she slowed down from time to time.

Doctor Malaver fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Oct 18, 2015

# ? Oct 17, 2015 21:04

Blue Star: Feb 18, 2013; by FactsAreUseless

What did cities and towns of ancient India look like? Mauryan Empire, Gupta Empire, etc. is basically what I'm talking about, not so much Harappan. Did they have apartments and taverns and suchlike?

# ? Oct 17, 2015 21:59

Munin: Nov 14, 2004

Doctor Malaver posted:

This is great although a bit intense for me -- maybe because I'm not a native speaker. I wish she slowed time from time to time.

Yeah, it is quite dense in general as well. It covers a lot of ground in relatively little time and often makes allusions which presume a certain amount of background knowledge of the audience.

One example of that would be the mention how a particular set of commentators might denigrate and have issues with the ritual part of the Israelite religion. Protestant theologians and thinkers do have a bit of an issue with prescriptive church rituals, she doesn't explicitly mention that though in the lecture where it first comes up.

[edit] Quick thing Doctor Malaver, did you enable subtitles? They are rather good on that series of videos. That should help following things if you have issues following what she is saying.

Munin fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Oct 17, 2015

# ? Oct 17, 2015 22:29

Doctor Malaver: May 23, 2007; Ce qui s'est pass� t'a rendu plus fort

Yeah, the subtitles are on by default. Without them I would definitely be lost.

# ? Oct 18, 2015 01:41

xthetenth: Dec 30, 2012; Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

Munin posted:

Does anyone know if there is a lecture series which follows a similar approach for the new testament and/or the Quran?

Not spotted one about the Quran amongst the playlists.

That might be a slightly harder one to find something similar to those lectures for, just because early Islamic history is pretty well documented, and more importantly gets covered as such a lot of the time. You don't knock over large parts of one of the world's biggest empires and take over another without leaving an impressive amount of evidence compared to what exists of early Jewish history.

# ? Oct 18, 2015 04:50

Munin: Nov 14, 2004

xthetenth posted:

That might be a slightly harder one to find something similar to those lectures for, just because early Islamic history is pretty well documented, and more importantly gets covered as such a lot of the time. You don't knock over large parts of one of the world's biggest empires and take over another without leaving an impressive amount of evidence compared to what exists of early Jewish history.

Well, there'd obviously be less speculation on certain things, we do know more about the environs of Islam at the time, but I would still like to see a good lecture series on the Koran and Koranic traditions and the different readings of the Koran. Not to mention something discussing the authorship of the various bits of Islamic scripture from what is held to be divinely inspired to the various rulings and commentaries and how they shaped things.

One of the things I do find interesting is that despite the great lengths to which Muhammad and the early Muslims went to to make sure that Islam and its teachings would remain united and consistent it did swiftly splinter, initially due to a succession dispute but then also on more doctrinal lines.

And in general we do know more but I don't know. :v:

Hence why I wouldn't mind listening to a lecture series about it.

vv Good point... I'll go hunt it out.

Munin fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Oct 18, 2015

# ? Oct 18, 2015 13:49

HEY GUNS: Oct 11, 2012; FOPTIMUS PRIME

Munin posted:

Well, there'd obviously be less speculation on certain things, we do know more about the environs of Islam at the time, but I would still like to see a good lecture series on the Koran and Koranic traditions and the different readings of the Koran. Not to mention something discussing the authorship of the various bits of Islamic scripture from what is held to be divinely inspired to the various rulings and commentaries and how they shaped things.

One of the things I do find interesting is that despite the great lengths to which Muhammad and the early Muslims went to to make sure that Islam and its teachings would remain united and consistent it did swiftly splinter, initially due to a succession dispute but then also on more doctrinal lines.

And in general we do know more but I don't know. Hence why I wouldn't mind listening to a lecture series about it.

ask the islam thread maybe?

# ? Oct 18, 2015 13:50

Obdicut: May 15, 2012; "What election?"

Munin posted:

I can't find the post which originally recommended it but I'm really enjoying the lecture series about the Hebrew Bible that someone linked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo-YL-lv3RY&list=PLh9mgdi4rNeyuvTEbD-Ei0JdMUujXfyWi&index=1

I highly recommend the retranslation of the Tanakh by Robert Alter. It's not only a beautiful re-rendering of the poetry, but it's heavily annotated with both cultural and linguistic notes.

# ? Oct 18, 2015 19:31

Ithle01: May 28, 2013

Blue Star posted:

What did cities and towns of ancient India look like? Mauryan Empire, Gupta Empire, etc. is basically what I'm talking about, not so much Harappan. Did they have apartments and taverns and suchlike?

I'm not an expert by any stretch, but the arthasastra talks a good deal about city planning by instructing the ruler what should and should not be done. There were taverns, they're specifically mentioned at least a couple times and there are supposed to be fairly strict rules to discourage drinking in public. As for apartments I don't really know, but I wouldn't be surprised if they existed because the state is instructed to provide housing for some segments of the population such as retired prostitutes. However, I'm pretty sure most rulers didn't really follow the guidelines laid down by the arthasastra and it may not have even existed in ancient India. From what I've gathered India prior to the 14th century is a black box with only a little bit available on the Mauryans and Asoka in particular.

# ? Oct 18, 2015 21:51

Jack B Nimble: Dec 25, 2007; Soiled Meat

Munin posted:

I can't find the post which originally recommended it but I'm really enjoying the lecture series about the Hebrew Bible that someone linked:

I'm glad you like it! I wanted a scholarly approach to the bible for a while now and couldn't really find what I wanted. I poked around an archived SA thread that was nice enough but the subject was just too broad and deep for an OP to be enough. I was TERRIFIED of trying to read something random internet people were going to tell me about the bible but then I found that and said 'poo poo, Yale, why not?' and in like the 1st minute of the 1st lecture that professor is completely reassuring with her professionalism.

Also people mentioned books, here's a page that accompanies the lectures and has a syllabus, reading list, etc. So far I can tell you that the orange covered book with Near Eastern mythologies is like literally a dollar on Amazon while the Hebrew study bible (which would probably be the One Book to get) was like 20 or 30 when I looked.

Edit: You know in the 1st lecture she mentions those two books I referenced above but from looking at the catalog for the course those seem to be the only two books she'd expect a student to buy; although she's got a fat list of books she referenced herself. Ah well, I bought that Near Eastern Mythologies book and have skimmed through the pictures like once. It turns out I can watch one of these lectures on my lunch break but in terms of reading I'm still struggling to finish the Cambridge Illustrated History of China. As a side note on books, if you can pay a fee to get access to the library of your local university do it; it'll make reading all these scholarly books way less painful. (who am I kidding, I will never stop buying books faster than I can read them).

Jack B Nimble fucked around with this message at 13:12 on Oct 19, 2015

# ? Oct 19, 2015 13:00

Silver2195: Apr 4, 2012

icantfindaname posted:

it was a religion of the urban middle classes, and urban poor, basically, and it took a long time for it to diffuse out into the countryside

This is actually the origin of the word pagan. Paganus originally meant a rural person.

# ? Oct 19, 2015 13:40

Arglebargle III: Feb 21, 2006

Does anyone have books to recommend about the Bronze Age Collapse or what came before?

# ? Oct 21, 2015 16:50

ulmont: Sep 15, 2010; IF I EVER MISS VOTING IN AN ELECTION (EVEN AMERICAN IDOL) ,OR HAVE UNPAID PARKING TICKETS, PLEASE TAKE AWAY MY FRANCHISE

Arglebargle III posted:

Does anyone have books to recommend about the Bronze Age Collapse or what came before?

1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline

A couple of reviews:
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/04/23/review-eric-h-cline-1177-bc-year-civilization-collapsed
http://www.historytoday.com/reviews/year-civilization-collapse

# ? Oct 21, 2015 18:42

A Strange Aeon: Mar 26, 2010; You are now a slimy little toad; The Great Twist

I'm sure you all know this already but for anyone like me who read a lot of Greek mythology but never the actual Iliad, it's really good and you should read it.

Is there a single volume of the Norse myths that covers all the stories? Is that what the poetic Edda is? Or is that something else?

# ? Oct 22, 2015 22:42

Dalael: Oct 14, 2014; Hello. Yep, I still think Atlantis is Bolivia, yep, I'm still a giant idiot, yep, I'm still a huge racist. Some things never change!

I've decided to buy Romance of Three Kingdoms in order to get a "feel" for chinese history. I know its more of a story than history but I figure its a nice place to start. However, I would also like to get something more historically accurate that deals with the same time period. Any good recommendations?

E: Nothing too heavy/deep tho as I am more of an amateur and would like to start this subject on a light note.

# ? Oct 22, 2015 23:03

Jack B Nimble: Dec 25, 2007; Soiled Meat

I've also wanted to ask: who is the Tom Holland of China? Any period would do, just a well written dramatic narrative of history rather than the undeniably useful but dry texts.

# ? Oct 22, 2015 23:07

fantastic in plastic: Jun 15, 2007; The Socialist Workers Party's newspaper proved to be a tough sell to downtown businessmen.

Jonathan Spence comes to mind.

e: probably less dramatic than Tom Holland, but good on the "interesting and readable narrative" parts, as I recall

# ? Oct 23, 2015 03:05

sebzilla: Mar 17, 2009; Kid's blasting everything in sight with that new-fangled musket.

A Strange Aeon posted:

Is there a single volume of the Norse myths that covers all the stories? Is that what the poetic Edda is? Or is that something else?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Myths-Norsemen-Puffin-Classics-Lancelyn/dp/0140367381

For kids, but it's the book that got me hooked on the Vikings.

# ? Oct 23, 2015 08:35

Doctor Malaver: May 23, 2007; Ce qui s'est pass� t'a rendu plus fort

It would be great if somebody collected all these book recommendations and put them in the OP.

# ? Oct 23, 2015 08:43

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Dalael posted:

I've decided to buy Romance of Three Kingdoms in order to get a "feel" for chinese history. I know its more of a story than history but I figure its a nice place to start.

Good luck. I managed about 100 pages before I gave up. That is a book in desperate need of a heavily annotated edition. Annotated and abridged even.

Doctor Malaver posted:

It would be great if somebody collected all these book recommendations and put them in the OP.

I am way too lazy to collect them but if someone does I'll definitely stick it in. Or just post books you recommend (preferably with an Amazon link?) and I'll start adding.

# ? Oct 23, 2015 12:04

Hogge Wild: Aug 21, 2012; by FactsAreUseless; Pillbug

Doctor Malaver posted:

It would be great if somebody collected all these book recommendations and put them in the OP.

and that somebody is you

# ? Oct 23, 2015 15:45

Safety Biscuits: Oct 21, 2010

Dalael posted:

I've decided to buy Romance of Three Kingdoms in order to get a "feel" for chinese history.

E: Nothing too heavy/deep tho as I am more of an amateur and would like to start this subject on a light note.

You've bought the wrong book. I liked Jonathan Spence's book on Matteo Ricci, but I haven't read his others.

Grand Fromage posted:

Good luck. I managed about 100 pages before I gave up. That is a book in desperate need of a heavily annotated edition. Annotated and abridged even.

Moss Roberts' translation is annotated, but it's with tones of endnotes which makes them less useful. He did do an abridged version though.

# ? Oct 23, 2015 16:12

P-Mack: Nov 10, 2007

Grand Fromage posted:

Good luck. I managed about 100 pages before I gave up. That is a book in desperate need of a heavily annotated edition. Annotated and abridged even.

There's definitely plenty of abridged versions out there. As far as annotation, I read the 5 volume Moss Roberts translation (Library of Chinese Classics edition) which had lots of notes as well as some essays at the end. My only complaint with it was a lot of distracting typos, considering its a second edition.

# ? Oct 23, 2015 16:23

Doctor Malaver: May 23, 2007; Ce qui s'est pass� t'a rendu plus fort

Hogge Wild posted:

and that somebody is you

I'm more of an idea man.

# ? Oct 23, 2015 17:57

Hogge Wild: Aug 21, 2012; by FactsAreUseless; Pillbug

Doctor Malaver posted:

I'm more of an idea man.

same

# ? Oct 23, 2015 18:07

Terrible Opinions: Oct 18, 2013

Grand Fromage posted:

Good luck. I managed about 100 pages before I gave up. That is a book in desperate need of a heavily annotated edition. Annotated and abridged even.

there are two good tv series for that.

# ? Oct 23, 2015 18:16

Jack B Nimble: Dec 25, 2007; Soiled Meat

I'll do it Saturday morning. I'm setting an alarm for it now. I wouldn't announce it like this but I'm going to be pissed if some one else does it first after I spend hours looking through pages.

# ? Oct 23, 2015 18:33

9-Volt Assault: Jan 27, 2007; Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

Some spells for goons to find true love, passed down by our ancestors:

# ? Oct 24, 2015 11:01

Jack B Nimble: Dec 25, 2007; Soiled Meat

Ok, I skimmed through the first 25 pages of this thread looking for book recommendations. I actually didn't find that many book recommendations (but I'm, what, 1/16th of the way through the thread?) so I also grabbed a few nice links to articles and stuff.

I basically copied the forum posts I found useful and dumped them into a google doc but honestly they look like poo poo so I'm going to fake quote the person and also find a working Amazon link for each book.

Grand Fromage posted:

Tom Holland's book Rubicon is my go-to suggestion for an excellent, very readable history. Caesar's era as the title suggests. Start there and I'll see if I can remember some others later.

http://www.amazon.com/Rubicon-Last-Years-Roman-Republic/dp/1400078970/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445705661&sr=8-1&keywords=rubicon

Tacitus and Plutarch are good. I hate most of the translations though, there's a tradition of translating Latin into overblown Victorian English and I find it very annoying to read. I wish someone would do translations into a more readable, modern English.

�

Ya'll should read the Agricola, I hadn't actually read the source material before and it's great. Especially since it's easy to imagine the Romans as one unified group that all believed the same things. Tacitus is making GBS threads on Rome and Romans all over this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Taci...eywords=tacitus

�Amused to Death� posted:
Have there ever been any significant amount of wax tablets found? Or more importantly found and translated? I'd love to read the random thoughts of some guy while taking a stroll through the forest near his villa or ect, the real stream of conscious of people at the time.

Sadly no. The Vindolanda tablets are the best everyday life writing I know of.
http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/

�Alan Smithee� posted:
Don't know if you ever posted in the Rome HBO series thread. Thoughts on what the show did well vs what left you shaking your head?

Everything was very well done. They rearranged history a bit for the story but no big deal, and it's by far the best depiction of what Roman life and culture was probably like. I have no complaints about it.

https://www.amazon.com/The-Stolen-Eagle/dp/B006IX9NQU?_encoding=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

�WoodrowSkillson� posted:

If you listen to podcasts, I cannot recommend The History of Rome enough, it will cover that entire lifespan, and there are something like 180 episodes, each around 20 min long.

Yeah, if you want a full overview (to 476) this is a good option. I don't know of a documentary series covering the whole span. I've watched some good ones but they all tend to have the same names so it's hard to keep it straight. It's like remembering which bullshit Chinese restaurant you went to, you know it's some combination of Dragon China Panda and Lotus.
http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/

GamerL posted:

Grand Fromage, I think you should read Neil Faulkner's Fall of Roman Britain. It's about $20 and would help fill in that area of roman history for you nicely.
http://www.amazon.com/Decline-Fall-...ritain+faulkner

�Twat McTwatterson� posted:

Plutarch's The Life of Alexander is one of my favorite books. I keep it under my pillow, as Alexander Megas did with Homer. Of course you have to be quite discerning with fact and hearsay, but regardless, it remains a quick and exhilarating read.

"It is a lovely thing to live with courage, and to die leaving behind everlasting renown."

http://www.amazon.com/Age-Alexander...fe+of+alexander

�Eggplant Wizard� posted:

�Grand Fromage� posted:
Do you have any articles on literacy you can point me to, Eggplant Wizard? This is literally the first time I've ever heard a suggestion that literacy was not widespread in (urban) Rome and I'm interested, but I don't have access to much in the way of English books where I live. It doesn't jive at all with anything I've read or the evidence I've looked at. I'm not usually looking at early republic though.

Harris' book represented an about-face in scholarly opinion. It's relatively new (1989: "new" in Classics scholarship) so it's not surprising that it hasn't percolated much beyond those who really care about literacy. For non-book things, there's Harris' much more vague and general article version, which I can email to you if you want:
Harris, W. V. �Graeco-Roman Literacy and Comparative Method.� The History Teacher 24.1 (1990): 93-98.
Here are some other things, all print unfortunately. Everyone is responding to Harris in the 1990's so it helps to know what he's on about :
Humphrey, J. H., ed. Literacy in the Roman World. Ann Arbor: Journal of Roman Archaeology: Supplementary Series 3, 1991.

Bowman, Alan K., and Greg Woolf, eds. Literacy and power in the ancient world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Johnson, W. A., and H. Parker, eds. Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

I think Harris is generally accepted among people who care about literacy, and among republican historians at least. I don't know about the imperial period folks so much. Philologists obviously would rather have mass literacy and haven't embraced it too much, but I think there's a growing trend to look at the performance of literature as opposed to individual consumption by reading. Harris' stuff spans from old Greece into the imperial period of Rome for sure, even though I only care about the republic parts.

The urban population: Yes, you'd have a higher rate of literacy there than in the sticks. We're still talking the upper classes mainly, though, the people who need writing to get along in trade or politics. Urban populations are mostly not people who need to read or write.

I can look at Harris on Monday (it's in my office) if you want me to get more specifics. I could also scan any of the articles in the books mentioned again (I think I might have had to give one of them back but I don't know which) if you see one in the TOC that looks interesting.

�Modus Operandi� posted:

I like Herodian because there aren't that many "man on the street" accounts to give us scuttlebutt and day to day activities of the elite as it appears to your average citizen. The other historians were partially confined by their status and political biases. If they wrote something that pissed someone off they could find themselves in serious danger.

Herodian is not the most accurate guy but he does give a good real life feel for what it was like during the various eras he lived in, the state of the emperors, and the political atmosphere at the time.

http://www.amazon.com/History-Empire-Death-Marcus-Herodian/dp/1514253992/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1445706031&sr=1-4&keywords=Herodian

�TildeATH� posted:

I think everyone should read Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It's a beautiful story and as much about the British Empire as it was about the Roman.
http://www.amazon.com/Decline-Roman...he+roman+empire

�euphronius� posted:

Recent Podcast on the Etruscans http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0151q7j

�TildeATH� posted:

Actually, there's an excellent paper somewhere that indicates that Baghdad was well in decline before its conquest by the Mongols. The whole "Baghdad and Civilization Raped by the Mongols" story isn't historically very accurate, any more than most of the "X and Civilization Raped by the Mongols" stories.
Gunder Frank makes mention of it in p. 250 (Second page of the article) here:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/20078469

Finally, my own contribution, which of course comes from having read this thread before:

�JackBNimble� posted:

While Rubicon is Tom Holland�s most famous work, Persian Fire is a well regarded account of the Greek and Persian war. Like Rubicon it is a readable and dramatic work of �popular history�. I recall the thread arguing about it a little and the final consensus was it�s fine (whereas apparently Tom Hollands work on Islam has some problems, haven�t read it)

http://www.amazon.com/Persian-Fire-First-Empire-Battle/dp/0307279480/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445707404&sr=8-1&keywords=persian+fire+holland

And also Alberto Angela� s A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome. It�s a �street level� view of rome and great for giving you a practical understanding of how the city worked. One thing you�ve get driven into your head is how immediately recognizable so much of the city was, so much so that if you didn�t trust the source you might mistake it for surreally lazy anachronisms (see also: True Roman Bread).

http://www.amazon.com/Day-Life-Anci...of+ancient+rome