/lit/ - Literature

>>17314966
Go back in time to say that to my fucking face and see what happens.

As the title says, I am in need of assistance on finding books on:
>Hellenistic Roman and Greek paganism
>Roman culture and traditions
>Roman rituals and holidays
Currently I finished Meditations from Marcus Aurelius which got me invested in the life's of Roman nobility. If anyone can link me pdfs or recommend me any books based on what I requested, please do. I am also a poorfag in Serbia so sources where I have to pay for knowledge will be of no use. Currently I am reading Cicero's In officiorium if it means anything.

>>16597022
If you don't have a background in the history of the period, start with secondary. Avoid old meme books like Gibbon and such. Probably anything reasonably modern (post-war) and academic will be good. Ronald Syme is great. H.H. Scullard is also good.

Once you've got a grasp on the basic events of the period, and the likely historiographic biases in authors like Suetonius, Livy, Tacitus, etc, then move onto primary. Suetonius particularly is a fantastically fun read. Tacitus is also very exciting, but in a different way (and he is VERY hard in the original Latin). If you are interested in the later period of Roman history, Ammianus Marcellinus is good, and little read compared to many other Roman authors. Josephus is great for the history of Palestine. Eusebius is a good source for early Christian history.

All of these authors are great, just make sure that you have a basic grasp of the overarching historical narrative from the Republic to the decline and fall post-Theodosius. For historical biases of individual authors, introductions to the texts themselves should be your friend.

Roman history is fantastic, I hope you enjoy reading about it!

>childhood is venerating Constantine
>adulthood is knowing that Julian was right all along

Books for this feel?