Real Roman History

Episode 2: The Latin and Sabine Kings


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SOURCE NOTESPrimary Sources
  • Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Book I, Chapters 4–35 (trans. B.O. Foster, Loeb Classical Library; trans. A. de Sélincourt, Penguin Classics, The Early History of Rome, 1960)
  • Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, Books I–III
  • Plutarch, Life of RomulusLife of Numa
  • Cicero, De Re Publica, Book II.12–33 — Cicero's survey of the first four kings
  • Ovid, Fasti, Books I–VI — on the Roman calendar and its religious associations
  • Festus, De Verborum Significatu — valuable for archaic religious institutions
Secondary Sources
  • T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome (Routledge, 1995), Chapters 5–9 — essential on the regal period
  • Gary Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome (University of California Press, 2005), Chapters 4–5
  • Robert Ogilvie, A Commentary on Livy, Books 1–5 (Oxford University Press, 1965) — detailed commentary on the primary text
  • Mary Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (Profile Books, 2015), Chapter 3
On Roman Religion and Numa's Institutions
  • John Scheid, An Introduction to Roman Religion (Indiana University Press, 2003)
  • Mary Beard, John North, and Simon Price, Religions of Rome, Vol. I (Cambridge University Press, 1998) — the standard scholarly survey
  • Georg Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer (Munich, 1912) — foundational, though dated
On the Vestal Virgins
  • Ariadne Staples, From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion (Routledge, 1998)
  • Robin Lorsch Wildfang, Rome's Vestal Virgins (Routledge, 2006)
On the Horatii and Curiatii
  • Livy I.23–26 — the primary account
  • The story's historicity is discussed in Cornell, Beginnings, pp. 116–118, and Ogilvie, Commentary, pp. 107–116
On Just War
  • W.V. Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome (Oxford University Press, 1979) — essential on Roman warfare and its ideology
  • Coleman Phillipson, The International Law and Custom of Ancient Greece and Rome, Vol. II (Macmillan, 1911) — dated but thorough on ius fetiale
On Ostia
  • Russell Meiggs, Roman Ostia (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 1973) — the standard work; dates the earliest significant archaeological evidence to the 4th century BCE
  • Fausto Zevi (ed.), Ostia, 2 vols. (Banco di Roma, 1996)
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Real Roman HistoryBy Hugo Prudentius