Reading Material

Two things we love senza dubbio– Rome and books. We can’t get enough of this city, its empire and its legacy.  Below is are a few of our top five reading categories and their books, whether on the train, plain or dig-  think of it as the Rome Geek’s High Fidelity.

AIRC’S Top 5 Archaeo-Guides to Rome

• Amanda Claridge. Rome. An Oxford Archaeological Guide. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press 2010.
• Filippo Coarelli, trans. James J. Clauss and Daniel P. Harmon. Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide. University of California Press 2007.
• Grant Heiken, Renato Funiciello, and Donatella De Rita. The Seven Hills of Rome. A Geological Tour of the Eternal City. Princeton University Press 2007.
• Georgina Masson, rev. John Fort. The Companion Guide to Rome. 9th ed. Companion Guides 2009.

AIRC’S Top 5 Celebrity Biographies/Histories

• Benvenuto Cellini, trans. George Bull. The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini. Penguin 2004.
• Marcus Tullius Cicero, trans. E. S. Shuckburgh. Letters of Cicero. General Books 2010.
• Suetonius, trans. Robert Graves. The Twelve Caesars. Rev. ed. Penguin 2007.
• Tacitus, trans. Michael Grant. The Annals of Imperial Rome. Penguin 1961.
• Tacitus, trans. Kenneth Wellesley. The Histories. Penguin 1998.

For those interested in our field school, suggested reading material can be found hereat the AIRC website.  However we’d like to highlight two of our favorite books:

• The hard-to-find Marmi Antichi (Materiali della Cultura Artistica)(Luca,1998).  Fantastic photos of marbles and a source we use on site when identifying fragments.  I have inexplicably deep feelings about ancient marble.  Welcome to the world of archaeologists.
• The Lost Tomb (David Gibbons) From the perspective of a dashing, devil-may-care underwater archaeologist, we discover a Claudius who faked his own death to live in Herculaneum, having hid secrets in a tomb located underneath the Palatine, spent quality time with  Jesus and had a love affair with Boudica, Celtic Warrior Queen… A rolicking good time though historical realism diehards may risk having a conniption if they choose to read this book.