The best ancient history (pre-400 AD) books I know of are Adler's Origins of Judaism and Jaynes's Origins of Consciousness. Since you guys are smart, do you have any suggestions for even better books about ancient history?
Just listened to the entire History of Rome podcast (Mike Duncan) and couldn't recommend it enough. I'm also sure that his book on the late Republic is probably quite good, if it is anything near his podcast.
Just read the short book "Medieval Cities" which I found quite illuminating on the period between the fall of the Roman empire and the emergence of cities in the high middle ages.
Just started reading "The Ancient City" which probably best fits with the two books you've listed, in that it represents a paradigm shift in our thinking of the origins of early Greco-Roman laws/religions/institutions/etc.
@bens I have a lengthy description of the Late Roman Empire on my Substack, starting with Part I (out of XII) here:
https://eharding.substack.com/p/eharding-on-the-fall-of-the-roman?utm_source=publication-search
I suspect your book suggestions are too old; I'd prefer something after 1950.
Define "best". I thought "The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy" was quite a good read, but it's not exactly a broad topic.
@EnopoletusHarding yes. His writings are a primary source rather than actually being books written about ancient history
I mean, if he was writing about his present, then I think that counts as a writing about ancient history