At last a cultural topic in which I have sufficient knowledge ,were it appropriate, to make a contribution.Enough of this cooking,Shane Ward(who he!),people listening to johnny come lately no names that might be Stanley Unwin revivalists for all I know, and worse Big Brother!
Rome ,the series, has been superb in that, cleverly weaving a subtantial amount of historical events and accurate detail into a compelling storyline together with a liberal dousing of sex and violence, the makers have drawn in a much wider audience than would be attracted to a documentary or to the excellently produced and acted I,Claudius. Repeatedly put down by many critics, notably the Times-"trashy", 'Rome' has served as an appetiser that hopefully will encourage many more people to examine a period in time which generates an enormous number of events that have parallels and consequences in modern times. The rise and fall of monarchies, democracy, dictators(literally), tyrants, spin-doctors, militarism,colonisation. Attempts at multi-culturalism, immigration, autonomy, education ,corruption, technical progress, the Superpower, world's policeman, it's all there. Like so many lessons to be learned and so, so much easier than learning from our own painful experiences.
As to reading, to coin a Catchphrase, Graves is good but not the right answer. Translated and abridged from sources writing much nearer the time the Penguin 'Classics in Translation' series which I guess is in its thousandth edition by now contains volumes by such as Livy, Plutarch, and Suetonius.Not stodgy boring stuff but the kind of stuff that encouraged a totally disillusioned young 12 year old who fell upon The War with Hannibal (Livy) as something to read during a weekend long detention and gave up reading the Victor/Hornet etc in order to save limited pocket money to buy and, in truth, also to steal new or second hand volumes in the series.
Every few years I return to the versions I acquired in my twenties and each time I am struck by all the parallels that can be drawn and what a gripping read most are.
For what its worth my favourite volume , one of the Greek classic histories, is The Peloponesian War(Thucydides) which at times is a ripping yarn with real life heroes in the wars between the democratic and devious Athenians and the miltaristic ,but generally honourable tyrant-led Spartans.Since my all-time war hero is Brasidas,a Spartan, (who makes Leonidas seem wimpish) ,my sympathies are clear even though the political aruments are generally won by the Athenians
h34r: 
