Hello people's, I am writing a historical fiction about a low ranking member of house Julia set in 73BCE to 43BCE and would like to know as much as possible about life in the Roman republic, Gaul, Rome and Pompeii during this time. Anything along these lines would be universally helpful, trust worthy records/information about this age, sources and text books you would recommend on this subject and anything that is must know about this time going in. I would like to thank you all in advance for helping me make the most historically accurate historical fiction.
The textbook you want is probably Boatwright's Romans: Village to Empire. If you want to read some primary sources, I would recommend the poetry of Catullus and Cicero's letters. Adrian Goldsworthy's book on Caesar is also quite good, and goes into detail about the political culture.