I apologize if I'm posting this in the wrong subreddit, but I am looking to learn more about ancient Rome.
I started reading a lot of books on Mongolian history and I really enjoyed what I learned. I'm looking to expand my study now to Rome. I suppose what I'm looking for is a general history of the empire, rise and fall. But I'm open to other suggestions as well.
Thank you and I look forward to reading your recommendations.
I've just started reading Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History by Christopher Mackay, and so far its pretty good. It covers the history of the Latins settling in Rome to the Roman Kingdom to the Republic to the fall of the Empire.
I've gotten to the point where it is done discussing the political history and structure of the early-middle Roman Republic and I've started on the wars occurring during that time period, and I'm probably less than 1/5 of the way through the book, so its pretty detailed and extensive. But that extensiveness is what makes it great because it isn't just a summary of the the parts it covers, it goes pretty in-depth.
We have several texts on our book list, do any of them interest you?
Two books that I would suggest that when I last checked were not on the list are:
Crawford, M The Roman Republic 2ND Edition Fontana Press 2011
And
Wells, C Roman Empire Fontana Press 1992
These two books are not too long and give great oversight into Roman history, Wells goes between a narrative history in one chapter to explaining a particular key area of the Roman Empire in the next.
While they are not particularly specialised books they do definitely go into enough detail to useful to academics and the general public alike and act as a great starting point.
EDIT: Publisher and dates added
Adrian Goldsworthy has a few books about Rome. If you want to know about the army of Rome from middle-Republic to late Antiquity, check out The Complete Roman Army. For details on the most known generals of Rome, see In the Name of Rome: The Men Who Won the Roman Empire. For the fall of the Western Roman Empire, you may want to see The Fall of the West: The Death of the Roman Superpower, which is known in the US by the name of How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower.
He also has books about Julius Caesar, namely Caesar's Civil War: 49–44 BC and Caesar: Life of a Colossus. In addition, he wrote a biography of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, which is named imaginatively Antony and Cleopatra.
He has also written books about the Punic Wars, by the titles of Fields of Battle: Cannae and another imaginatively named book The Punic Wars. He has also written Augustus: First Emperor of Rome.
Personally, I've enjoyed his books very much. They are clearly written and structured, and quite detailed if I recall correctly.