I've always had a keen interest in Roman history, I really enjoy watching series that were set in that time (e.g. Rome and Spartacus), however I would love to deepen my knowledge on such matters and cannot find a good source to read about it on the web... Do any of you know any good podcasts / documentaries / books presently sold that I could buy to catch up on some decent Roman history?
P.S. I was gonna post on /r/history but then found this subreddit and thought it would be a more suitable place to ask, forgive me if I'm mistaken :D
One of my absolute favorite ways I initially immersed myself in Roman history was through Mike Duncan's History of Rome podcast. He has hundreds of episodes chronologically assessing very specific events, people, and characteristics of Ancient Rome, from the founding of the city, the institution of the republic, to the Punic, Social, and Civil Wars, to the decline and fall of the Western Empire.
What I did was pick an era I was interested in and then followed through reading some of the primary sources after each episode. Highly recommend it as a starting point.
Here's a link
I'll tell you how I got into Roman history. Maybe you can figure something similar out for yourself.
I randomly picked up McCullough's Rome series of novels. I still will defend it as a fantastically well documented work of historical fiction. The thing is she provides the sources which she used to develop her fictionalized characters and defends her choices when she departs from the ancient texts or makes dubious decisions - for instance some parts of her work depend on such-and-such a place, where such-and-such a place isn't securely identified. In these cases she has to pick a spot and will explain why she picked the spot she did. Hell, she even has a note about how to wear togas.
Her characters live in their own history, so even though it's a series about the end of the Republic, there's a lot of past her characters are living with, in and up to.
Her work and her resources got me looking into Roman history in a more academic sense. To her credit (and perhaps my shame) I still sometimes forget such-and-such a thing I think I know came from her fiction. You already have a bent toward historical fiction if in film rather than book form; the advantage to the book is the author can easily, if they want, discuss their sources and decisions.
Also, if you liked HBO's Rome, for God's sake get your hands on the BBC's I Claudius!
Seriously, like now.
I mean it, stop redditing. You have DVDs to find.
GO ALREADY!
There are so many things written about Roman History. Are you interested in a certain time period or a certain aspect of Roman Culture?