Hey r/askhistorians! I am in the planning stages of writing a report for one of my classes and I was trying to 1. find a topic and 2. collect sources. I was wondering if there was a database with historical documents from this time period. If there is a database that doesn't cover this time period, but is still filled with interesting and useful documents, please comment as I am still interested in it as a student of history. I am proficient in latin, though I likely wouldn't pass up on a translated document. There doesn't need to be a specific topic, so that shouldn't be a limiting factor. Thanks!
The Perseus Project has a big collection of classical texts in the original and in translation. Is that kind of what you are looking for?
Since you're proficient in Latin, The Latin Library has a bit of a broader range than Perseus.
Since you say you know Latin I'd advise you to read the texts in Latin. For that the best place is, for most classical texts at least, the Packard Humanities Institute database. The Latin Library is...nice...but it's rife with typos and often uses outdated or simply bad editions. Perseus is slightly better, though it's lacking some of LL's texts, but it takes a lot of patience to use Perseus, the database is formatted horribly, links don't work (and sections sometimes are mislabeled or use differing editions), and the goddamn site is always down. PHI uses the Teubner editions for most of their texts, which should speak to their quality
There's a ton of stuff like papyri and coins and inscriptions. The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum is online, if inscriptions are your thing. There's papyri.info for your papyrological needs, and if you're into numismatics there are several databases, the most important being MANTIS at numismatics.org. RIC (Roman Imperial Coins) also has some volumes online, and then there are some commercial sites like wildwinds.com.