Hi all if this is the wrong place to post this I am sorry but this is one of my favorite subs so I figured I'd ask here. I am a lover of history but a novice in every sense of the word. If I had to pick a "specialty" It would probably be early american history but even then I am probably woefully understudied. A topic that has always struck my interest was Rome. Most books and sources I can find cover Empirical Rome and the fall of Rome. I know there is google But I was wondering what your suggested sources were for learning about early Rome? Thanks in advance and if there is a better place to post this please let me know!!
My two absolute favourites are T.J. Cornell's The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c.1000-264 BC) and Gary Forsythe's A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War.
These are both relatively new (1995 for Cornell and 2005 for Forsythe) and both authors are quite respected. Cornell was Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester and has written extensively on early Rome. For instance, he wrote the early Roman sections for the Cambridge Ancient History series. Gary Forsythe is Associate Professor at Texas Tech and is also widely respected. By the way, Forsythe is blind and has still has been able to rise to the top of his academic field, which I think is quite impressive.
The reason I mention these two in particular is that they play off and complement each other in a way. Cornell is very trusting to the ancient written sources (and has been called out a bit for this), while Forsythe is more critical (note the 'critical' in the title of his book). So in a way Forsythe is actually a rebuttal to Cornell, which he points out in his Foreword.
So if you are interested in early Rome I would read both of these, because then you get a pretty comprehensive history from two different viewpoints.
Both books are also highly readable and entertaining, I think. I've come back to both of them time and time again, sometimes looking for answers to a particular question and sometimes just to enjoy reading the entire book. I've read both several times, although to be honest I tend to favour Cornell a bit more.
By the way, I see the /r/AskHistorians wiki book list on Rome is pretty light on the early period. If the mods see this hopefully they consider adding some sources for early Rome, which I think is kind of neglected in the public eye.