I'm a middle school history teacher, I really enjoy learning about classical and ancient history, but my expertise is in other subject areas. Most of my historical knowledge comes from secondary sources; textbooks, books like SPQR, podcasts, the plethora of Youtube videos on the topic.
I've never read through a full primary source like Livy or Plutarch, and I want to change that. I guess my question is if you guys have any advice on reading extended primary sources like Livy's History of Rome. Do you take notes while reading, do you just delve in and let it wash over you, do you go in looking for something specific? How do you go about recognising Livy's own bias in his work?
I guess I'm just worried I'm going to read it, immediately forget most of what I read and feel like I wasted my time. Or accept falsehoods stated by Livy as facts, because I haven't read conflicting sources.
Thanks in advance
Livys biases are plain as day, he doesn’t hide it.
Look out for how he personally describes an individual, what the individual does, whether it’s a good idea or a bad idea.
It’s been a long time since I read Livy, but from what I remember studying the Punic wars, he disliked Flaminius, practically made him a villain - just as an example a sacrifice went wrong so obviously the gods are against him! But Fabius is an amazing general and all of his ideas are good ideas. (When taking notes I used to call him Fabulous Fabius, that’s how much Livy adores him)
Read it and take notes at the same time, that’s what we did in class and I still remember it! (13 years later)
Good luck!
So this might not help for Livy but I got down voted for this suggestion a few years ago and it really GRINDED MY GEARS so I'm posting again.
Robert B. Strassler has The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories and The Landmark Thucydides : A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War and these are much better than just getting any old copy because they provide CONTEXT in terms of maps, notes, appendixes etc. Before this I read a random version of Thucydides and was lost, wasted a bunch of time and often didn't understand what was going on. I'm unaware if there is a similar thing for Livy but if so get it. At the same time I read him years ago and it was MUCH easier than Herodotus or Thucydides.
I also have a copy of The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World by John Roberts which I find to be excellent for having beside me when I read the classics. I trust it more than wikipedia and also I figure if something is important for a layperson such as ourselves (for classical Greece and Rome) it will be in the book.
I also have a piece of paper where I write down names with a bit of info about the person and sometimes page numbers to go back.