• The best books on Ancient Greece - The Iliad by Homer
  • The best books on Ancient Greece - Histories by Herodotus
  • The best books on Ancient Greece - Medea by Euripides
  • The best books on Ancient Greece - Democracy: A Life by Paul Cartledge
  • The best books on Ancient Greece - Greek Fire by Oliver Taplin

The best books on Ancient Greece, recommended by Christopher Pelling

Ancient Greece’s legacy can be seen all around us, including in our political system — but many of us don’t know that much about it. Fortunately, we have someone who has devoted his life to studying this remote time and place to give us a reading list. Chris Pelling, Emeritus Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford, recommends his top five books on Ancient Greece.

  • The best books on Boudica - Boudica Britannia by Miranda Aldhouse-Green
  • The best books on Boudica - Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen by Christina Unwin & Richard Hingley
  • The best books on Boudica - The Annals by Tacitus
  • The best books on Boudica - Resist: Stories of Uprising by Ra Page
  • The best books on Boudica - Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott

The best books on Boudica, recommended by Richard Hingley

Boudica was an Iron Age queen who led her people into rebellion against Roman rule in the province of Britannia. She was defeated, but only after she had burned several towns, including London, to the ground. Here Richard Hingley, Professor of Archaeology at Durham University, explains how to sift the truth from the myth, and why Boudica has remained an enduring source of fascination down the centuries.

  • The Best Augustine Books - Augustine of Hippo by Peter Brown
  • The Best Augustine Books - The Confessions by Augustine (translated by Maria Boulding)
  • The Best Augustine Books - The City of God by Augustine
  • The Best Augustine Books - Augustine: Select Letters by Augustine
  • The Best Augustine Books - Eternity's Ennui by M. B. Pranger

The Best Augustine Books, recommended by Catherine Conybeare

Christianity has been profoundly influenced by Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE), but the fifth-century North African bishop has impacted almost every area of western thought: philosophy, theology, political theory, linguistics, and rhetoric. His Confessions is one of the most recommended titles on Five Books, but is it really the first autobiography? Professor Catherine Conybeare introduces us to the life, thought, and personality of this controversial yet brilliant figure. She picks the best books to learn more about St. Augustine and explores how he has been unfairly maligned.

  • The best books on Hieroglyphics - Hieroglyphs: A Very Short Introduction by Penelope Wilson
  • The best books on Hieroglyphics - Hieroglyphics: The Writings of Ancient Egypt by Maria Betro
  • The best books on Hieroglyphics - The Myth of Egypt and Its Hieroglyphs in European Tradition by Erik Iversen
  • The best books on Hieroglyphics - Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts by Andrew Robinson
  • The best books on Hieroglyphics - The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts by Susan Brind Morrow

The best books on Hieroglyphics, recommended by Diane Greco Josefowicz

Reading the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt reveals much about the worldview of a civilisation that rose to prominence 5000 years ago and flourished for thousands of years. Here, intellectual historian Diane Greco Josefowicz—whose book, The Riddle of the Rosetta, co-written with Jed Buchwald, tells the story of how the meaning of the hieroglyphs was deciphered in 19th century France—recommends the best books to learn more about hieroglyphics.

  • The best books on Sparta - Histories by Herodotus
  • The best books on Sparta - Spartan Reflections by Paul Cartledge
  • The best books on Sparta - Spartan Women by Sarah Pomeroy
  • The best books on Sparta - Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield
  • The best books on Sparta - Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta by Stephen Hodkinson

The best books on Sparta, recommended by Andrew Bayliss

Their reputation for self-discipline and self-denial made their way into the English language, but what the ancient Spartans were really like remains a source of debate among scholars, not least because they wrote little themselves. Andrew Bayliss, Senior Lecturer in Greek History at the University of Birmingham and author of an excellent, short book on The Spartans, talks us through what we know about the heroes of Thermopylae, including the darker sides of their culture and society.

  • The best books on Julius Caesar - Et Tu, Brute? The Murder of Caesar and Political Assassination by Greg Woolf
  • The best books on Julius Caesar - American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964 by William Manchester
  • The best books on Julius Caesar - Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw
  • The best books on Julius Caesar - The Complete Works of Julius Caesar by Julius Caesar
  • The best books on Julius Caesar - Imperial Projections in Modern Popular Culture by Sandra R. Joshel (Ed)

The best books on Julius Caesar, recommended by Peter Stothard

Julius Caesar was a populist politician and general of the late Roman Republic who immortalized himself not only by his beautiful writing about his military exploits, but also by the manner of his death. Here, British journalist and critic Peter Stothard, author of The Last Assassin, chooses five books to help you understand both the man and what motivated him and some of the people who have been inspired by him in the 2,000 years since he died.

  • The best books on The Achaemenid Persian Empire - The Persian Empire by J M Cook
  • The best books on The Achaemenid Persian Empire - Discovering Cyrus: a Persian Conqueror Astride the Ancient World by Reza Zaghamee
  • The best books on The Achaemenid Persian Empire - The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period by Amélie Kuhrt
  • The best books on The Achaemenid Persian Empire - The Palace of Darius at Susa: The Great Royal Residence of Achaemenid Persia by Jean Perrot
  • The best books on The Achaemenid Persian Empire - Creation by Gore Vidal

The best books on The Achaemenid Persian Empire, recommended by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

At the height of its greatness, the Achaemenid Persian Empire was the largest empire the world had ever known. Too often it is given merely a villainous walk-on part in the heroic history of classical Greece. Here, historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones explains why that needs correcting, looks at its cultural achievements and discusses why the first Persian empire is worth studying in its own right and on its own terms.