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Romans in Germany
Selected Bibliography for
Researching "Romans in Germany"
I
compiled this bibliography as a Latin teacher. I'll need to find out how a
German teacher approaches the topic. -- Dr. Martha Davis
When I am looking into a
topic that is very new to me, I've always approached it from three directions:
any ancient texts I know of, preferably in editions with commentary; the Oxford
Classical Dictionary; and Encyclopedia
Britannica. These days, we know
there will also be valuable material on the internet. So here's what I did.
Step One: I went to the OCD
and read the entry on "Germania" and related starred entries. The
select bibliography at the end of the entries confirmed that I needed to read
Julius Caesar's de bello gallico and
Tacitus' Germania. I began there.
Other ancient sources were listed, and I found more as I read other secondary
sources. I've posted a select annotated bibliography of the most pertinent
ancient texts elsewhere on this website.
Step Two: I reread
Caesar and Tacitus. In addition to Latin texts I had on hand, I used the Loeb
Classical Library editions of each. The Germania
is included with the Dialogus and
the Agricola. From there I went on to the Penguin Classics editions,
which do have notes.
Step Three: I checked
out the Britannica. Since it gave me just about the same suggestions about
ancient texts and secondary works as the OCD
had, I delved into the secondary sources listed.
Step Four: I started at
E. A. Thompson's The Early Germans. From
there I went on to M. Todd's The Early
Germans (dedicated to Thompson) and The
Northern Barbarians. Here I found information about Roman-German
interaction. As I was also going to support Marge Devinney in a session about
deities, I read the sections in Todd about Germanic deities and cult locales.
Then I went to the old standby, H. R. Ellis Davidson's book on
Germanic/Scandinavian gods. I also consulted Dumezil's Archaic Roman Religion. In the small amount of time remaining I
refreshed my knowledge about Roman deities by reading the pertinent section in Classical
Mythology by Morford and Lenardon. A next step would have been to reread
Ovid's Metamorphoses and Fasti.
Step Five: I reviewed as
many internet sites as I had time to, counting on them to steer me to
archaeological information and to museums and exhibits of art and artifacts. All
these ventures brought me some information about Roman and German life and
culture.
The Select Bibliography
Encyclopedia
Britannica (Enough said.)
Oxford
Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed. Edited by
Hornblower and Spawforth. 1996.
Dumezil, Georges, Archaic
Roman Religion. 1954.
Davidson, H.R. Ellis, Gods
and Myths of Northern Europe. 1964.
Thompson, E. A. The
Early Germans. 1965.
Hochmann, Rolf, The
Germanic Peoples. 1971.
Roman
Civilization. Sourcebook I: The Republic. Sourcebook II: The Empire. Edited
with introduction and notes by N. Lewis
and M. Reinhold. This set contains excerpts from ancient texts by topics.
Atlas
of the Roman World, Cornell, T. and J. Matthews.
1982. The maps and illustrations in this book provide insight into the social
and economic background of Roman and German interaction.
Schutz, Herbert. The
Prehistory of Germanic Europe. 1983.
Todd, Malcolm, The
Northern Barbarians, 100 BC-300 AD. Rev. 1987.
Heather, Peter, Goths
and Romans. 1991.
Todd, Malcolm, The
Early Germans. 1992.
Herwig, Wolfram, The
Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples. 1997.
Constructing
Identities in Late Antiquity, edited by R. Miles.
1999.
web-edited
by Dr. Janice Siegel
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