Suggested non-fiction ( and fiction ) reading for Cthulhu Invictus Games

[TAK]

I got a DVD set called Rome: Rise And Fall Of An Empire from Amazon, which seems to fit the bill quite well.
I also heard that the BRP game Rome has pretty good background. I can't confirm as my copy hasn't arrived yet, but I can update once it does.
Of course I only got my Cthulhu Invictus today but from skimming it, it doesn't seem to have too much info on the everyday life of Romans, so I'm hoping Rome has more of that.

[Paddurz]

I got a DVD set called Rome: Rise And Fall Of An Empire from Amazon, which seems to fit the bill quite well.
I also heard that the BRP game Rome has pretty good background. I can't confirm as my copy hasn't arrived yet, but I can update once it does.
Of course I only got my Cthulhu Invictus today but from skimming it, it doesn't seem to have too much info on the everyday life of Romans, so I'm hoping Rome has more of that.

BRP ROME contains a tremendous amount of information about everyday life and life in general including customs, laws, religions and is of great value for any INVICTUS keeper.

It does have two drawbacks though.

1. It is very centered on Rome the city. If you want information about the Romans in Britain, Gaul or even other parts of Italy etc then BRP Rome will not be enough.

2. It is set in the Republican times, which is ~100 BC and Invictus is set ~50 AD. It's not a great hindrance but it is a slight nuisance.

I can heartily recommend the following books on Rome:

"Ancient Rome on five denarii a day" by Philip Matyszak

"Roman Life" by John R. Clarke

"Life in Ancient Rome" by F. R. Cowell

"Pompeii" by Mary Beard

All available on Amazon (I'd be so lost without Amazon as I live in Sweden as well...)

The campaign from Miskatonic River Press (The Legacy of Arrius Lurco) is highly recommended as well, not only is it a superb campaign but it gives good insights to Rome and other places and has a very useful list of books at the end... Most of the above mentioned books has been bought based on that list.

[TAK]

BRP ROME contains a tremendous amount of information about everyday life and life in general including customs, laws, religions and is of great value for any INVICTUS keeper.

I got my BRP Rome today and I agree, 60 pages on Society, culture, religion and philosophy and that doesn't include anything on the City, games or army.
Also, the map of Rome is much better than the one in Invictus, it actually includes elevation and different city districts which is totally missing from Invictus and I feel is fairly relevant. Also, world maps are multiple and much clearer. So I definitely recommend BRP Rome.

[EvanP]

I can also recommend a few:

A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome, by Alberto Angela, is good non-fiction. It covers the city of Rome pretty well in ~ 1.

Also, Stephen Saylor's Rome sub Rosa and John Maddox Roberts' SPQR are both good mystery series, though they take place in the late Republic. Roma sub Rosa focuses on an upper middle class investigator, SPQR's protagonist is a patrician who advances through the Cursus Honorum.

[Dimmesdale]

Hi...I have a list on Amazon with everything I could find (so far) dealing with Rome and the weird called "Weird Rome" no less...please feel free to check it out.

In the meantime here is a quick list of actual Mythos fiction set in Ancient Rome:

Bran Mak Morn The Last King by REH for two stories "Worms of the Earth" and "Kings of the Night"

excellent republication of the Worms of the Earth comic by Cross Plains Comics is very good also

For the Witch of the Mists by David C. Smith (Bran Mak Morn pastische)

Legion From the Shadows by Karl E Wagner (Bran Mak Morn pastische)

The Scroll of Thoth by Richard Tierney chaosium collects most of Tierney's Simon of Gitta tales

Drums of Chaos last Tierney Simon of Gitta tale

Heir of Darkness by Glen Rahman features another gladiator turned Mythos investigator

Gardens of Lucullus is a joint effort by Tierney and Rahman that features their ex-gladiator characters

The Azathoth Cycle from Chaosium has another Tierney Simon of Gitta tale "The Throne of Achamoth"

The Tsathoggua Cycle from Chaosium has the tale " The Oracle of Sadoqua"

Ech Pi El himself wrote "The Very Old Folk" set in Hispania

Isaac Azimov's Halloween anthology by Gardner Dozois contains the very excellent mythos inspired tale " The Golden Keeper" by Ian R. Macleod

and there is some more not directly Mythos material just as valuable in my list you may want to check out....

Lots available for the seeker.....

[wombat1]

To this list we might add still more items. Though Saylor's Roma sub rosa or Gordianus series has been mentioned in the thread, Lindsay Davis' Falco series, set in the time of Vespasian, has not. Falco is quite the traveler so one can get an excellent feel both for Rome and the provinces, and there are usually useful maps.

The original histories give us wonderful opportunities to find villains, any of whom might easily be given a Mythos twist. The most readily available published source of these is the Loeb Classical Library published by Harvard University Press.
Their website, containing a list, can be found here: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/collection.php?cpk=1031

Looking at specifics, I find that in preparing my own Cthulhu Invictus campaign, I have kept Cassius Dio checked out of my university library continually for over a year. The weird events described in Livy's Ab Urbe Condita were all collected into a manuscript called the Prodigies of Julius Obsequens, and this is found in volume XIV of the Loeb Classical Library edition. Much of the material is of the hermaphrodite/monstrous infant/monstrous cow,sheep,pig variety, but occasionally you get a good rain of milk or river of blood going.

Tacitus' Germania is a useful thing to have around, if one is going to set events there, so also is Pliny's Natural History for all manner of things.

Though it is fashionable to look down on it, Wikipedia has an astonishing list of Roman clan names here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_gentes
but also here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_nomina
They are not identical.
Almost invariably, each of these families then has its own article, listing famous members of the family, and the dates in which it was particularly active. When I found myself needing character names, I usually spent large amounts of time here.

GURPS Imperial Rome is indeed a useful source and has some good things in it.

The art magazine Minerva is always good for pictures, and sometimes good for inspirational sites or articles.

The City in the Roman West, by Ray Lawrence, et. al. (Cambridge University Press, 2011) is good for describing the Roman urban area, but also furnishes a wealth of maps, pictures and diagrams suitable for inspiration.