From Herodotus to the Talmud: Additional Recommended Amazon Kindle books, on Classical Antiquity
Specifically: Works on Talmud, and classic Greek and Roman works
A follow-up to my previous piece: “Jewish Studies books on Amazon Kindle: A Discussion and Recommended Titles” (July 7, 2023).
Illustration of an electronic tablet with Hebrew text on a shtender in a cozy private library. Image generated by Dall-E
I’ve recently been reading a lot of books on ancient Greece and Rome. The period is known as Classical Antiquity. The later part of this time period overlaps with the Talmudic era (Around 0 CE to 500 CE - which also overlaps with part of the period known as Late Antiquity).
In the following piece are books that I’ve sampled and enjoyed in the last few months, after the appearance of my previous piece. I give a short blurb for each. As I’ve mentioned in previous pieces, Kindle allows you to download a sample of the book for free. A sample is 10% of the book. So you can typically get the entire introduction of the book, which in my opinion is usually the best part, for free! (I read on the Kindle app for Android, on my phone.)
The hyperlinks of the title are to the product page in Amazon. The date after the title is the date of publication of the title in the Amazon page. If the book first appeared earlier, I first give the date of first appearance.
I also hyperlink the author of the book to their Wikipedia entry, where relevant. Many of the modern authors are famous rabbis and/or scholars.
Jewish Studies
See also my recently-updated index of the excellent Seforim Chatter podcast, on my Academia.edu page (requires registration): “Index, By Century Discussed, of Interviews of Historians on Seforim Chatter Podcast”. Some of the authors mentioned here have appeared on that podcast.
Norman Solomon, The Talmud: A Selection (circa 700 CE / 2009). Part of the excellent Penguin Classics series. The introduction is really good, and completely free as a Kindle sample download. The intro focuses on the historical and intellectual background of the Talmud (see next entry for a different style intro. See also The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature, mentioned in my previous piece, which is from yet a different perspective, more sociological). Solomon’s style of formatting of Talmudic passages is very good, and is a good example of how it should be done.
Adin Steinsaltz, The Essential Talmud (2009). This intro is from a more traditional perspective than the previous book mentioned, by Solomon. It does a good job at giving a practical introduction to the study of Talmud.
Shaye J. D. Cohen (Editor), What Is the Mishnah?: The State of the Question. Good basic discussions of foundatiional questions about the Mishnah.
Seth Schwartz, Imperialism and Jewish Society: 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E. Has a very good, clear, up-to-date, balanced methodological discussion of using rabbinic texts for studying history.
Jonathan Klawans, Heresy, Forgery, Novelty: Condemning, Denying, and Asserting Innovation in Ancient Judaism (2019). A fascinating, clear, rigorous discussion of the fundamental topics in the title.
Yaron Eliav, A Jew in the Roman Bathhouse: Cultural Interaction in the Ancient Mediterranean (2023). A very interesting case study on the Talmudic Beit HaMirchatz (compare , בית מרחץ – ויקיפדיה, and the bibliography cited there).
Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, The Land of Truth: Talmud Tales, Timeless Teachings. Another anthology of stories in the Talmud, by an excellent scholar.
Classical Greece and Rome
Herodotus (Author), Paul Cartledge (Editor, Introduction), Tom Holland (Translator), The Histories (Around 430 BCE / 2014).
Thucydides (Author), Robert B. Strassler (Editor), Victor Davis Hanson (Introduction), Richard Crawley (Translator), The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War (Late 5th century BCE / 1998)
Julius Caesar (Author), Jane Gardner (Translator), S. Handford (Translator), The Conquest of Gaul (58–49 BCE / 1982). Part of Penguin Classics. This book is a major source on France, Germany, and Britain in Roman times. And it’s written by someone who became an emperor!
Livy (Author), R M Ogilvie (Introduction), Stephen Oakley (Preface), Aubrey De Selincourt (Translator), The Early History of Rome: Books I-V of the History of Rome from Its Foundation (between 27 and 9 BCE / 2005). Part of Penguin Classics. This massive work is one of the major sources of early Roman history.
Ovid (Author), Denis Feeney (Introduction), Metamorphoses (8 CE / 2004). This work is one of the major sources of Greek myth in subsequent generations.
Gaius Pliny (Author), John Healey (Introduction, Translator), Natural History: A Selection (77 CE / 2004). Basic ancient encyclopedic on a variety of natural scientific topics: Planets, weather, animals, plants, minerals, and many more.
Marcus Aurelius (Author), Gregory Hays (Translator), Meditations (180 CE / 2002). Very influential book of Stoic philosophical musings. Again, written by an emperor!
Arnaldo Momigliano, Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography (2012). Clearly written, on fundamental issues, by an incredible scholar. Also discusses early Jewish historiography.
Guy De la Bédoyère, Gladius: The World of the Roman Soldier (2020). Very well-written and researched book on the Roman army through its entire history.
Bonus: Modern Jewish Studies
These are outside the scope, but I’ll sneak them in here.
Harris Lenowitz, The Jewish Messiahs: From the Galilee to Crown Heights. Good “Big History” book on a fascinating topic.
Solomon Maimon (Author), Yitzhak Y. Melamed (Editor), Abraham Socher (Editor), Paul Reitter (Translator), Gideon Freudenthal (Afterword), The Autobiography of Solomon Maimon: The Complete Translation (1792/2019). With very good intro. Maimon is a fascinating character who lived in the late 18th century, and his autobiography (written in German) was very popular.
Jay Harris, Nachman Krochmal: Guiding the Perplexed of the Modern Age (1993)