 | The Iliad / The Odyssey by Homer
Buy new: $20.79 / Used from: $12.92 The first great work of literature, you will be enthralled by the wonderful story, and Fagles' translation is top of the line.
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 | The Aeneid by Virgil
Buy new: $26.40 / Used from: $4.96 This is a continuation of the Iliad and Odyssey, and it covers the foundation of Rome.
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 | The Republic (Penguin Classics) by Plato
Buy used from: $0.81 This is Plato's magnum opus, a true tour de force of governmental philosophy.
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 | The Basic Works of Aristotle (Modern Library Classics) by Aristotle
Buy new: $14.93 / Used from: $9.41 It is too hard to choose just one of Aristotle's many classics, so read them all.
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 | The Histories (Penguin Classics) by Herodotus
Buy new: $7.91 / Used from: $5.38 This is the first true work of history, although it does contain a certain number of anecdotes and the facts aren't always thoroughly checked.
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 | The History of the Peloponnesian War: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics) by Thucydides
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $0.99 This work, a sequel to Herodotus, is more concerned with fact than its predecessor.
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 | Hippocrates, Volume IV: Nature of Man (Loeb Classical Library, No. 150) by Hippocrates
Buy new: $24.00 / Used from: $19.98 There's a reason he's still considered the father of medicine.
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 | The Rise of the Roman Empire (Penguin Classics) by Polybius
Buy new: $11.56 / Used from: $4.86 Polybius was an eye witness to the events he describes, so you can be promised accuracy.
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 | Livy: The Early History of Rome, Books I-V (Penguin Classics) (Bks. 1-5) by Titus Livy
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $3.95 Livy is by far my favorite of the Roman historians, and can be enjoyed by all people.
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 | The Twelve Caesars (Penguin Classics) by Suetonius
Buy used from: $1.68 This book reads more like a modern gossip magazine than a work of history, but it is still very fun to read.
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 | Cicero: Selected Political Speeches (Penguin Classics) by Marcus Tullius Cicero
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $0.99 Cicero was the greatest orator of Roman times, and this is a collection of his greatest speeches.
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 | Plutarch's Lives Volume 1 (Modern Library Classics) by Plutarch
Buy new: $11.16 / Used from: $5.55 Plutarch was the first true biographer, and his comparisons of Greek and Roman leaders is a must read for anyone interested in either military or government leadership.
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 | Sophocles, The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone by Sophocles
Buy new: $10.08 / Used from: $0.97 The greatest of the Greek playwrights.
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 | On the Nature of the Universe (Penguin Classics) by Lucretius
Buy new: $11.25 / Used from: $2.10 An interesting work of Roman philosophy.
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 | The Conquest of Gaul (Penguin Classics) by Julius Caesar
Buy new: $7.92 / Used from: $1.73 Caesar is one of the truly great military historians.
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 | Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio
Buy new: $8.75 / Used from: $10.25 An amazing look at ancient architecture.
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 | Ptolemy's Almagest by Ptolemy
Buy new: $50.69 / Used from: $58.65 The book that proposed that the earth was the center of the universe.
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 | Natural History: A Selection (Penguin Classics) by Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder)
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $6.00 A comprehensive encyclopedia of all the knowledge of the natural world known in the first century AD.
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 | The Annals of Imperial Rome (Penguin Classics) by Tacitus
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $0.01 He treats each of the Roman emperors with an equal amount of scorn.
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