Information Resources on Ancient Rome
Local Information Resources
For your survey and research, use both print and electronic resources. To do your individual investigation of something in the modern world that you can relate to Rome, use museums, historical societies, a walk through downtown, newspapers, magazines and other local current resources. Here are some suggestions for the Providence, Rhode Island area:
- Rhode Island School of Design Museum
- Brown University campus and the area
- many downtown buildings
Books and Periodicals
There are numerous books available about ancient Rome. In libraries that use the Dewey Decimal system, you will find the majority of books in the 937's. Use the catalog of your library to make sure you've found them--some libraries use an older number for ancient history. And not every book about Rome is found in the Roman History section; David Macaulay's City is usually placed in the Architecture section, for example. Some of the more recent books are well-illustrated and provide a brief survey of different topic areas. Two older general titles that provide a great deal of specific information about many topics are Mary Johnston's Roman Life and F.R. Cowell's Everyday Life in Ancient Rome. Use the keywords and subject headings you develop in your survey to search library catalogs for more sources. To find magazine articles (in addition to the two by T.R. Reid in the July and August (1997) issues of National Geographic), use an electronic periodical index such as Middle Search. There are also general and specialized periodical indexes. Remember to use the appropriate forms to record all the necessary bibliographic information for all your sources, including electronic ones!
Web Information Resources
In addition to resources on the Web, there are several excellent CD databases, such as Microsoft Ancient Lands, that should be useful in your research. Many of the Web sites listed below include helpful bibliographies as well as links to other sites. Remember to carefully evaluate sites that you discover on your own--who is the author, and how reliable is the information? How does it compare with what you've found in trustworthy print sources? - Ancient Petra
Shows the influence of Roman architecture in this ancient Middle Eastern kingdom. -
Ancient Sites - Rome
Some virtual reality slides that show areas of Rome as they might have looked. Also a virtual reality walkthrough (if it will run on your computer) of an area of the city. Use this to get a sense of the probable setting, not as a solid information source.(Wait till you're done with your research to play the VR game, SPQR, available at this site.) - Bienvenue a Nimes-Welcome to Nimes
A French city site (with English translation available--look for the British flag) that has great pictures of Roman buildings still in use today. - Caen Model of Rome
Click on the English language version (British flag--unless you're fluent in French) to get the text that accompanies wonderful images of the city of Rome in imperial times. Terrific slide show shows details of a reconstructed Colosseum. - Dead Romans
Good visuals on several Roman topics, and a virtual reality walkthrough. Some good links to other sites. - DIA Galleries: Ancient Art of the Romans
Some excellent pictures, with text, of ancient Roman artifacts. - Hyperhistory Online Project
The color coding doesn't always work, and the navigation is a little awkward, but this provides an interesting timeline/chart of events and developments in world history. Interesting visual representation of the rise and fall of cultures and civilizations. Click on the time periods relevant to ancient Rome; also check out the "Maps" option to see the world map with locations and relationships of some civilizations (including Rome and China) and cultures in the second century AD. - The Hunterian Museum - Romans in Scotland
Photographs of Rome's temporary northernmost frontier, together with video clips of military re-enactments--see how the Roman army charged in battle!
- Images of Architecture and Architectural Sculpture in the Mediterranean
Shows some of the objects and building remains to be found in present-day Turkey and other areas of the Mediterranean
- Justin Paola's Collection of Roman Emperors
Clear photographs of many of the emperors' statues, together with coins on which they were represented and links to articles (by knowledgeable authors) at other sites.
- National Geographic Online
Has feature articles and archives as well as other resources. The article on Rome in the August 1997 issue of the magazine promises that a related feature will appear online--watch for it and compare it to the print articles on Rome (July and August 1997) - Pompeii (Hugh Lester of Tulane University)
Some wonderful photographs (click for full screen version) of buildings and objects from Roman Pompeii, with brief captions - Pompeii Forum Project
Many maps that link to photographs of areas of Pompeii. There's lots of information at this site, - Roman Art and Architecture
Great source of information on these topics, with many images.
- Roman Ball Games
Well organized, attractive and informative site about all types of Roman ball sports. - Roman Board Games
Describes the many games Romans played, complete with rules.
- Roman Calendar
Other sources will point out the similarities between the Roman Calendar and ours. This site emphasizes the differences. - Roman Emperors
An encyclopedia of Roman emperors which is still being developed. Informative articles on some emperors, organized alphabetically and chronologically. - A Roman Palace in ex-Yugoslavia
A view of the Emperor Diocletian's palace in Split. It is supposed to provide visuals by clicking on specific areas. This is a feature that may not be available, but take a look at the palace and read the caption anyway if you want to get a sense of an emperor's lifestyle. - Rome in Northern England
Photographs of some parts of Hadrian's Wall, the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire for centuries. - ROMARCH
This site offers a great clickable map of the Roman empire that provides links to Web information sources on that region. ROMARCH has links to many sites, some of them rated for their quality. It also gives access to the Argos search engine, described below under "Search Argos." - Rome (Hugh Lester of Tulane University)
Great pictures of Roman buildings and artifacts (click for a full-screen image, with brief captions. - Rome - Map Resources
This page provides access to a map of the Roman Empire and its provinces. Click on an area to find Web resources (if any are available) about that part of the empire. - Search Argos
A wonderful search engine for ancient history Websites. Use it when you have a specific topic that you can define in keywords.
Return to Introduction
Investigation
Presenting the Results
Ancient Rome Webquest-Information Resources
Kathy Foulke July 31, 1997
http://topcat.bridgew.edu/~kschrock/ED572/foulke/rmindex.htm