VCE Ancient history - units 3 & 4

Our Library subscribes to a vast array of online resources including ebooks and journals that are available from anywhere to registered Victorian users. We also have extensive print books available within the Library. For tips on searching for items on your VCE Ancient history reading list see our Get started page. 

Ebooks

Search our catalogue for books on various aspects of the history of Ancient Rome. The search can be narrowed to only Ebooks, accessible to any registered Victorian Library user at any location. At this point our ebooks are a minor percentage of our entire collection so start with quite broad searches.

For example this a general search for ebooks on Ancient Rome, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire.

Some specific ebooks:

• Roman power : a thousand years of empire / W. V. Harris. This history contains chapters on the fall of the Republic. If you sign in and choose the "Read online" option you can download the relevant chapters to keep (up to 115 pages).
• Aspects of Roman history, 31 BC-AD 117 / Richard Alston. This covers the establishment of post Republic Rome with a chapter on Augustus.  If you sign in and choose the "Read online" option you can download the relevant chapters to keep (up to 72 pages).
• Marcus Agrippa : right-hand man of Caesar Augustus / Lindsay Powell. Chapters relevant to the Battle of Actium, Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar. If you sign in and choose the "Read online" option you can download the relevant chapters to keep (up to 120 pages).
• Rome's revolution : death of the republic and birth of the empire / Richard Alston. This text focusses on the fall of the Roman Republic with chapters on Caesar and Pompey, the Triumvirate, Actium, Mark Antony and Cleopatra; and Augustus. If you sign in and choose the "Read online" option you can download the relevant chapters to keep (up to 123 pages).
• The heart of Rome : ancient Rome's political culture / Jan Blits.  If you sign in and choose the "Read online" option you can download the relevant chapters to keep (up to 60 pages).

See also our research guide on accessing and using ebooks.

Print books

The Library holds a vast range of print books on various aspects of the history of Ancient Rome. These are only available to be used within the Library. Search our catalogue using keywords. For example:

• Actium
• Sulla
• Civil War 49-45 BC
• Pompey the Great

Article search

​The Library subscribes online to many journals which can be searched for relevant articles. The journal databases can be searched individually. They can also be searched collectively through the Library catalogue.  See these results from a catalogue article search for Actium. 

Use a range of terms when searching. Add and alter terms to get the best results. 

• see this search for pre Roman Italy

Titus Livius or Livy (59 BCE - 17 CE) was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome up to the reign of Augustus.

We hold many of Livy's works both online and in print

You can also access full texts of his History of Rome in 14 volumes through the Internet Archive

JSTOR is an excellent database for articles on various aspects of ancient history. The database includes long runs of scholarly journals.

Many results will be found also using the 'Article' search through our catalogue (see on this page).

The 'full-text' search covers the entire text of articles. If you choose the 'articles' in 'Advanced search' you will avoid book reviews.

Gale Virtual Reference Library is useful as a reference tool for items about aspects of Ancient History. 

Choose 'subject' for a more specific search or 'basic search' for a broader search.