Useful Secondary Sources on Ancient History, via Mary Beard

[littlerdog.livejournal.com]

I often get asked what I would recomend for a (more or less) beginner in Greek and Roman history -- so what do I say? There are some obvious choices. I reckon most volumes in the Cambridge Companion to... are pretty good, as well as the relevant volumes of the OUP "Very Short Introduction" series (whoops, including my own).