I haven't read anything about Ancient Rome since middle

seriously? yall gay for this.

Roman history is kind of split up because it's a lot of history to cover. As long as what you're reading interests you, you're working toward an eventual wider understanding. Rubicon is pretty good and I think universally liked, but I don't know much about it.

If you want to read some classic Rome fanfiction, try Robert Graves' I Claudius and Claudius the God, and even Count Belisarius if you get into Late Antiquity at all.

Once you've read those, I find it's really easy to jump to reading Suetonius and Tacitus, because Graves based his stories heavily off them, and even did a major translation of Suetonius.

You could also try torrenting Garret Fagan's History of Rome series with the Teaching Company. It's 45~ 30minute lectures. It picks up as you go along - I think he spends too long in the earlier lectures dwelling on the more obscure prehistory. Once you've done something like that, it's easy to start reading Livy or whatever.

There is a really good series of detective novels set in Rome that my Latin teacher loved, the Falco novels. And he also recommended Lavinia to me, by Ursula le Guin, which is like a fanfiction of the Aeneid (which is itself fanfiction of Homer) based on the perspetive of Aeneas' wife and the war and turmoil Aeneas' arrival brings to Italy. I really liked it.

>>9076609
As far as television series are concerned, HBO's Rome is a fantastic companion to what you're reading- season 1 follows the fall of the republic through the eyes of two regular soldiers until Caesar's assassination, and season 2 concludes with Actium. I, Claudius is probably the most famous show about Rome, focusing on the Julio-Claudian dynasty, but its also a 70's BBC mini-series so its PRETTY fucking dry. I can't think of any other series that even try to be historical (unless you want to try the likes of Spartacus.)

Besides Gladiator, which isn't really based in fact (Commodus *was* a shitty emperor and irreparably damaged the empire, but there are so many facets to his incompetency that a rivalry with Russel Crowe alone doesn't do it justice) almost every notable film about Rome came out over 50 plus years ago. The original Spartacus is a classic, of course, and I hear Cleropatra is pretty based too.

>>9076609
Crossing The Rubicon is good. It covers a fairly substantial part of Roman History. It's also pretty well written.

I learned most of the basic Roman history from wikipedia desu. I expanded that knowledge from academic history books and original sources, which are by far the best way of jumping into it. They may lack perspective, may not be neutral all the time, but they are gold standard. Every modern historian will have to go to them whenever he'll offer a new theory. The problem with expanding my knowledge is that I now absolutely hate every nonfiction depiction of Roman life. All I see are errors and blatant lies everywhere I look. Gladiator, cheap pomp. I Claudius, dropped after first five chapters, because author painted his own liking to the character.

Anyway, to recommendations:
Primary
Caesar - Commentarii de Bello Gallico; gallic wars, any translation
Livy - Second punic wars, greek wars.
Tacitus - Anale, first emperors
Suetonius - De vita Caesarum

Modern:
The Cambridge Ancient History, from vol-07 pt2 to v vol-14; it's chronological, vast, and with many writers raging from unreadable to superb, so just read historic parts that you like, skip if it's not digestible.
Gwyn Morgan - 69 A.D.: The Year of Four Emperors; Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian
Edward Gibbon - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; old oudated standard for The End.
Bryan Ward-Perkins's - The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization; new standard for The End.

Oxford Bibiliographies is a great source for roman history, as is The Great Courses Lectures which are mostly all pirateable. The Great Romans course is great.

>>9077971
You forgot Polybius

>>9078031
And Sallust. Also Appian, Also Plutarch's Lives