What were some of the books available to Medieval Scholars about the (Ancient, and NOT Byzantine) Roman Empire? Anyone willing to take a stab at Summa/Tractus and Level/Quality?
Is rather out of date, and while there may be some references in later books, I'm not sure I could easily find it.
Second question: Where would surviving Ghosts from the time of the Roman Empire be found?
Decent and encompassing sources on the Roman Empire were rare in the middle ages.
Most of the classical works on Roman history existed only in few - often fragmentary - copies, either in Byzantium (Polybius, Plutarch) or hidden in western monasteries (Tacitus in Montecassino and Hersfeld, Livy in several places, Caesar).
Good editions do not appear before later 14th century, when Italian humanists collected the manuscripts in western Europe by hook or by crook.
This leaves SGs a lot of leeway: they can quite freely control access to and conservation state of manuscripts. All books found should be tractatus and of often considerable quality.
Thank you, that is very helpful!
Another (obvious) thought I've had is having players try to find places for surviving Ghosts of the roman Empire, and use them as as source of learning. I figure (realistically) even interviewing a ghost about their life, the events they remember gives useful information. That even an uneducated peasant from 50BC in northern Italy could be like a 1xp tractatus equivalent or something.
Quite - though researchers risk interviewing faeries, not ghosts.
Use the copy of the Historia Augusta in the Vatican's possession (the codex palatinus) or have copy of it turn up in the monastery in Lorsch where it was written. This work of history contains some details of the Roman empire, as well as fantastical elements like M. Didius Julianus' love of consulting diviners, and Firmus, the governor of Egypt who has a house of glass and ate an ostrich in a single day.