1st century BCE/AD history books?

[Tyler Durden]

Greetings, skeptics and infidels, and christians, too:

I have had many inquiries about the best scholarly work done on the first centuries BCE and AD, especially those that concern the times of Jesus Christ. I wonder what books would anyone here recommend?

Is Will Durant's Story of Civilization (Life of Greece (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1567310133/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/104-2518409-0582358?v=glance&s=books&st=*)& Caesar and Christ (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/5552124359/qid=1080604616/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-2518409-0582358?v=glance&s=books)) too much out of date? http://www.hyperboreans.com/forums/html/emoticons/blink.gif

[Peter Kirby]

Try looking up History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ by Emil Schurer at a nearby university or large library. It has to be the most-cited work of its kind (since ~1900), and it has been revised by Vermes et al. in more recent printings.

best,
Peter Kirby