In my course on intro to Ancient Rome I'm wrapping up now, we've used The Romans: From Village to Empire which is a nice general overview, and complemented it with Ancient Rome: Social and Historical Documents from the Early Republic to the Death of Augustus which is a sourcebook which can be helpful when doing your assignments. We've also used Plutarch's Parallel Lives (which will cover Greek history as well), and as they're biographies they do have inherent problems, but are great literature, and for a nice intro to some of the figures you'll meet. For Republic Rome to Nero specifically, I'm currently reading From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome 133 BC to AD 68, which is a bit older in terms of scholarship, but a lot more engaging to read than From Village to Empire, in my opinion. Hope this helps!
In my course on intro to Ancient Rome I'm wrapping up now, we've used The Romans: From Village to Empire which is a nice general overview, and complemented it with Ancient Rome: Social and Historical Documents from the Early Republic to the Death of Augustus which is a sourcebook which can be helpful when doing your assignments :)
This should serve as a starter kit for joining the legions and becoming a productive citizen of Rome. Roma Invicta. Join us at r/roughromanmemes
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199730571/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_DSD37V87W03BY7Z9ABX0
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307700763/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_CRJNJ0B7FH8J8XNAVRK4
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1610397215/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_4VEY15E6TEXC9G033XD3
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1631492225/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_09ZMCPXKV2C3HFAGZTPM
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140443622/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_89ZVHX1ZWN4C9XMG791Z
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1350083380/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_FRJMC7DXV6ZWFYAMP7QP
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250004713/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_E1E9FN0407RB5Y9M9PXN
Boatwright, Gargola, Lenski, and Talbert's <em>The Romans: From Village to Empire</em> is my textbook of choice for Roman history
In my Ancient Rome class in college, we used the textbook "The Romans: From Village to Empire" by Boatwright et al. The first half of the book focuses on Republican Rome and I feel like it is a great resource. The book costs $42 on Amazon, so it may be a bit pricy for amateur study; however, if you have access to Questia through a public or university library you can read it for free. (you can also gain access through Wikipedia, but you need to edit for a year and make 1000 edits to the site to be approved) Even if you don't have access, I suggest you use the one day free trial of Questia to read part of the book to decide if it is worth spending $42 to purchase it. Here is the Amazon link and here is the Questia link. It appears like the Questia link is for the first edition and not the second, which is the one that I read. In addition, you'll find a collection of other documents linked to that questia page. I have not read them, but some of them are free, so it could be worth checking them out.