How many primary sources do we have about Rome from 700 b.c.to 500 a.d? I am always astonished about how much we know. And how many sources are preserved. Im curious about things like Cicero's works. Do we have many old decaying scrolls? Is most of what we have, including the accounts of sexual debauchery, the result of collection and preservation by the Catholic Church? How much was recovered from the Arabs during the Crusades? Or brought to Europe by Greek refugees from what was the Byzantine Empire? How many works do we have that the oldest copies come from the Medieval Period?