I do realize though that she glorifies the character of certain individuals quite a bit, but still I found the series immensely satisfying and informative.

A couple of authors to look for: Steven Saylor, who has written a whole series of historical-fiction/mystery novels as well as a couple of non-mysteries. As a matter of fact, my History-111HW/English 112H Learning Community that I am enrolled in right now at my local community college has us reading Saylor's "Arms of Nemesis" right now. For those who aren't familiar with "Learning Communities" it is a combination of two cross-disciplinary courses (in this case Survey of Early Western Civilization and College Composition II) taught by two instructors in the same room at the same time. This one in particular is really fun, since not only is the subject matter my major (history, with a writing certificate), but the instructors are also a married couple. You can check out my history instructor's website from the linky below.

Another is Allan Massey, who has written many historical fiction novels, including a couple about Rome.

Also, "Imperium" by Robert Harris is about the orator Cicero, written from the point of view of his slave-scribe Tiro
(who also happened to have invented the basis of modern shorthand, as well as having actually written a biography of Cicero that has been lost to us).