Books in the Loeb Classical Library series

We know more of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE), lawyer, orator, politician and philosopher, than of any other Roman. Besides much else, his work conveys the turmoil of his time, and the part he played in a period that saw the rise and fall of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic.

Unlike his predecessors, Epictetus (c. 50-120 CE), who grew up as a slave, taught Stoicism not for the select few but for the many. A student, the historian Arrian, recorded Epictetus's lectures and, in the Encheiridion, a handbook, summarized his thought.

In Fasti Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE) sets forth explanations of the festivals and sacred rites that were noted on the Roman calendar, and relates in graphic detail the legends attached to specific dates. The poem is an invaluable source of information about religious practices.

Works such as those of the mime-writer Publilius Syrus, who flourished c. 45 BCE, and Rutilius Namatianus, who gave a graphic account of his voyage from Rome to Gaul in 416 CE, represent the wide variety of theme that lends interest to Latin poetry produced during a period of four and a half centuries.

Dio Cassius (Cassius Dio), c. 150-235 CE, was born in Bithynia. Little of his Roman History survives, but missing portions are partly supplied from elsewhere and there are many excerpts. Dio's work is a vital source for the last years of the Roman republic and the first four Roman emperors.

Cyropaedia by Xenophon (c. 430-c. 354 BCE) is a historical romance on the education of the sixth century BCE Persian king Cyrus the Elder that reflects Xenophon's ideas about rulers and government.

Diodorus' Library of History, written in the first century BCE, is the most extensively preserved history by an ancient Greek author. The work is in three parts: mythical history to the Trojan War; history to Alexander's death (323 BCE); history to 54 BCE. Books 1-5 and 11-20 survive complete, the rest in fragments.

The comedies of Plautus, who brilliantly adapted Greek plays for Roman audiences c. 205-184 BCE, are the earliest Latin works to survive complete and cornerstones of the European theatrical tradition from Shakespeare and Moliere to modern times. Twenty-one of his plays are extant.

The poetry of Horace (born 65 BCE) is richly varied, its focus moving between public and private concerns, urban and rural settings, Stoic and Epicurean thought. His Odes cover a wide range of moods and topics. Love and political concerns are frequent themes of the Epodes.

Aelius Aristides (117-after 180), among the most versatile authors of the Second Sophistic and an important figure in the transmission of Hellenism, produced speeches and lectures, declamations on historical themes, polemical works, prose hymns, and essays on a wide variety of subjects.

Based on the critical edition of Malcovati, this three-volume Loeb edition of Roman Republican oratory begins with Ap. Claudius Caecus (340-273 BC) and with the exceptions of Cato the Elder and Cicero includes all individuals for whom speech-making is attested and for whose speeches quotations, testimonia, or historiographic recreations survive.

This eleventh and final volume in the Loeb Classical Library's complete edition of Hippocrates' invaluable texts contains Diseases of Women 1 and 2, focusing on reproductive life, the pathological conditions affecting the reproductive organs, and their proper terminology and recommended treatments. A lexicon of therapeutic agents is included.

Aelian's Historical Miscellany (Varia Historia) is a pleasurable example of light reading for Romans of the early third century. Offering engaging anecdotes about historical figures, retellings of legendary events, and enjoyable descriptive pieces, Aelian's collection of nuggets and narratives appealed to a wide reading public.

The philosopher Philo, born about 20 BCE to a prominent Jewish family in Alexandria, was trained in Greek as well as Jewish learning. In attempting to reconcile biblical teachings with Greek philosophy he developed ideas that had wide influence on Christian and Jewish religious thought.

Sappho, the most famous woman poet of antiquity, whose main theme was love, and Alcaeus, poet of wine, war, and politics, were two illustrious singers of sixth-century BCE Lesbos.

We know more of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE), lawyer, orator, politician and philosopher, than of any other Roman. Besides much else, his work conveys the turmoil of his time, and the part he played in a period that saw the rise and fall of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic.

Diogenes Laertius (probably early third century BCE) compiled his compendium on the lives and doctrines of the ancient philosophers from hundreds of sources. It ranges over three centuries, from Thales to Epicurus, portraying forty-five important figures, and is enriched by numerous quotations.

The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer (eighth century BCE) are the two oldest European epic poems. The former tells of Achilles's anger over an insult to his honour during the Trojan War, and of its consequences for the Achaeans, the Trojans, and Achilles himself.

Ammianus (c. 325-c. 395 CE), a Greek from Antioch, served many years as an officer in the Roman army, then settled in Rome, where he wrote a Latin history of the Roman Empire. The portion that survives covers twenty-five years in the historian's own lifetime: the reigns of Constantius, Julian, Jovian, Valentinian I, and Valens.

This volume, the tenth of Hippocrates' invaluable texts on the practice of medicine in antiquity, provides essential information about human reproduction and reproductive disorders and expounds a general theory of physiology and pathology, in five Greek treatises presented with facing English translation.

Nearly all the works Aristotle (384-322 BCE) prepared for publication are lost; the priceless ones extant are lecture-materials, notes, and memoranda (some are spurious). They can be categorized as practical; logical; physical; metaphysical; on art; other; fragments.

In the melancholy elegies of the Tristia and the Ex Ponto, Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE) writes as from exile in Tomis on the Black sea, appealing to such people as his wife and the emperor.

Appian (ca. AD 95-161) is a principal source for the history of the Roman Republic. His theme is the process by which Rome achieved her contemporary prosperity, and his method is to trace in individual books the story of each nation's wars with Rome up through her own civil wars. This Loeb edition replaces the original by Horace White (1912-13).

Though attributed to Hesiod (eighth or seventh century BC) in antiquity, the Catalogue of Women, a presentation of legendary Greek heroes and episodes according to maternal genealogy; The Shield, a counterpoint to the Iliadic shield of Achilles; and certain poems that survive as fragments were likely not composed by Hesiod himself.