Books in the Loeb Classical Library series

Extant early Latin writings from the seventh or sixth to the first century BCE include epic, drama, satire, translation and paraphrase, hymns, stage history and practice, and other works by Ennius, Caecilius, Livius Andronicus, Naevius, Pacuvius, Accius, Lucilius, and other anonymous authors; the Twelve Tables of Roman law; archaic inscriptions.

Dio Chrysostomus (c. 40-c. 120 CE) was a rhetorician hostile to philosophers, whose Discourses (or Orations) reflect political or moral concerns. What survives of his works make him prominent in the revival of Greek literature in the late first and early second century CE.

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.

Frontinus' Stratagems, written after 84 CE, gives examples of military stratagems and discipline from Greek and Roman history, for the instruction of Roman officers. The Aqueducts of Rome, written in 97-98, gives some historical details and a description of the aqueducts for the water supply of the city, with laws relating to them.

Galen (129-199 CE) crystallized all the best work of the Greek medical schools which had preceded his own time, including Hippocrates' foundational work six hundred years earlier. It is in the form of Galenism that Greek medicine was transmitted to later ages.

The Greek Anthology (Gathering of Flowers) is a collection over centuries of some 4500 short Greek poems (called epigrams but seldom epigrammatic) by about 300 composers. Meleager of Gadara (first century BCE), an outstanding contributor, also assembled the Stephanus (Garland), a compilation fundamental to the Anthology.

Plutarch (c. 45-120 CE) wrote on many subjects. His forty-six Parallel Lives are biographies planned to be ethical examples in pairs, one Greek figure and one similar Roman, though the last four lives are single. They not only record careers and illustrious deeds but also offer rounded portraits of statesmen, orators, and military leaders.

Anacreon (c. 570-485 BCE) was a composer of solo song. The Anacreonta were composed over several centuries. Notable among the earliest writers of choral poetry are the seventh-century BCE Spartans Alcman and Terpander.

Velleius Paterculus lived in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius (30 BCE-37 CE) and wrote a summary of Roman history from the fall of Troy to 29 CE. In 13-14 CE Augustus wrote an account of his public life, Res Gestae Divi Augusti, the best preserved copy of which was engraved on the walls of his temple at Ancyra (Ankara).

Basil the Great was born into a family noted for piety. About 360 he founded a convent in Pontus and in 370 succeeded Eusebius in the archbishopric of Caesarea. His reform of monastic life in the east is the basis of modern Greek and Slavonic monasteries.

Basil the Great was born into a family noted for piety. About 360 he founded a convent in Pontus and in 370 succeeded Eusebius in the archbishopric of Caesarea. His reform of monastic life in the east is the basis of modern Greek and Slavonic monasteries.

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 Fishing, Oppian of Cilicia, who flourished in the latter half of the second century CE, discusses fish and gives angling instructions. The Chase, on hunting, may be the work of a Syrian imitator. Colluthus and Tryphiodorus (properly Triphiodorus), epic poets of Egypt, wrote in the second half of the fifth century CE.

Florus (second century CE) wrote, in brief pointed rhetorical style, a two-book summary of Roman history (especially military) in order to show the greatness and decline of Roman morals. Based chiefly on Livy and perhaps planned to reach Florus' own times, the extant work ends with Augustus's reign (30 BCE-14 CE).

Basil the Great was born into a family noted for piety. About 360 he founded a convent in Pontus and in 370 succeeded Eusebius in the archbishopric of Caesarea. His reform of monastic life in the east is the basis of modern Greek and Slavonic monasteries.

Fragments of ancient literature, from the seventh to the third century BCE, found on papyri in Egypt include examples of tragedy; satyr drama; Old, Middle, and New Comedy; mime; lyric, elegiac, iambic, and hexametric poetry.

Lucian (c. 120-190 CE), apprentice sculptor then travelling rhetorician, settled in Athens and developed an original brand of satire. Notable for the Attic purity and elegance of his Greek and for literary versatility, he is famous chiefly for the lively, cynical wit of the dialogues in which he satirizes human folly, superstition, and hypocrisy.

Quintus Curtius wrote a history of Alexander the Great in the first or second century CE. The first two of ten books have not survived and material is missing from books 5, 6, and 10. Curtius narrates exciting experiences, develops his hero's character, moralizes, and provides one of the five extant works that are evidence for Alexander's career.

In his epigrams, Martial (c. 40-c. 103 CE) is a keen, sharp-tongued observer of Roman scenes and events, including the new Colosseum, country life, a debauchee's banquet, and the eruption of Vesuvius. His poems are sometimes obscene, in the tradition of the genre, sometimes affectionate or amusing, and always pointed.

The major works of Josephus (c. 37-after 97 CE) are History of the Jewish War, from 170 BCE to his own time, and Jewish Antiquities, from creation to 66 CE. Also by him are an autobiographical Life and a treatise Against Apion.

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.

Pausanias (fl. 150 CE), one of the Roman world's great travelers, sketches in Description of Greece the history, geography, landmarks, legends, and religious cults of all the important Greek cities. He shares his enthusiasm for great sites, describing them with care and an accuracy confirmed by comparison with monuments that still stand today.

Dithyrambic poets of the new school were active from the mid-fifth to mid-fourth century BCE. Anonymous poems include drinking songs, children's ditties, and cult hymns.

The six plays by Terence (died 159 BCE), all extant, imaginatively reformulate Greek New Comedy in realistic scenes and refined Latin. They include Phormio, a comedy of intrigue and trickery; The Brothers, which explores parental education of sons; and The Eunuch, which presents the most sympathetically drawn courtesan in Roman comedy.

History of the Wars by the Byzantine historian Procopius (late fifth century to after 558 CE) consists largely of sixth century CE military history, with much information about peoples, places, and special events. Powerful description complements careful narration. Procopius is just to the empire's enemies and boldly criticises emperor Justinian.

Aulus Gellius (c. 123-170 CE) offers in Attic Nights (Gellius began to write these pieces during stays in Athens) a collection of short chapters about notable events, words and questions of literary style, lives of historical figures, legal points, and philosophical issues that served as instructive light reading for cultivated Romans.