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Appian (first-second century CE), a Greek from Antioch, offers a history of the rise of Rome but often shows us events from the point of view of the conquered peoples. Books on the Spanish, Hannibalic, Punic, Illyrian, Syrian, Mythridatic, and Civil wars are extant.

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.

Sophocles (497/6-406 BCE), considered one of the world's greatest poets, forged tragedy from the heroic excess of myth and legend. Seven complete plays are extant, including Oedipus Tyrannus, Ajax, Antigone, and Philoctetes. Among many fragments that also survive is a substantial portion of the satyr drama The Searchers.

Aristophanes (c. 450-c. 386 BCE) has been admired since antiquity for his wit, fantasy, language, and satire. Socrates's "Thinkery" is at the center of Clouds, which spoofs untraditional techniques for educating young men. Wasps satirizes Athenian enthusiasm for jury service. Peace is a rollicking attack on war-makers.

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.

The era of Old Comedy (c. 485-c. 380 BCE), when theatrical comedy was created and established, is best known through the extant plays of Aristophanes. But the work of many other poets, including Cratinus and Eupolis, the other members, with Aristophanes, of the canonical Old Comic Triad, survives in fragments.

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.

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.

The three surviving works by Sextus Empiricus (c. 160-210 CE) are Outlines of Pyrrhonism, Against the Dogmatists, and Against the Professors. Their value as a source for the history of thought is especially that they represent development and formulation of former sceptic doctrines.

Fourth century BCE orators were involved in Athenian resistance to Philip of Macedon. Lycurgus was with Demosthenes in the anti-Macedonian faction. Hyperides was also hostile to Philip and led Athenian patriots after 325 BCE. But Dinarchus favored an oligarchy under Macedonian control and Demades supported the Macedonian cause too.

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.

Babrius's humorous and pointed fables in Greek verse probably date from the first century CE. From the same period come the lively fables in Latin verse written by Phaedrus, which satirize social and political life in Augustan Rome.

The two extant poems of Hesiod (eighth or seventh century BC) are Theogony, in which he charts the history of the divine world, and Works and Days, in which he delivers moral precepts and practical advice for the world of men.

Hellenica by Xenophon (c. 430-c. 354 BCE) is a history of Greek affairs from 411-362 BCE that begins as a continuation of Thucydides' account.

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.

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.

The writings of the Apostolic Fathers (first and second centuries CE) give a rich and diverse picture of Christian life and thought in the period immediately after New Testament times. Some were accorded almost Scriptural authority in the early Church.

In Astronomica (first century CE), the earliest extant treatise we have on astrology, Manilius provides an account of celestial phenomena and the signs of the Zodiac. He also gives witty character sketches of persons born under particular constellations.

Volume VI of the nine-volume Loeb edition of Early Greek Philosophy includes the later Ionian and Athenian thinkers Anaxagoras, Archelaus, and Diogenes of Apollonia, along with chapters on early Greek medicine and the Derveni Papyrus.

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.

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.

Virgil (70-19 BCE) was a poet of immense virtuosity and influence. His Eclogues deal with bucolic life and love, his Georgics with tillage, trees, cattle, and bees. His Aeneid is an epic on the theme of Rome's origins. Poems of the Appendix Vergiliana are traditionally, but in most cases probably wrongly, attributed to Virgil.

Virgil (70-19 BCE) was a poet of immense virtuosity and influence. His Eclogues deal with bucolic life and love, his Georgics with tillage, trees, cattle, and bees. His Aeneid is an epic on the theme of Rome's origins. Poems of the Appendix Vergiliana are traditionally, but in most cases probably wrongly, attributed to Virgil.

The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer (eighth century BCE) are the two oldest European epic poems. The latter tells of Odysseus's journey home from the Trojan War and the temptations, delays, and dangers he faced at every turn.

Aristophanes has been admired since antiquity for his wit, fantasy, language, and satire. The protagonists of Birds create a utopian counter-Athens. In Lysistrata wives go on conjugal strike until their husbands end war. Women in Women at the Thesmophoria punish Euripides for portraying them as wicked.

Vol. 1 revised 1928; vol. 2 revised 1930; vol. 4 includes index.

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.

Plutarch (c. 45-120 CE) wrote on many subjects. His extant works other than the Parallel Lives are varied, about sixty in number, and known as the Moralia (Moral Essays). They reflect his philosophy about living a good life, and provide a treasury of information concerning Greco-Roman society, traditions, ideals, ethics, and religion.

Longus's Daphnis and Chloe (second or early third century CE), in which an idealized pastoral environment provides the setting as a boy and girl discover their sexuality, is one of the great works of world literature. Xenophon's Anthia and Habrocomes (first century CE) is perhaps the earliest extant novel.

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.