Reading Rat

What to read, 300 B.C.-A.D. 300

\/ through 301 B.C. | A.D. 301-1100 /\

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Of the making of many books there is no end --Ecclesiastes 12:12

\/ A.D. 3rd Century

Avesta (3rd or 4th Century) The Online Books Page Avesta -- Zoroastrian Archives
the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism --Wikipedia | containing its cosmogony, law, and liturgy, the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster (Zarathushtra). The extant Avesta is all that remains of a much larger body of scripture, apparently Zoroaster’s transformation of a very ancient tradition. --Encyclopaedia Britannica
Briefly, Zoroastrianism teaches that the world of the good principle, Ahura Mazda, was invaded by the evil principle, Angra Mainyu, and the world has since been the scene of perennial conflict between the two, which can be resolved only when at the appointed time a son of the lawgiver, named Saoshyant, will appear. He will destroy Angra Mainyu, the dead will be resurrected, and everlasting happiness will be the lot of mankind. --Philip Ward

BHASA (c. 275-c. 335) The Online Books Page Moonstruck Drama Bookstore | World History Online
one of the earliest and most celebrated Indian playwrights in Sanskrit. --Wikipedia

The Dream of Vasavadatta (Svapnavasavadattam)
a love story taken from an incident in the Ramayana epic. --Philip Ward

Diogenes LAERTIUS (c. 225-275) The Online Books Page
a biographer of the Greek philosophers. --Wikipedia

Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

Songs of the South or Songs of Chu or Verses of Chu (Chu Ci) [Ch'u Tz'u]
from the Warring States period (ended 221 BC), though about half of the poems seem to have been composed several centuries later, during the Han Dynasty. [206 B.C.–A.D. 220] --Wikipedia
Most of the Ch'u Tz'u poems are written in the song style, so-called because it was originally used only in songs; or in the Sao style, named after the famous poem Li Sao traditionally attributed to the earliest-named Chinese poet Ch'u Yuan, a nobleman banished by King Huai of Ch'u. --Philip Ward

RUAN Ji (210-263) [Juan Chi]
a poet and musician who lived in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. He was one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. --Wikipedia

Poetry

PLOTINUS (204/5-270) The Online Books Page
a major philosopher of the ancient world. In his philosophy there are the three principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. --Wikipedia

Enneads (c. 270)
A man of extreme mysticism and asceticism, Plotinus set as his aim the escape from our material world to soul, then to reason, then to God, which Plotinus saw as formless, matterless, pure existence. --Philip Ward

/\ A.D. 3rd Century

\/ A.D. 2nd Century

SUDRAKA The Online Books Page | Project Gutenberg Internet Broadway Data Base
an Indian King. ... He has been identified as Abhira King Indranigupta --Wikipedia

The Little Clay Cart (Mrichakatika)
between the second century BC and the fifth century AD --Wikipedia
with an impoverished Brahman merchant as the hero and a courtesan as the heroine, is the standard dramatic example of the Indian secular romance. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

Lotus Sutra (Saddharma Pundarika Sutra, c. 200) Sacred Texts
the basis on which the Tiantai and Nichiren schools of Buddhism were established --Wikipedia
One of the most influential of all Mahayana texts throughout East Asia. --A Guide to Oriental Classics
Buddha is here no longer the ascetic of history who preached for forty years. He is an eternal being, omniscient and omnipresent, and the setting in which he gives his discourse is uniquely awe-inspiring. --Philip Ward

SEXTUS Empiricus (c. 160-210) The Online Books Page | George MacDonald Ross fan site
a physician and philosopher, and has been variously reported to have lived in Alexandria, Rome, or Athens. His philosophical work is the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman skepticism. --Wikipedia

Outlines of Pyrrhonism (Pyrrhoneioi hypotyposeis)
Classic statement of philosophical scepticism. --Raphael and McLeish

TERTULLIAN (c. 160-c. 225) The Online Books Page Roger Pearse fan site
perhaps most famous for being the oldest extant Latin writer to use the term Trinity (Latin, trinitas), and giving the oldest extant formal exposition of a Trinitarian theology. --Wikipedia

De Carne Christi
a polemical work by Tertullian against the Gnostic Docetism of Marcion, Apelles, Valentinus and Alexander. It purports that the body of Christ was a real human body, taken from the virginal body of Mary, but not by way of human procreation. --Wikipedia

Gospel of Truth (c. 140 to 180) The Gnostic Society Library post
one of the Gnostic texts from the New Testament apocrypha found in the Nag Hammadi codices --Wikipedia

Mahasatipatthana Sutta Access to Insight Piraro comic strip
The Satipatthana Sutta (...The Discourse on the Establishing of Mindfulness) and the Mahasatipatthana Sutta (The Great Discourse on the Establishing of Mindfulness) are two of the most important and widely studied discourses in the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism. --Wikipedia
has long been a primary Theravada text on the most essential of the Buddhist practices--meditation. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

ILANGO Adigal (A.D. 2nd Century)
a Malayalam/Tamil poet and a Jain monk ... . His name is a pseudonym meaning 'Venerable Prince'. --Wikipedia

Silappatikaram
The verse epic tells of the handsome young merchant Kovalan, his wife Kannaki, and his mistress Madhavi, whose gift of music leans heavily on Prince Ilango's intimate knowledge of early Indian classical music. --Philip Ward

VATSYAYANA The Online Books Page
a Hindu philosopher in the Vedic tradition who is believed to have lived during 4th to 3rd centuries BCE in India. --Wikipedia

Kama Sutra (A.D. 2nd Century)
Historians attribute Kamasutra to be composed between 400 BCE and 200 CE. John Keay says that the Kama Sutra is a compendium that was collected into its present form in the 2nd century CE. --Wikipedia
Vatsyayana states that, although sexual delights are not to be considered a chief end of existence, they must be considered a necessary part of existence. --Philip Ward

Infinite Life Sutra (Longer Sukhavativyuha Sutra, 1st and 2nd Centuries) Sacred Texts
a Mahayana Buddhist sutra, and the primary text of Pure Land Buddhism. --Wikipedia

and

Amitabha Sutra (Shorter Sukhavativyuha Sutra, 100) Sacred Texts
a popular colloquial name for the Shorter Sukhavativyuha Sutra. ... a Mahayana Buddhist text... it is one of the primary sutras recited and upheld in the Pure Land Buddhist schools. --Wikipedia
The longer and shorter Sukhavativyuha Sutras concern the vision of Amitabha Buddha's 'Land of Bliss' (Sukhavati), the Western Paradise. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

Srimaladevi Simhanada Sutra Hermitic Source
one of the main early Mahayana Buddhist texts that teaches the doctrines of Tathagatagarbha and the One Vehicle (Skt. ekayana), through the words of the Indian queen Srimala. --Wikipedia
'The Lions Roar of Queen Srimala' is a basic Mahayana sutra containing many of the common Mahayana teachings, but devoted especially to the notion of the Tathagatagarbha or 'Embryo of the Tathagata'--Buddhism's most compelling metaphor for the immanence of absolute truth. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

Prajnaparamita (c. 100 B.C.-A.D. 400) The Online Books Page
The Prajnaparamita sutras suggest that all things including oneself, appear as thoughtforms (conceptual constructs). --Wikipedia
The Buddhist texts which deal with the 'Perfection of Wisdom' (Prajnaparamita) are among the earliest of Mahayana scriptures. They are particularly associated with Nagarjuna, one of India's greatest thinkers and founder of the Madhyamika or 'Middle Way' tradition. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

GALEN (c. 129-c. 200/c. 216) The Online Books Page
a prominent Greek-speaking Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher. Arguably the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity --Wikipedia

On the Natural Faculties (De Facultatibus Naturalibus)
Galen was the greatest systematizer of physiological and medical knowledge that the world had yet seen. --V. J. McGill
...he has been called the first experimental physiologist, he made significant contributions to the previously neglected science of anatomy, and his encyclopedic treatises preserved much of the classical knowledge of medicine through the Dark Ages of Europe. --Robert B. Downs

On the Humours

APULEIUS (c. 125-c. 180) The Online Books Page
a Latin-language prose writer. He was from Madaurus (now M'Daourouch, Algeria). --Wikipedia

The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses, 158/9 or 170s?)
This, the best novel surviving from Roman Africa, tells the story of Lucius, a Greek who visits Thessaly hoping to learn something of the province's notorious magical properties. --Philip Ward

MARCUS AURELIUS (121-180) The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive post
a Roman Emperor from 161 to 180. ... also considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers. --Wikipedia

Meditations (Ta eis heauton, c. 167)
He realizes the tragic triviality of human affairs in the incalculable vastness of time and space, but on the positive side accepts the need to act rationally both as a man and as an Emperor, in pursuit of short-term and medium-term goals. --Philip Ward
"I wonder if I might call your attention to an observation of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius? He said 'Does aught befall you? It is good. It is part of the destiny of the Universe ordained for you from the beginning. All that befalls you is part of the great web.'" I breathed a bit stertorously. "He said that, did he?" "Yes, sir." "Well, you can tell him from me, he's an ass." --Bertie Wooster

LUCIAN (120-190) The Online Books Page Lionel Casson selected satires | Theatre History on Dialogues
a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature. --Wikipedia

True History (Verae historiae)
takes us on the kind of journey we we associate with Odysseus or Jason and the Argonauts and turns it into the adventures of a Greek Baron Munchausen. --Michael Dirda
probably his most sustained satire is the parody of Herodotus... --Philip Ward

Philosophies for Sale or Sale of Creeds (Vitarum auctio

Charon or The Inspectors (Charon sive Contemplantes)

The Dead Come to Life or The Fisherman (Revivescentes sive Piscator)

Lucius or The Ass (Asinus)
a picaresque and sometimes bawdy tale about a young man transformed into a donkey by witchcraft. --Michael Dirda

Alexander the False Prophet (Alexander)

How to Write History (Quomodo Historia conscribenda sit)

Dialogues of the Dead (Dialogi Mortuorum)
the characters complain about the boring society of Hades. --Michael Dirda

Dialogues of the Sea-Gods (Dialogi Marini)

Dialogues of the Gods (Dialogi Deorum)
Jupiter, like a tired executive, patiently explains Ganymede's new duties as a cup-bearer, though the young shepherd cannot quite grasp why he has to sleep with the ruler of the universe. --Michael Dirda

Dialogues of the Courtesans ( Dialogi Meretricii)
old whores discuss sex, passion, jealousy, and money with younger women new to the game. --Michael Dirda

PAUSANIAS (c. 110-180) The Online Books Page
a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. --Wikipedia

Description of Greece (Hellados Periegeseos)
(himself a Lydian) traveled widely in southern and central Greece, to judge by his writings, but little in the north or the islands. --Philip Ward

/\ A.D. 2nd Century

\/ A.D. 1st Century

PTOLEMY (c. 90-c. 168) The Online Books Page
a Greco-Roman writer of Alexandria, known as a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. --Wikipedia

Almagest
Ptolemy's efforts, therefore, are always directed to finding combinations of uniform circular movements, which will produce the appearances that we actually observe. --Peter Wolff
- (G. J. Toomer, translation, 1984)

Geography
Oddly, Ptolemy's geography began to exert a kind of dominance at almost the same time that, thanks to Copernicus and others, his cosmology began to decline in influence. --Alan Jacobs
...Ptolemy set himself the extremely ambitious task of describing and mapping the then known world. The book which resulted remained the standard work in its field for fourteen centuries, until its theories were disproved by Columbus' discovery of America and the ensuing great Age of Navigation. --Robert B. Downs

ARRIAN (c. 86-c. 160) The Online Books Page
a Roman (ethnic Greek) historian, public servant, military commander and philosopher of the 2nd-century Roman period. --Wikipedia

Campaigns of Alexander (Anabasis Alexandri)
Arrian took the title of his history of Alexander the Great, 'Anabasis', from the work of Xenophon. But Xenophon's 'March Up-Country' was a parochial affair indeed compared with Alexander's extraordinary adventures... --Philip Ward

SUETONIUS (c. 69–after 122) The Online Books Page
a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. --Wikipedia

The Twelve Caesars (De Vita Caesarum, 121)
If there are so many scandals in 'The Twelve Caesars', it is perhaps merely a reflection of the truth; there is no doubt that few Roman historians cite conflicting evidence without bias, as Suetonius often does. --Philip Ward

Bible (1000 B.C.-c. A.D. 68) NET Bible | Bible Gateway | The Unbound Bible Biblia Clerus | Review of Biblical Literature | Early Church Fathers | Early Christian Writings | Early Jewish Writings | see The Talmud Luke Timothy Johnson essay | Paul M. Blowers review
a canonical collection of texts considered sacred in Judaism as well as in Christianity. The term Bible is shared between the two religions, although the contents of each of their collections of canonical texts is not the same. Different religious groups include different books within their canons, in different orders, and sometimes divide or combine books, or incorporate additional material into canonical books. --Wikipedia
The Bible deals with the whole of human life as imbued with religion: mating and begetting, war and work, historical events and communal acts. In the Bible, domestic, ethical, and political activity--as well as religious worship--express and embody the service and imitation of God. --Seymour Cain
The Bible remains the central form of transmission of the Western heritage, and is the foundation of our moral standards--to my mind far more important than our laws. --D. Quinn Mills

Bible: Old Testament Wikipedia entry David Plotz weblog
The Old Testament is the Christian name for the Jewish sacred scriptures. It constitutes the complete Jewish Bible and the first part of the Christian Bible. --Seymour Cain

Bible: Old Testament: Pentateuch
The Pentateuch, also known as the Five Books of Moses, is the first part of the Hebrew Bible, consisting of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. In Judaism, it is called the "Torah", and is the first part of the Tanakh, while in Christianity, it is the first part of the Old Testament. --Wikipedia

- (Robert Alter translation, 2004) John Updike review | Judith Shulevitz review

Genesis Albert Keith Whitaker review essay

- (R. Crumb illustated version, 2009) David Hajdu review

Exodus
1300 B.C.: God gives Ten Commandments to Israelites, making them His Chosen People and granting them eternal protection under divine law. Nothing bad ever happens to Jews again. --Jon Stewart, et al.

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Bible: Old Testament: Historical books

Joshua

Judges

Ruth

I Samuel
There is, however, an ambiguity in the first book of Samuel on this whole question of theocracy versus monarchy. On the one hand, Israel is condemned for wanting a king and thus rejecting God. On the other hand, God Himself points out Saul as the man who is to be king. --Peter Wolff

II Samuel

I Kings

II Kings

I Chronicles

Bible: Old Testament: Wisdom books

Job G. K. Chesterton essay
It comes down to the fundamental level of acting in a way that, when multiplied into the collective behavior of all humanity, makes the planet a livable, comfortable place to be. --Moshe Safdie

Psalms Jeffrey Tucker on numbering

- (Robert Alter translation, 2007) Eliot Weinberger review | Gary A. Anderson review

(ICEL translation, 1994) Robert Alter review

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes Kenneth Rexroth essay

Song of Songs

Bible: Old Testament: Prophetic books

Isaiah

Jeremiah

Ezekial

Daniel

Hosea

Joel

Jonah

Micah

Zechariah

Malachi

Bible: Apocrypha Wikipedia entry or Deuterocanonical books Wikipedia entry David Klinghoffer essay
Other books were included in the Greek translation but were not recognized as sacred scriptures in the official Hebrew text. These writings were accepted as sacred by the early Christian Church. Protestant Bibles follow the Hebrew canon ... . Protestants call these works 'apocryphal' or spurious; Roman Catholics consider them as 'deuterocanonical' (a secondary canon) and include them in the Bible. --Seymour Cain

Ecclesiaticus

Tobit

Wisdom of Solomon

Bible: New Testament Wescott-Hort Greek N.T. Wikipedia entry Dale Tuggy weblog - Trinities [see Jesus Wikipedia entry]
The early Christian Church distinguished between the old covenant, or testament, made through Moses, and the new covenant, or testament, made through Christ. Hence came the names Old Testament, for the ancient scriptures, and New Testament, for the Gospels and other Christian scriptures. --Seymour Cain
Dates shown for New Testament books, below, are based on Redating the New Testament (2000), by John A. T. Robinson, Ch. XI Conclusions and Corollaries. --ed.

Bible: New Testament: Gospels Adam Kirsch review | Helen Hull Hitchcock interview
A gospel is an account describing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The most widely known examples are the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John --Wikipedia

Bible: New Testament: Synoptic Gospels A Synoptic Gospels Primer
The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to specifically as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar wording. They stand in contrast to John, whose content is comparatively distinct. --Wikipedia

Matthew (c. 40-c. 60) Chris Faatz review | Thomas Aquinas essay
Matthew consistently emphasizes Jesus' role as the successor of Moses--the new Torah or Revelation through Christ--and the Church as the new Israel. Some interpreters, finding that the book may be divided into five groups of sayings, hazard the guess that Matthew may have intended to write a new Pentateuch. --Seymour Cain

Luke

    Gospel (c. 57-c. 62)

    Acts (c. 57-c. 62) Karl Keating essay

Bible: New Testament: Epistles (Letters)

Paul the Apostle (c. 5-c. 67) Benedict XVI homily Gary A. Anderson review | Mark Shea essay | Kenneth L. Woodward review | Luke Timothy Johnson review
an apostle (though not one of the Twelve Apostles) who taught the gospel of Christ to the first-century world. He is generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age. --Wikipedia
A Saul turning into Paul is neither a rarity nor a miracle --Eric Hoffer

[see Pauline epistles Wikipedia entry]

    I Corinthians (55)

    II Corinthians (56)

    Romans (57)
the New Law takes better account of man's weaknesses. Man failed continually to obey the Old Law, because of his sinfulness. The punisment of sin being death, man was condemned to death as long as God judged him by the Old Law. With the coming of the New Law, man was freed from the Old Law and hence also from death. Man can obey the New Law; he need only love God. --Peter Wolff

Bible: translations

- (Vulgate, 384-c. 405) Gutenberg Bible
a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome --Wikipedia

- (Tyndale Bible, 1530-1534) Wesley Center The Economist review
generally refers to the body of biblical translations by William Tyndale. Tyndale’s Bible is credited with being the first English translation to work directly from Hebrew and Greek texts. Furthermore it was the first English biblical translation that was mass-produced as a result of new advances in the art of printing. --Wikipedia

- (Douay–Rheims Bible, 1582, 1609, 1610; Challoner revision 1749, 1750, 1752) Douay-Rheims Bible + Challoner Notes
a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English made by members of the English College, Douai, in the service of the Catholic Church. --Wikipedia

- (King James Version, 1611; Standard text, 1769) King James Bible Online Paul Gleason review | Christopher Hitchens review
...King James I convened the Hampton Court Conference where a new English version was conceived in response to the perceived problems of the earlier translations as detected by the Puritans, a faction within the Church of England. --Wikipedia
interwoven with the texture of our speech, and remains a supreme beacon for the spiritual and moral life of mankind. --Walter Jackson Bate

- (Revised Version, 1881, 1885) Bible Hub
a late 19th-century British revision of the King James Version of 1611. It was the first and remains the only officially authorized and recognized revision of the King James Bible. --Wikipedia

- (Revised Standard Version 1946, 1952, 1957) University of Michigan
a revision of the American Standard Version (ASV) authorized by the copyright holder. --Wikipedia

- (New English Bible, 1961, 1970) Kenneth Rexroth review
a translation of the Bible into modern English directly from the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts (and from Latin for 2 Esdras in the Apocrypha). --Wikipedia

- (International Standard Version, 1998) ISV
The translation aims to be central between a literal translation and an idiomatic translation, a philosophy the ISV translation team call "literal-idiomatic" --Wikipedia

- (English Standard Version, 2001) ESV Bible
a revision of the 1971 edition of the Revised Standard Version. The translators' stated purpose was to follow an "essentially literal" translation philosophy. --Wikipedia

PLINY the Younger (61-c. 113) The Online Books Page
a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. ... Pliny wrote hundreds of letters, many of which still survive, that are regarded as a historical source for the time period. --Wikipedia

Letters (Epistulae, c. 99-109)
were written for publication, the first 247 appearing in print during his own lifetime. --Philip Ward

JUVENAL (c. 60-c. 140) The Online Books Page Roger Kimball essay
a Roman poet active in the late 1st and early 2nd century AD --Wikipedia
like most satirists he was somewhat discreet about his own private circumstances... --Philip Ward

Satires (100-140)
Juvenal's worth is clearly demonstrated by his vitriolic diatribes on contemporary Rome, never equaled even by Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes or Swift's acid pamphlets. --Philip Ward

EPICTETUS (c. 60-c.138) The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive
a Greek sage and Stoic philosopher. --Wikipedia

Discourses
argues against concentrating on the externals of life (such as riches, luxurious beds, or too much food) in favour of austerity and economy, modesty, and a tranquil mind undisturbed by fear, envy or hatred. --Philip Ward

Handbook or Encheiredion

NICOMACHUS (c. 60–c. 120) The Online Books Page MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
an important mathematician in the ancient world ... He was a Neopythagorean, who wrote about the mystical properties of numbers. --Wikipedia

Introduction to Arithmetic (Arithmetike eisagoge, c. 100)
Numbers here have to do with eternal harmonies, the music of the spheres. Numbers are not only signs of the eternal patterns, but they possess definite characteristics. ... Arithmetic is not merely a matter of detached, unimpassioned calculation, but an aesthetic, even a religious, search. --Peter Wolff

TACITUS (c. 56-after 117) The Online Books Page
a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. --Wikipedia

The Life of Agricola (De vita Iulii Agricolae, 98)

Germania (De origine et situ Germanorum, 98)

Dialogues on Oratory (Dialogus de oratoribus, 102)
enquired about the causes of the decline in Roman oratory, and assessed its future prospects. --Philip Ward

Histories (Historiae, 105) Mary Beard review

Annals (Ab excessu divi Augusti, 117)
We may call Tacitus a political historian; that is, a historian who primarily recorded political events rather than external affairs. --Peter Wolff

LONGINUS (1st or 3rd Century A.D.) The Online Books Page
sometimes referred to as Pseudo-Longinus because his real name is unknown, was a Greek teacher of rhetoric or a literary critic who may have lived in the 1st or 3rd century AD. --Wikipedia

On the Sublime (Peri hypsous)
'Sublimity', in this unfinished work, has a meaning different from that understood today, but can be defined as that distinction and excellence of expression by which certain authors (and he names Homer and Plato, among others) have gained immortal fame. --Philip Ward

PLUTARCH (c. 45-120) The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive Roger Kimball essay
a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist --Wikipedia

Moralia (before 101)

Parallel Lives (c. 101)
usually pairing a Greek with a Roman in the same field, such as generalship or historiography, and drawing particular attention to the character of his subjects, rather than to any objective statement of a career. --Philip Ward
Many readers may also prefer the more modern English of, say, Rex Warner to the older Dryden/Clough translation cited here. --Michael Dirda

MARTIAL (40-102/4) The Online Books Page
a Spanish poet from Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula)... He is considered to be the creator of the modern epigram. --Wikipedia

Epigrams (86-103) Steve Coates review

Epitaphs (80-c. 104)

Poems (80-c. 104)

Pedanius DIOSCORIDES (c. 40-90) The Online Books Page
a Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist, the author of De Materia Medica—a 5-volume encyclopedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances (a pharmacopeia), that was widely read for more than 1,500 years. --Wikipedia

De Materia Medica (50-70)

PETRONIUS (c. 27-66) The Online Books Page
a Roman courtier during the reign of Nero. --Wikipedia

Satyricon Kenneth Rexroth review
Marvellous sendup of Homer's Odyssey; Petronius' heroes search hard and unavailingly for sexual utopias in the tumbling, rausous world of Nero's Rome. --Raphael and McLeish

LUCAN (39-65) The Online Books Page
a Roman poet, born in Corduba (modern-day Cordoba), in the Hispania Baetica. Despite his short life, he is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imperial Latin period. --Wikipedia
his major virtues are a hysterical vitality (compared by Graves to that other eccentric, Rudyard Kipling), vividness of epigram, and a command of the Latin language second to none (with its obverse fault, verbosity). --Philip Ward

Civil War (Bellum Civile, or Pharsalia, 62-63)
(Matthew Fox translation, 2012) Jane Wilson Joyce review

JOSEPHUS (37-c. 100) The Online Books Page David Luhrssen review
a first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, historian and hagiographer, who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea --Wikipedia

The Jewish War (Phlauiou Iosepou historia Ioudaikou polemou pros Romaious biblia, c. 75)
Jewish history, until Masada, recounted in choice vocabulary and high literary style by ex-combatant Jewish turncoat. --Raphael and McLeish

Antiquities of the Jews (Ioudaike archaiologia, 93 or 94)

The Life of Flavius Josephus (Iosepou bios, c. 94-99)

QUINTILIAN (c. 35-c. 100) The Online Books Page
a Roman rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing --Wikipedia

The Institutes of Oratory (Institutio Oratoria, c. 95)

PERSIUS (34-62) The Online Books Page
a Roman poet and satirist of Etruscan origin. In his works, poems and satires, he shows a stoic wisdom and a strong criticism for the abuses of his contemporaries. --Wikipedia

Satires

WANG Chong (27-c. 100) [Wang Ch'ung] The Online Books Page
a Chinese philosopher active during the Han Dynasty. He developed a rational, secular, naturalistic and mechanistic account of the world and of human beings and gave a materialistic explanation of the origin of the universe. --Wikipedia

Lunheng
pointed out whatever was wrong; in all his arguments he used a strict and thorough method, and paid special attention to meanings. Rejecting erroneous notions he came near the truth. Nor was he afraid of disagreeing with the worthies of old. --Philip Ward

PLINY the Elder (23-79) The Online Books Page
a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian. --Wikipedia

Natural History (Naturalis Historia, c. 77)
a naturalist whose love of noting facts at second-hand (he claimed to have recorded 20,000 in his Natural History from 473 authors) was perverted by the credulity of medieval writers to a variety of superstitious dogmas. --Philip Ward

Kuruntokai (between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200) Project Maduri (Tamil)
a classical Tamil poetic work, is the second book of Ettuthokai, a Sangam literature anthology. --Wikipedia
consists of poems in the genre of courtly love, called akam. --Philip Ward

/\ A.D. 1st Century

/\ A.D. 1st Millennium

\/ 1st Millennium B.C.

\/ 1st Century B.C.

SENECA the Younger (c. 4 B.C.-A.D. 65) The Online Books Page
a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. --Wikipedia
In the Renaissance, no Latin author was more highly esteemed than Seneca; in modern times, few Latin authors have been more consistently damned. --T. S. Eliot

Moral Essays (Dialogi)
moral essays (ten of them traditionally called Dialogues)—on providence, steadfastness, the happy life, anger, leisure, tranquility, the brevity of life, gift-giving, forgiveness— --Amazon
They write and write their desiccat / ing learned la-di-da-di, / as if primum scribere, / deindre philosophari. --Friedrich Nietzsche

Medea
[T]he five-act division of the modern European play is due to Seneca. --T. S. Eliot

The Madness of Hercules (Hercules furens)

Moral Epistles to Lucilius (Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, 64)
His significance lies in his personality, and in his philosophical writings: the moral essays and the moral letters which are the progenitor of the whole genre of brief essays we have from Bacon to Lamb and the leader-writers in 'The Times'. --Philip Ward

Quaestiones Naturales (63)

PHILO (c. 20 B.C.-c. A.D. 50) The Online Books Page Resource Pages for Biblical Studies
a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, during the Roman Empire. Philo used philosophical allegory to attempt to fuse and harmonize Greek philosophy with Jewish philosophy. --Wikipedia

Allegorical Expositions of the Holy Laws (Legum Allegoriae)

Aulus Cornelius CELSUS (c. 25 B.C.-c. A.D. 50) The Online Books Page
a Roman encyclopaedist, known for his extant medical work, De Medicina... The De Medicina is a primary source on diet, pharmacy, surgery and related fields, and it is one of the best sources concerning medical knowledge in the Roman world. --Wikipedia

On Medicine (De Medicina)

Tripitaka (29 B.C.) The Online Books Page | Internet Sacred Texts Archive Access to Insight | Buddhist Scripture Information Retrieval C. George Boeree fan site post | [see Gautama Buddha Wikipedia entry]
a Sanskrit word meaning Three Baskets. It is the traditional term used by Buddhist traditions to describe their various canons of scriptures. --Wikipedia
The [Pali] canon itself--the 'Three Baskets' (Tipitaka)--is a lengthy anthology of the Buddha's teaching in three parts: the Vinaya-pitaka, which consists of the rules of discipline for monks and nuns and narrations of the incidents which prompted the Buddha to declare those rules; the Sutta-pitaka, containing the doctrinal utterance of the Buddha; and the Abhidhamma-pitaka, a repository of scholastic analyses of the doctrines. --A Guide to Oriental Classics
The literature of Buddhism is vast, and only the greatest classics are recommended for those who prefer not to become practicing Buddhists. --Philip Ward

OVID (43 B.C.-A.D. 17) The Online Books Page post
a Roman poet ... Ovid is traditionally ranked alongside Virgil and Horace, his older contemporaries, as one of the three canonic poets of Latin literature --Wikipedia
To understand the world of medieval writers one must digest the world-view of Ovid, who taught that human history was a story of decline: from a Golden Age of harmony and peace, to a Silver Age of seasons, instead of eternal spring, to a Bronze Age when men practiced warfare--but heroically, without wickedness or treachery, to the Iron Age of Ovid's own time... --Philip Ward

Ars amatoria ("The Art of Love" 1 B.C.) First Things (November 2004)
an elegiac poem in three books, of which the first two show how a man may win and retain a woman, and the third how a woman may win and hold a man. --Philip Ward

Heroides or Epistulae heroidum ("The Heroines" c. A.D. 4-8)

The Metamorphoses ("Transformations" c. A.D. 8)
Permanence is an illusion or, if not an illusion, highly relative. But what changes goes on, and even if change can be full of pain and suffering, nothing is lost; there is only transformation, but transformation in which what has been continues in one form or another. --Anthony O'Hear
There are many translations of the Metamorphoses, including Arthur Golding's Renaissance version, named by Ezra Pound a 'the most beautiful book in the language.' ... Among modern versions, those of Mary Innes (in prose) and Rolfe Humphries and Charles Martin (in poetry) stand out. --Michael Dirda

Fasti ("The Festivals" c. A.D. 8)

Epistulae Ex Ponto ("Letters from the Black Sea" A.D. 10)

PROPERTIUS (c. 50-c. 16 B.C.) The Online Books Page | Perseus Digital Library | Poetry in Translation
a Latin elegiac poet of the Augustan age. --Wikipedia

Elegies
cast aside many of the formulae then considered necessary to the elegy, forging new sounds and a new intensity for emotions no longer conventional. --Philip Ward

BHARTHARI
1st century BC --Wikipedia

Satakatraya: Nitisataka, Srngarasataka, Vairagyasataka (Centuries of Worldly Life, Passion, and Renunciation)
lyric and epigrammatic verses expressive of life's conflicting concerns --A Guide to Oriental Classics

LIVY (59 B.C.-A.D. 17) The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive
a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. --Wikipedia

History of Rome (Ab Urbe Condita, c. 9 B.C.)
The remains of Livy's vast history of Rome (originally in 142 volumes, now reduced to something like 700 pages) have, more than any other works, formed later views of the Roman character. --Raphael and McLeish

STRABO (c. 64 B.C.-c. A.D. 24) The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive
a Greek geographer, philosopher and historian. --Wikipedia

Geography (Geographica, c. A.D. 23)

HORACE (65-8 B.C.) The Online Books Page
the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. --Wikipedia

Satires (I c. 35-34 B.C.; II 30 B.C.) I:VI, A. M. Juster translation, First Things (December 2007) A. E. Stallings review

Odes (I-III c. 23 B.C.; IV c. 11 B.C.) D. S. Carne-Ross review
The themes of Horace are the brevity of life and the need for moderation in all things to make the ideal citizen. --Philip Ward
For a full flavor of Horace himself ... the best translation is that of Michie. --Raphael and McLeish

Epistles (I c. 21 B.C.; II c. 11 B.C.)

Ars Poetica (c. 10-8 B.C.)
Storehouse of admonitions to writers and readers, vastly influential, especially in the Renaissance. --Raphael and McLeish

VIRGIL (70-19 B.C.) The Online Books Page | Institute for Learning Technologies post
an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. ... Virgil is traditionally ranked as one of Rome's greatest poets. --Wikipedia

Eclogues (37 B.C.)
a collection of short pastoral poems, which won a phenomenal success immediately upon publication. --Robert B. Downs

Georgics (29 B.C.) Bruce S. Thompson review of translations
concerned with husbandry, designed to inspire a love of the Italian soil and of a virtuous life in rural surroundings. --Robert B. Downs

Aeneid (19 B. C.) Mark Shiffman essay
Virgil is celebrating Augustus and the founding of the Roman Empire and all the blessings it might bring; but in celebrating it in The Aeneid itself there is no hiding the dark side, for those with eyes to see. --Anthony O'Hear

VITRUVIUS (c. 80–70 B.C.-after c. 15 B.C.) The Online Books Page
a Roman author, architect, and engineer during the 1st century BC --Wikipedia

Ten Books on Architecture (De architectura, c. 15 B.C.)
Fascinating contemporary analysis of Classical architecture, including discussion of materials for building and decorating, and even the design of catpults and 'tortoises' (early tanks). --Raphael and McLeish

CATULLUS (c. 84-c. 54 B. C.) The Online Books Page | Rudy Negenborn fan site
a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote in the neoteric style of poetry --Wikipedia

Poems
infected Latin poetry with gaiety, informality, and idiosyncrasy. He is mocking, ironic and often malicious, but never dull. --Philip Ward
(David Mulroy translation 2002)
(Raphael and McLeish translation 1978)

SALLUST (86-c. 35 B.C.) The Online Books Page post
a Roman historian, politician, and novus homo from a provincial plebeian family. ... Sallust is the earliest known Roman historian with surviving works to his name --Wikipedia

The Conspiracy of Catiline (c. 44 B.C.)
Vivid, stylized portrait of Catiline as a species of half-mad revolutionary mobster; much information on political and social conditions and attitudes as the republic rocked towards its end. --Raphael and McLeish

Jugurthine War (41 B.C.)

LUCRETIUS (c. 99-c. 55 B.C.) The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive
a Roman poet and philosopher. --Wikipedia
He was a scientific materialist who did not believe in an afterlife, and provided many reasons why it is irrational to fear death. The point of life was pleasure, by which he meant not luxury and excitement but the purring detachment of a somewhat self-satisfied philosopher. --Kenneth Minogue

On the Nature of Things (De rerum natura, c. 55)
Men, writes Lucretius, must be delivered from the bondage of religion (illustrated by the tale of Iphigeneia), and from fears of death and hell. Only the evidence of our senses is to be believed. --Philip Ward

Julius CAESAR (100-44 B.C.) The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive post
a Roman general, statesman, Consul, and notable author of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. --Wikipedia
victor in the civil war, failed utterly to solve the political crisis that had destroyed peace and order in republican Rome. --Thomas R. Martin

The Gallic War (Commentarii de Bello Gallico, 51 B.C.)
this book introduced me to the remarkable fact that history really did happen! --James Hodgson

Milinda Panha (c. 100 B.C.) The Online Books Page
a Buddhist text ... It purports to record a dialogue in which the Indo-Greek king Menander I (Milinda in Pali) of Bactria, who reigned in the 2nd century BCE, poses questions on Buddhism to the sage Nagasena. --Wikipedia
One of the most important paracanonical prose works of Theravada Buddhism in the form of a dialogue between the Greek king Milinda (Menander) and the Buddhist monk Nagasena. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

/\ 1st Century B.C.

\/ 2nd Century B.C.

CICERO (106-43 B.C.) The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive post
a Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul and constitutionalist. ... is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists. --Wikipedia
More than any other single figure, Cicero influenced the theory of both European and American politics--and through that theory, our political institutions. --Russell Kirk

Against Gaius Verres I (In Verrem I, 70 B.C.)
The foundation of Cicero's reputation was his magnificent impeachment of Verres for maladministration in Sicily, forcing that rascally to go into exile. --Robert B. Downs

Letters to Atticus (Epistulae ad Atticum, 68 B.C.-43 B.C.)
It is a strange fact that no contemporary history of the age of Cicero has survived. ... For this reason, the social and political history revealed in more than nine hundred extant letters from and to Cicero are of unique historical value. --Robert B. Downs

About Oratory (De Oratore, 55 B.C.)

On the Laws (De Legibus, 52 B.C.)
Cicero's aim is to present a constitution for an ideal state, based in general upon the law and custom of Rome, but including much original material derived from his own political ideas. --Robert B. Downs

About the Best Kind of Orators (De Optimo Genere Oratorum, 52 B.C.)
protrays the ideal orator, who is represented as a person of great versatility, capable of adapting himself to any case and audience... --Robert B. Downs

On the Republic (De Republica, 51 B.C.)
The ideal state, Cicero concludes, is a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, because alone kingship may develop too easily into tyranny, aristocracy into plutocracy, and democracy into anarchial mob rule. --Robert B. Downs

About the Orator (Orator ad M. Brutum, 46 B.C.)
essentially a historical and comparative survey of Roman oratory, containing much valuable information about Cicero's predecessors, climaxed by an autobiographical account of Cicero's own training and development. --Robert B. Downs

Stoic Paradoxes (Paradoxa Stoicorum, 46 B.C.)

Questions debated at Tusculum (Tusculanae Quaestiones, 45 B.C.)
discusses the essentials of happiness, defined by Cicero as despising death, enduring affliction, alleviating grief, controlling other disconcerting emotions, and recognizing that for a happy life virtue is all-sufficient. --Robert B. Downs

About the Ends of Goods and Evils (De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, 45 B.C.)
Source of Lorem ipsum. --Wikipedia
a consideration of the fundamental question of ancient philosophy: What is the chief good, the final aim, of life? --Robert B. Downs

On the Nature of the Gods (De Natura Deorum, 45 B.C.)

On Divination (De Divinatione, 45 B.C.)
dealing with many forms of the art of foretelling future events--a discussion in which Cicero is careful to dissociate religion from superstition. --Robert B. Downs

On Fate (De Fato, 45 B.C.)
expounding the Stoic conception of fate and drawing a distinction between fatalism and determinism. --Robert B. Downs

On the Nature of the Gods (De Natura Deorum, 45 B.C.)
setting forth in dialogue form the views of the Epicurean, Stoic, and the Academic schools. --Robert B. Downs

Second Philippic (Philippica II, 44 B.C.)

On Duties (De Officiis, 44 B.C.)
a discussion of the moral obligations of men in society, and the place of wisdom, courage, justice and self-control. --Robert B. Downs

On Friendship (Laelius de Amicitia, 44 B. C.)
discusses the bases of friendship, its qualities and obligations, and the problem of possibly conflicting loyalty, such as patriotism. --Robert B. Downs

On Old Age (Cato Maior de Senectute, 43 B. C.)
praises advanced age and refutes the complaints generally made against it, holding that old age is not a subject for rejoicing but for philosophical acceptance... --Robert B. Downs

SIMA Qian (145-86 B.C.) [Ssu-ma Chien] The Online Books Page | Sacred Texts
a Chinese historian of the Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography --Wikipedia

Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji, 109-91 B.C.)
The masterpiece of Chinese histories, this monumental attempt to record the entire known past became a standard for future historians, and is notable for its combination of chronicles, tables, topical treatises, and biographies. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

TERENCE (195/185-159 B.C.) The Online Books Page Julia Holloway fan site
a playwright of the Roman Republic, of North African descent. His comedies were performed for the first time around 170–160 BC. --Wikipedia
wrote for the aristocracy of Rome, taking his themes from the Greek New Comedy and greatly surpassing Plautus in his handling of plot and character. The regard in which his plays have always been held can be judged from the fact that all have survived from antiquity. --Philip Ward

The Eunuch (Eunuchus, 161 B.C.)

The Mother-in-Law (Hecyra, 165 B.C.)

The Girl from Andros (Andria, 166 B.C.)

VALMIKI (c. 200 B.C.) The Online Books Page
celebrated as the harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. He is the author of the epic Ramayana, based on the attribution in the text of the epic itself. --Wikipedia

Ramayana
The earlier of the two major Indian epics and the best known in Indian art and legends, this work is primarily a court epic that exemplifies fundamental values and tensions in the classical tradition and forms the basis for many later religious texts. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

/\ 2nd Century B.C.

\/ 3rd Century B.C.

POLYBIUS (c. 204-122 B.C.) The Online Books Page | Ancient History Sourcebook
a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period... Polybius is also renowned for his ideas concerning the separation of powers in government --Wikipedia

The Histories (after 146 B.C.)

213-210 B.C. [China] Burning of books and burying of scholars (fenshu kengru) --Wikipedia

CATO the Elder (234-149 B.C.) The Online Books Page Plutarch life
a Roman statesman ... known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. --Wikipedia

On Agriculture (De agri cultura, c. 160 B.C.) Holistic Agriculture Library

Panchatantra (3rd Centrury B.C.) The Online Books Page | Padmanabhuni | D. L. Ashliman fan site
an ancient Indian inter-related collection of animal fables in verse and prose, in a frame story format. --Wikipedia
The 'Five Books' deal with the five categories of worldly wisdom and the art of practical government: both the winning and the losing of friends, war and peace, the loss of one's property, and the perils of acting too hastily. --Philip Ward
This collection of ancient Indian fables has exerted a greater influence on world literature than any other Indian work. It has been called the best collection of stories in the world. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

PLAUTUS (c. 254-184 B.C.) The Online Books Page Theatre Database | Your Dictionary biography
a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. --Wikipedia
Though not an innovator, Plautus can be read today for an insight into the kind of production that one might have witnessed in the Roman theatres throughout Italy and the Empire. --Philip Ward

The Rope (Rudens, c. 211 B.C.)

The Swaggering Soldier (Miles Gloriosus, c. 205 B.C.)

Amphitryon

Pseudolus (c. 191 B.C.)

APOLLONIUS of Perga (c. 262–c. 190 B.C.) The Online Books Page Eric Weisstein biography
a Greek geometer and astronomer ... It was Apollonius who gave the ellipse, the parabola, and the hyperbola the names by which we know them. The hypothesis of eccentric orbits, or equivalently, deferent and epicycles, to explain the apparent motion of the planets and the varying speed of the Moon, is also attributed to him. --Wikipedia

Conics

HAN Fei (c. 280-233 B.C.) The Online Books Page | The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities | Humanistic Texts
a Chinese philosopher who, along with Li Si, Gongsun Yang, Shen Dao and Shen Buhai, developed the doctrine of Legalism. --Wikipedia

Complete Works or Basic Writings (Han Feizi)
The fullest theoretical statement and synthesis of the ancient school known as Legalism (fa-chia), which exerted a major influence on the Chinese political tradition. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

ARCHIMEDES (c. 287-c. 212 B.C.) The Online Books Page Chris Rorres fan site post
a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. ... Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and an explanation of the principle of the lever. --Wikipedia

On the Equilibrium of Planes
since mathematical analysis and proof are indispensable to Archimedes, it can also be said the Equilibrium of Planes is an example of mathematical physics. It is probably the earliest example. --Peter Wolff

On Floating Bodies
All he asks is to grant him a single postulate stating the characteristics of water and other fluids. The rest is simply a matter of geometrical reasoning. --Peter Wolff

On the Sphere and the Cylinder
His chief interest was in pure geometry, and he regarded his discovery of the ratio of the volume of a cylinder to that of a sphere inscribed in it as his greatest achievement. --Robert B. Downs

The Method Treating of Mechanical Problems

Measurement of a Circle (Kuklou metresis)

The Sand-Reckoner (Archimedes Psammites)

APOLLONIUS of Rhodes (born c. 295 B.C.) The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive A Hellenistic Bibliography post
...Greek poet and grammarian --Encyclopaedia Britannica | Once considered a mere imitator of Homer, and therefore a failure as a poet, his reputation has been enhanced by recent studies, with an emphasis on the special characteristics of Hellenistic poets as scholarly heirs of a long literary tradition writing at a unique time in history. --Wikipedia

Argonautica Amazon
believed fervently that the smart new belles-lettres was a diminishing of Greek writing, and undertook to prove the vitality--and the superiority--of the Homeric epic style by producing a new epic--on Jason's voyages in search of the Golden Fleece. --Philip Ward

Dhammapada (c. 300 B.C.) The Online Books Page
a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures. The original version of the Dhammapada is in the Khuddaka Nikaya, a division of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism. --Wikipedia
A short work of 423 verses dealing with central themes of Buddhism, perhaps the most popular and influential Theravada Buddhist text. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

/\ 3rd Century B.C.

\/ through 301 B.C. | A.D. 301-1100 /\

Revised February 14, 2014.

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