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Read Me What to read, through 301 B.C.

300 B.C.-A.D. 300 >

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4th Century B.C.

KAUTILYA (fl. 322-299 B.C.) Etext: Warring States Philology
Artha Shastra (c. late 4th Century A.D.)
Rediscovered as recently as 1909, the book reversed earlier views on the strict moral code of early Indian rulers, in fact recognizing no good other than the ruthless seeking and keeping of power by the king. --Philip Ward

EUCLID (c. 330-275 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: see PROCLUS | post
Two stars: Elements of Geometry It it the classic textbook of Greek geometry, which has served as the basis for study for over twenty centuries. --Peter Wolff, Foundations of Science and Mathematics (1960), pp. 1-2
...founded his geometry on a few simple declarations of self-evident truths, postulates and axioms, none of which was seriously questioned until the mid-nineteenth century. --Robert B. Downs

EPICURUS (341-270 B.C.) Etext: Internet Classics Archive Criticism: Weikart 'You Cannot Live a Happy Life if you Follow Epicurus' --Plutarch
his teachings were malinged as immoral and hedonistic, whereas in fact Epicurus taught the renunciation of worldly ambition and desires, freedom from fear of death and gods. --Philip Ward
One star: Letter to Herodotus
One star: Letter to Menoeceus
Aphorisms

MENANDER (c. 343-292 B.C.) Reference: Theatre History one of a group of some sixty-four playwrights who, almost a half-century after the death of Aristophanes, created the so-called New Comedy, essentially a comedy of manners or a form of domestic comedy. --Robert B. Downs, Famous Books: Ancient and Medieval (1964), p. 135
The Grouch (Dyskolos 317 or 316 B.C.)
One star: The Girl from Samos (Samia c. 315-309 B.C.)
The Shearing of Glycera (Perikeiromene)
The Arbitration (Epitrepontes)

TZU Szu Etext: Galileo Library
The Mean (Chung-Yung c. 4th C. B.C.)
A Confucian text of the late Chou period ... traditionally attributed to Tzu Szu, Confucius' grandson, and also one of the 'Four Books'. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

Herostratus (the man who in 356 B.C. burned down the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the world, so his name would be immortal). --Joseph Bottum, Death and Politics, First Things, June/July 2007, p. 25

CHUANG Tzu (c.369-286 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Complete Works It is a paradox of Chuang-tzu's school that it denied the value of reducing to writing the insights received through the contemplation of the mystic way of life (the Tao), yet it persistently tried to set down such insights in writing. --G. L. Anderson, 'Masterpieces of the Orient' (1961) p. 205
A philosophical work of the Taoist school ... characterized by speculative ramblings, at once delightful and utterly serious, philosophical parodies, and amusing parables. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

THEOPHRASTUS ("divine of speech", Tyrtamus of Eresus c. 370-287 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
On the History of Plants (c. 320 B.C.)
chiefly concerned with descriptions, discussions of structural parts of plants, and differences between plants. --Robert B. Downs
On the Causes of Plants (c. 320 B.C.)
delves more deeply into the physiological features and philosophical implications of plants. --Robert B. Downs
Characters (319 B.C.)
The series of 'good' characters has been lost, but we have the thirty 'bad' characters, such as 'Ostentation', 'Brutality', and 'Stupidity'. Concise, droll and probably aimed at individuals known to the author's audience... --Philip Ward

MENCIUS (Meng Tzu, 372-289 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Comparative Religion
One star: Works
Relatively little needs to be done, for the structure of society itself is sound, according to Mencius. All that is required is a change of heart on the part of the rulers, and the citizens would instantly respond with the generosity of their own labour and imitation of virtuous conduct. --Philip Ward

DEMOSTHENES (384-322 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive
the greatest orator of Greece, with a forceful personality imbued with sincerity and moral strength. He was an able analyst of current politics, and skilled in argument and all the rhetorical devices named by the Syracusan Corax and his pupil Teisias in their treatises. --Philip Ward
Olynthiacs (351-349 B.C.)
One star: The Philippics (351-349, 344-341 B. C.)
On the Crown (330 B. C.)
Minor Public Orations Reference: Wikipedia

ARISTOTLE (384-322 B. C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Study: Koons Reference: Corpus Aristotelicum at Wikipedia | Paul Bullen fan site | John C. Cahalan fan site Criticism: post
One star: Logic (Organon)
Logic, the art and method of correct thinking, was created by Aristotle virtually single-handed in a series of trail-blazing treatises known collectively as the Organon or Instrument--the science of science. --Robert B. Downs
One star: Categories (in Logic)
deals with ten predicates--i.e., qualities, attributes, or properties. These are substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, condition, action, and passion. --Robert B. Downs
One star: On Interpretation (in Logic)
deals with propositions and judgments and the distinction between true and false. --Robert B. Downs
Prior Analytics (in Logic)
on deductive and inductive reasoning, presents the famous concept of the syllogism... --Robert B. Downs
Posterior Analytics (in Logic)
treats in detail the characteristics which reasoning must possess in order to be truly scientific. --Robert B. Downs
One star: Topics (in Logic)
The subject matter...is the modes of reasoning at lower levels, falling short of the conditions of scientific accuracy. Here are dealt with the commonplaces of argument. --Robert B. Downs
One star: On Sophistical Refutation (in Logic)
study of fallacies or sophisms as they may appear in dialectical discussions. --Robert B. Downs
One star: Physics
Four causes...are at work in nature... . As defined, the first cause is material, i.e., the constituent of an object...; the second is the form or pattern; the third is the 'efficient' cause, i.e., 'that from which comes the immediate origin of the movement or rest'; and the fourth is the 'final' cause, that is, the end or aim... --Robert B. Downs
On the Heavens
On Generation and Corruption
Meteorology
contains not only meteorology in the modern sense, but much of physics, astronomy, geology and chemistry. --Robert B. Downs
On the Soul As the essence of the body, the soul is the inner meaning of the body's movement, not something extraneous to it. --V. J. McGill, Biology, Psychology, and Medicine (1963), p. 39 ...[T]o have a soul, as plants, animals, and humans all do, is to have a body organized for performing the life functions proper to a given species. Soul, as such, is nothing more (but also nothing less) than the combination of functional capacities for which the material body is organized. --M. F. Burnyeat, The New York Review of Books, November 1, 2001, p. 56
Memory and Reminiscence (in The Parva Naturalia, "Little Physical Treatises")
Prophesying by Dreams (in The Parva Naturalia, "Little Physical Treatises")
On Youth and Old Age (in The Parva Naturalia, "Little Physical Treatises")
History of Animals
He recorded the main facts of biological life--as he saw them...and continued with a series of specialized treatises... --Robert B. Downs
On the Parts of Animals Linneaus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in different ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle. --Charles Darwin to Dr. Ogle
On the Motion of Animals
Generation of Animals
treating the organs of reproduction and the reproductive functions. This work made important contributions to the science of embryology. --Robert B. Downs
Mechanics
Metaphysics The very title of this work has provided the name for one of the main branches of philosophical inquiry--the study of the underlying principles of things. --Seymour Cain, Philosophy (1963), p. 35
Four stars: Nicomachean Ethics Criticism: Susan D. Collins review
the only sound and pragmatic moral philosophy that has made its appearance in the last twenty-five centuries. --Mortimer J. Adler
Three stars: Politics (Politika)
If each of us has the obligation to vote for a system of government through its known candidates, then much of this obligation is owed to a mental and moral world-attitude crystallised by Aristotle in the fourth century B.C. --Philip Ward
One star: Rhetoric The object of advocacy is persuasion. But how does one persuade? That question has challenged great minds since at least the days when Aristotle lectured about the persuasive power of ethos, pathos, and logos at the Lyceum during the reign of his pupil, Alexander the Great. --R. Daniel Lindahl, Perspectives on Persuasion, For the Defense, July 2007
Four stars: Poetics (Peri Poietikes) Hollywood takes its cue in narrative principles from Aristotle. Europe, in rebelling against Hollywood-style filmmaking, has had to rebel against Aristotle's 'Poetics'. This is bad for their movies. --Barbara Nicolosi, sPAiN'S Labyrinth, Church of the Masses, January 27, 2007 5:27 PM
often considered a mere reply to Plato's disparagement of poets on the grounds that they compose their works under the influence not of wisdom but of mere inspiration, but this charge is baseless, since Aristotle puts forward many original ideas of his own. --Philip Ward
The Athenian Constitution (350 B.C.) ...in Aristotle's time the legislative, executive, and judicial power were all in the hands of the people. ----Peter Wolff, Philosophy of Law and Jurisprudence (1961), p. 67

5th Century B.C.

PLATO (Aristocles c. 427-347 B. C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive | Apology Study: Koons Reference: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Criticism: post It was Plato's contribution to formulate a mode of philosophical discourse that emphasized reason, the meaning of words, and the crucial relationship between the knower and the known. In a sense, Plato thereby 'invented' the task of systematic philosophy itself, which his influence is felt even today among philosophers who come to conclusions that are the opposite of his. --Robert L. Heilbroner, 'Marxism: For and Against' (1980) p. 16
One star: Euthyphro (before 387 B.C.) Criticism: Goggans If piety is right action or duty to the gods, it must be an aspect or part of right action generally. --Seymour Cain, Religion and Theology (1961), p. 21 It one not bound to contradict oneself when trying to communicate the incommunicable. --Leo Strauss
His [Socrates'] death sentence is not the work of the Laws themselves, but of his fellow men; nevertheless to leave as a fugitive... would be to repay wrong with wrong, and to break his agreements and contracts with the Laws. --Anthony O'Hear
Four stars: The Apology (before 387 B.C.) Criticism: Sakezles
The candour, dignity and nobility of the language and matter must be authentic, for Athenians would scarcely have tolerated misrepresentation of the facts in such a weighty case. --Philip Ward
Three stars: Crito (before 387 B.C.)
He [Socrates] will never stop discussing goodness and all the other topics he is interested in, for that would be to disobey God: the unexamined life is not worth living. --Anthony O'Hear
Charmides (before 387 B.C.)
Laches (before 387 B.C.) We all know what it means to experience fear and to face, or fail to face, the things we fear. This common human experience is the basic starting point for anything we may say or think about courage. --Seymour Cain, Ethics: The Study of Moral Values (1962), p. 1
Lysis (before 387 B.C.)
Ion (before 387 B.C.)
One star: Protagoras (before 387 B.C.)
Euthydemus (before 387 B.C.)
One star: Gorgias (before 387 B.C.) Against all skills, pleasures, and powers, the impassioned and relentless philosopher holds up the single ideal of 'justice' or 'the good'. And he insists that doing injustice--harming others--is always wrong and always worse for the person who does it than suffering injustice is for the person who suffers it. --Seymour Cain, Ethics: The Study of Moral Values (1962), p. 16
One star: Meno (c. 387-380 B.C.) Criticism: Leo Strauss lecture (1966)
Cratylus (c. 387-380 B.C.)
Three stars: Phaedo (c. 380-360 B.C.)
a dialogue within a dialogue, in which the eye-witness Phaedo of Elis discusses the last day that Socrates spent in prison with a company of fellow-philosophers. --Philip Ward
Three stars: The Symposium (c. 380-360 B.C.)
...Socrates and several of his convivial friends are gathered around a banquet table. ... Each guest in turn discourse on love from his individual viewpoint... --Robert B. Downs
Five stars: The Republic (Politeia c. 380-360 B.C.)
The cave is our politics, and the prisoners' chains represent enthrallment to the delusions by which we live. We can, some of us, some of the time, escape from them, but we always have to come back to them. --Harvey C. Mansfield
Seventh Letter (c. 360 B.C.) ...instead of succeeding in making a philosopher-king out of Dionysius, Plato very quickly became involved in the intrigues of the Syracusan court. Dionysius was apparently more interested in using Plato as a pawn in his political machinations than in learning from him... --Peter Wolff, The Development of Political Theory and Government (1959), p. 20 It concerns Plato's three visits to Syracuse, far away on the island of Sicily, where, at great hazard to his life, he sought to persuade the young tyrant Dionysius to institute a reign of law and justice. --V. J. McGill, Biology, Psychology, and Medicine (1963), p. 17 The philosopher-king is an 'ideal,' not in the modern sense of a legitimate object of thought demanding realization, but what Socrates calls a 'dream' that serves to remind us how unlikely it is that the philosophical life and the demands of politics can ever be made to coincide. --Mark Lilla, The New York Review of Books, September 20, 2001, p. 84
One star: Theaetetus (c. 360-355 B.C.)
Parmenides (c. 360-355 B.C.)
One star: Phaedrus (c. 360-355 B.C.) In the famous metaphor of Plato's 'Phaedrus', reason is a charioteer who drives two horses, one noble and obedient, representing the will, the other passionate, headlong, and uncontrolled, representing desire. When the latter has his way the chariot is wrecked and the soul destroyed. --V. J. McGill, Biology, Psychology, and Medicine (1963), p. 371
One star: Sophist (c. 355-347 B.C.)
One star: Statesman (c. 355-347 B.C.) Criticism: Glendon
Originally, it is theorized, God ruled over men and cared for them. For unknown reasons, the perfect state came to an end, to be succeeded by the various types of government now to be found in the world. --Robert B. Downs
Philebus (c. 355-347 B.C.)
One star: Timaeus (c. 355-347 B.C.) Criticism: Davidson ...according to Timaeus, hypotheses must be used in cosmology, because the creation and constitution of the world is too difficult to permit precise knowledge. --Peter Wolff, Foundations of Science and Mathematics (1960), p. 89
Predominant throughout is the thought that the universe is a product and revelation of intelligent design and beneficent purpose. --Robert B. Downs
One star: Laws (c. 355-347 B.C.)
A significant indication of change in Plato's political theories is abandonment in the 'Laws' of the more unrealistic doctrines of communism contained in the 'Republic'. --Robert B. Downs

XENOPHON (c. 430-350 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Ancient History Sourcebook Reference: The Xenophon Page | Beck Criticism: post
One star: Anabasis
Cyropaedia (Kurou Paideia, "The Education of Cyrus")
a political fiction, in which the ideal ruler (Cyrus, known personally to Xenophon) undergoes the education of a Spartan youth. --Philip Ward
Memorabilia make Socrates sound like Boswell's Dr. Johnson. --Edward T. Oakes, Jr., review of 'Kierkegaard and Socrates: A Study in Philosophy and Faith' by Jacob Howland, First Things, March 2007, p. 52

ARISTOPHANES (c. 445-c. 380 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Adelaide | Internet Classics Archive
The chief characteristics of the [Old Comedy] genre (unlike any modern comic form) were unrestrained license in attacking public personalities, through burlesque, caricature, and invective; broad political, social, and literary satire; and a licentiousness of expression beyond any since tolerated on the stage of any nation. --Robert B. Downs
One star: The Acharnians (425 B.C.) Criticism: Jones
'The Acharnians', the 'Peace', and the 'Lysistrata' are all anti-war plays. --Philip Ward
One star: The Knights (424 B.C.)
attacked the demagogue Kleon. --Philip Ward
Three stars: The Clouds (423 B.C.)
attacks the popular sophists of the day through the person of Socrates, a most unjust caricature, since Socrates detested the superficial sophists who taught rich young men for money as much as did Aristophanes himself. --Philip Ward
One star: The Wasps (422 B.C.)
satirizes the Athenian system of trial by mass paid juries. --Philip Ward
One star: The Peace (421 B.C.)
Three stars: The Birds (414 B.C.)
...Peisthetaerus (Plausible) and Euelpides (Hopeful), disgusted with the state of affairs in Athens, journey to Birdland, 'a city free from all care and strife', to consult King Epops, the Hoopoe. Suddenly the two Athenians are struck by an inspiration--to turn over supreme power in the universe to the birds. --Robert B. Downs
Three stars: The Lysistrata (411 B.C.) Criticism: Jones
The principal character, Lysistrata, a woman of Athens, conceives the idea of stopping the war by persuading all the women of Athens and Sparta to refrain from intercourse with their husbands until the latter cease their stupidities and arrange a truce. --Robert B. Downs
One star: Thesmophoriazusae or The Women Celebrating the Thesmophoria (c. 411 B.C.)
'The Frogs' and 'The Thesmophorians' are attacks on Euripedes, whom the conservative Aristophanes hated for his radical views of the Greek gods. --Philip Ward
Three stars: The Frogs (405 B.C.)
Aristophanes' attack on the dead Euripides in 'The Frogs' is a direct reflection of a bitter antagonism. --Robert B. Downs
One star: Ecclesiasuzae or The Assemblywomen or The Parliament of Women (c. 392 B. C.)
One star: Plutus or Wealth (388 B.C.)

SUN-TZU (c. 450-380 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page a realist who recognized that warfare sometimes could not be avoided, and then must be pursued with the utmost vigor to a successful conclusion; his special talent lay in teaching rulers how to deploy their forces to maximum advantage. --John S. Major, The New Lifetime Reading Plan (1997), p. 21
The Art of War

THUCYDIDES (455-399 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive Criticism: post
Five stars: The History of the Peloponnesian War (c. 410 B.C.)
Nothing written in this century can touch Thucydides (or the people he quotes) for subtlety of political and diplomatic discourse and strategy. --Thomas C. Schnelling

HIPPOCRATES (460-377 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page His method was to ignore all the gods and to hold instead that disease is a natural phenomenon governed by natural laws. --Robert B. Downs, Famous Books: Ancient and Medieval (1964), p. 68 He classified mental illness into three categories: mania, melancholia, and phrenitis, which was probably a brain fever of some sort. Mania is probably what we call psychotic today; a person who is running around out of control. Melancholia is probably what we call depression today. --David W. Martin, Psychology of Human Behavior, Lecture 7: Classification of Mental Illness, The Teaching Company
One star: The Oath You will easily see that there are great difficulties and hazards in specifying the conditions under which a doctor would be entitled to completely reverse the role of healer and prolonger of life. --V. J. McGill, Biology, Psychology, and Medicine (1963), p. 6 [T]he Hippocratic ethical injunctions--for example, that the doctor should never knowingly kill his patient--have been superseded in practical importance by the more pressing principle that he who pays the piper calls the tune. --Anthony Daniels, The New Criterion, November 2001, p. 5
One star: On Ancient Medicine It would seem that Hippocrates was ill prepared to understand the nature of disease or its remedies, yet students of the history of medicine have been surprised at how far he was able to go. --V. J. McGill, Biology, Psychology, and Medicine (1963), p. 7
One star: On the Sacred Disease
One star: Aphorisms
His method was to ignore all the gods and to hold instead that disease is a natural phenomenon governed by natural laws. --Robert B. Downs
One star: The Book of Prognostics
One star: The Law
One star: Of the Epidemics
One star: On Airs, Waters and Places
One star: On Regimens in Acute Diseases
One star: On the Articulations

MO Tzu (c. 470-c. 391 B.C.) Reference: Hansen
One star: Works ...attacked the Confucian school as aristocratic and ritualistic. --G. L. Anderson, Masterpieces of the Orient (1961) p. 205
A sharp critic of Confucianism in the late fifth and early fourth centuries B.C., and a major alternative in politics and religion. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

EURIPIDES (c. 480-406 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive Criticism: Mendelsohn
The innovations of Euripides include the separation of chorus from action, using the prologue as an explanation to introduce the action, advancing dramatic treatment of female psychology to the very limit, and making language correspond to the colloquial styles of his own day... --Philip Ward
Three stars: Alcestis (438 B.C.)
His earliest dated work... --Philip Ward
Four stars: Medea (431 B.C.) Criticism: Fischer | Mendelsohn
The motif of the tragedy of 'Medea' is of betrayed love turned to hatred, of a woman's soul so dominated by lust for vengeance that even maternal feeling is annihilated. --Robert B. Downs
Heracleidae (c. 430 B.C.) Criticism: Mendelsohn
Four stars: Hippolytus (428 B.C.)
It is a full-length study--probably the first in dramatic literature--of criminal passion: the love of Phaedra, wife of King Theseus, for her husband's illegitimate son Hippolytus. --Robert B. Downs
Two stars: Andromachae (c. 425 B.C.)
Two stars: Hecuba (c. 424 B.C.)
Suppliant Women (c. 423 B.C.)
Two stars: Heracles (c. 416 B.C.)
Two stars: Electra (c. 420 B.C.)
Three stars: The Trojan Women (415 B.C.)
In the few brief moments before the final destruction of the city [Troy] and the sailing of the Greek fleet, Hecuba prepares the mangled body of her grandson Astyanax for burial. Thus the sham glory of war is revealed in all its horrors. --Robert B. Downs
Two stars: Iphigenia Among the Taurians or Iphigenia In Tauris (c. 414 B.C.)
Two stars: Helen or Helena (412 B.C.)
Two stars: Ion (411 B.C.)
Phoenecian Women (c. 410 B.C.)
Two stars: Cyclops (c. 408 B.C.)
Orestes (408 B.C.) ...Euripides, living in a later and more sophisticated time, had definite ideas about the crime of Orestes and what could have been done to avoid it. Unlike the older poet [Aeschylus], Euripides does not seem to think that the path of doom was inevitable. ----Peter Wolff, Philosophy of Law and Jurisprudence (1961), p. 9
Two stars: Iphigeneia at Aulis (405 B.C.)
Four stars: The Bacchae or The Bacchantes (405 B.C.)
We must not suppress our irrational, passionate side, but if we allow it to take us over, the consequences will be dire. But what, in any concrete situation, will this doubtless wise advice mean, what course of action will it suggest? --Anthony O'Hear
Rhesus (c. 350 B.C.?)

HERODOTUS (c. 484-c. 424 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive Criticism: post When Cicero called Herodotus the Father of History, he meant that the Greek was the first to conceive an historical work as an artistic and dramatically unified whole. --J. A. Hammerton, Outline of Great Books (1937), p. 2
Five stars: Histories (c. 440 B.C.) Criticism: Paul A. Rahe review essay
took for his theme the invasion of Greece by the Persians between 490 and 479 B.C. --Philip Ward

SOPHOCLES (c. 495 B.C.-406 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive Criticism: post
Among the great dramatic innovations of Sophocles was the introduction of the third actor; the idea that men play a larger part in life (and hence in drama) than do gods; the introduction of stage scenery; and the augmenting of the chorus from twelve players to fifteen. --Philip Ward
Two stars: Ajax (445 B.C.)
Four stars: Antigone (441 B.C.) Like her father Oedipus, Antigone is possessed of a single-mindedness of purpose and a stubbornness that is both admirable and dangerous to its possessor. --Peter Wolff, A General Introduction to the Great Books and to a Liberal Education (1959), p. 31
it is not just for modern audiences--predisposed to applaud conscientous objectors, particularly if they are women--that Antigone is in the right. For Sophocles (and his audience) human laws are secondary to divine ones, and Creon, for inferior reasons of state, is placing what is in effect political expediency above religious piety. --Anthony O'Hear
Four stars: Oedipus the King (430 B.C.) The Plot in fact should be so framed that, even without seeing the things take place, he who simply hears the account of them shall be filled with horror and pity at the incidents; which is just the effect that the mere recital of the story in 'Oedipus' would have on one. --Aristotle, 'Poetics', 1453b Sophocles understood the most sorrowful figure of the Greek stage, the unfortunate Oedipus, as the noble human being. --Friedrich Nietzsche
'Oedipus the King' is the quintessential tragedy: spare, inexorable, every effort of human beings to avoid the divinely inspired inevitable fruitless, simply making the inevitable more certain, every opening of hope actually yet another step on the road to doom. --Anthony O'Hear
One star: Women of Trachis (413 B.C.)
One star: Electra (410 B.C.)
Two stars: Philoctetes (409 B.C.)
Four stars: Oedipus at Colonus (401 B.C.)
In his old age, we see Oedipus as a hero purified by his sufferings, not bitter or broken, but exalted by the ordeals he has endured. --Robert B. Downs

The Great Learning (Ta-Hsueh 5th C. B.C.?) Etext: Galileo Library
The basic text of the early Confucian school, later canonized in the 'Four Books'. --A Guide to Oriental Classics
See Confucius

6th Century B.C.

PINDAR (c. 522-442 B.C.) Etext: Internet Classics Archive
Two stars: Odes of Victory (498-446 B.C.)
These are mainly epinikia, or choral odes in honour of a victor at one of the games festivals, pre-eminently that of Olympia. --Philip Ward

AESCHYLUS (c. 525-456 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Theater History Criticism: post
The Persians (472 B.C)
part of a tetralogy of seemingly unrelated plays. --Philip Ward
Seven Against Thebes (467 B.C.) part of a tetralogy dealing with the royal house of Thebes. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 11
Suppliant Maidens (463 B.C.) the first play in a tetralogy on the legend of Danaus. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 11
Two stars: Prometheus Bound (c. 460 B.C.)
probably the central play in a trilogy on the legend of Prometheus. --Philip Ward
Four stars: The Oresteia Study: Mitchell-Boyak : Agamemnon ...begins at the point where Agamemnon, unaware of his wife's infidelity, returns victorious from Troy. Citing the death of her daughter Iphigenia as justification, Clytaemnestra traps Agamemnon in his bath. She and Aegisthus kill him. ----Peter Wolff, Philosophy of Law and Jurisprudence (1961), p. 5; Choephoroe [The Libation Bearers] ...Agamemnon's son, Orestes, is urged by the god Apollo to revenge his father. With the help of his sister Electra, Orestes kills his mother Clytaemnestra, as well as her lover Aegisthus. ----Peter Wolff, Philosophy of Law and Jurisprudence (1961), p. 5; Eumenides (458 B.C.) Seeking refuge from the Furies and to be purified of his sin, Orestes comes to the city of Athens and throws himself under the protection of her guardian goddess, Athena. To decide his fate, Athena convenes the first court in the history of Athens, a group of citizens. ----Peter Wolff, Philosophy of Law and Jurisprudence (1961), p. 5
what we call civilization is indeed founded on acts of original criminality. But ... vengeance cannot be the answer, for the very reasons explored with such compelling existential force in 'The Oresteia'. --Anthony O'Hear

LAO Tzu (fl. 6th Cent. B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: post
Two stars: Tao-te Ching
A basic text of Taoism that has become a world classic because of its radical challenge to basic assumptions of both traditional and modern civilization. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

CONFUCIUS (Kung Fu-Tse, c. 551-479 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Sacred Texts Confucius' most important departure from the old aristocratic point of view was his rejection of the idea that nobility was inborn. Nobility (or perhaps gentility) was for him a mark of education and conduct. --William H. McNeill, The Rise of the West, p. 230 Confucianism, the political philosophy focusing on human relationships, on both hierarchy and reciprocity, focusing on the ideas, a properly ordered society, regulated and facilitated by the use of ritual, based upon the moral self-cultivation of gentlemen, the gentlemen who learn, who study, who were educated in the teachings of Confucius, in the doctrines of the *Wei*. --Kenneth I. Hammond, From Yao to Mao: 5,000 Years of Chinese History, Lecture 7: The Early Han Dynasty, The Teaching Company
Three stars: Analects [Lun-yu] (c. 500 B.C.)
one should strive to achieve ren (true humanity, goodness) in a social framework of li (order and correct behaviour) governed by the te (virtue, power) of the ruler. --Philip Ward
See Ta-Hsueh

BUDDHA (Gautama Sakyamuni 563-483 B.C.) Study: An Introduction to Buddhism Reference: Internet Sacred Texts Archive | Buddhist Scripture Information Retrieval | Access to Insight Criticism: post
The literature of Buddhism is vast, and only the greatest classics are recommended for those who prefer not to become practicing Buddhists. --Philip Ward
Two stars: The Tipitaka or Tri-Pitaka
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

G. S. KIRK and J. E. RAVEN Etext: Fieser Criticism: Tallis
One star: The Presocratic Philosophers: a critical history with a selection of texts (1957) [6th-5th Centuries B.C.]
To understand Plato and the systems against which he reacted in several of the Socratic dialogues, it is desirable to understand something of the prehistory of philosophy, as it were, from Thales in the early sixth century B.C. to the Atomists in the late fifth century. --Philip Ward

7th Century B.C.

SAPPHO (7th-6th Centuries B. C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: post
One star: Poems

AESOP (c. 620-560 B. C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive
Three stars: Fables Criticism: Edward Clayton essay
Aesop--or someone like him--was the first to collect, retell in concise, easy-to-remember style, and disseminate widely for moral instruction previously existing fables, doubtless adding a number of his own. --Robert B. Downs

SOLON (c. 640-560 B.C.) Criticism: Plutarch biography | post
Poems It is a debatable point whether he was a poet first and incidentally a statesman, or whether he was a statesman first and found his poetry a convenient medium for making his political views known and acceptable. --Robert B. Downs, Famous Books: Ancient and Medieval (1964), p. 28

One star: Upanishads (c. 900-500 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: post
The philosophers deal with the responsibilities of the self in the cosmos, with individual salvation, with the vexed problem of the relations of a personal soul or atman to the world soul, or the real, or 'God' (brahman), or alternatively the identity of atman and brahman. --Philip Ward

8th Century B.C.

HESIOD (c. 776 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page
One star: Works and Days (c. 700 B.C.) Accoring to his theory, the world had been through five ages: the age of gold, marked by peace and perfection; the age of silver, less pure and noble; the age of bronze, a period of further degeneration; the age of heroes, which had inspired Homer; and, finally, the present age of sorrow, hatred, and strife. --Robert B. Downs, Famous Books: Ancient and Medieval (1964), p. 25
Theogony (c. 700 B.C.) ...attempted to explain how everything got here. And this was attributed to wars and battles and contests among generations of the gods and goddesses, way back in the mists of time. --Thomas F. X. Noble, The Foundations of Western Civilization; Lecture 12: From Greek Religion to Socratic Philosophy; The Teaching Company
The Homeric Hymns (7th C. B.C.)

One star: The Book of Songs or The Books of Odes or The Books of Poetry (Shih Ching 1000-700 B.C.) Etext: Galileo Library
...anthology of 305 poems was traditionally believed to have been selected by Confucius himself ... . The collection is a varied one, ranging from simple songs of courtship to ritual hymns and dynastic legends.--A Guide to Oriental Classics

9th Century B.C.

HOMER (c. 850 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | University of Adelaide Criticism: post | Kenneth Rexroth poem
Five stars: Iliad Criticism: Steve Coates review | Ronald Osborn essay
a major epic in dactylic hexameters which narrates forty days' events in the war of the Greeks against Troy. --Philip Ward
Five stars: Odyssey
'The Odyssey' is the archetypal tale of homecoming, but that raises the question, taken up by later writers, as to whether the wily, energetic and restless Odysseus could in this world ever really be at home. --Anthony O'Hear

2nd Millenium B.C.

The Vedas (1500-1200 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: post
Ritual hymns that are the earliest source for the fundamental concepts of the Hindu tradition. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Egypt 16th Century B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page
The ancient Egyptian title is more accurately translated as 'The Coming Forth by Day'. Further, no definitive text exists; since the chapters were written over a period of not less than twenty-five hundred years, in different areas of Egypt, and under many rulers, textual variations are wide. --Robert B. Downs

HAMMURABI (c. 1797-1750 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Code of Hammurabi 1775 B.C.: Code of Hammurabi radically defines social contract from 'I will kill you' to 'I will kill you if you do one of the following 282 things'. --Timeline of Democracy, 'America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Government Inaction' (2004) by John Stewart, et al., p. 4
these are the keynotes of the Code of Hammruabi: supreme, centralized power, a stratified society, a uniform administration of justice by the state, individual responsibility, safeguards for property, protection for the weak, encouragement of a unified and efficient family institution. --Robert B. Downs

c. 1800 B.C. Oldest surviving recipe, for beer, on a clay tablet containing a hymn to Ninkasi, the Sumerian goddess of brewing --The Economist, December 22nd 2001, p. 29

SINUHE (c. 1938 B.C.)
The Story of Sinuhe Etext: Gardiner
Sinuhe was a high administrative official who fled from the service of Queen Nofru after an unsuccessful palace revolt, wandered across the desert, and sought refuge with a Syrian chiefain whose daughter he married. Always nostalgic for Egypt, Sinuhe finally travelled home and established himself once more. --Philip Ward

3rd Millenium B.C.

Two stars: The Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2300 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Bookseller: Oratorio by Bohuslav Martinu Criticism: post
account of acceptance of mortality and its ultimate emphasis on the life of achievement and of family values. --Albert Lord

c. 2350 B.C. First recorded seven day week instituted by Sargon I, King of Akkad, and conquerer of Ur and the other cities of Sumeria --The Economist, December 22nd 2001, p. 102

FU Hsi or Fu Xi (2852-2738 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page
I Ching [Book of Changes] What we call coincidence seems to be the chief concern of this peculiar mind, and what we worship as causality passes almost unnoticed. ... Thus it happens that when one throws the three coins, or counts through the forty-nine yarrow stalks, these chance details enter into the picture of the moment of observation and form a part of it--a part that is insignificant to us, yet most meaningful to the Chinese mind. --C. G. Jung, Forward (1949) to the 'I Ching: or Book of Changes' translated by Richard Wilhelm and Cary F. Baynes (3rd Ed. 1979) p. xxii, xxiii The legendary Fu Hsi, emperor of China, is supposed to have invented the eight basic trigrams--sets of three lines, broken and unbroken--which form the basis of the I Ching. Any two of the trigrams will combine into sixty-four hexagrams. The original text of the I Ching consisted of accounts of the symbolic meanings of each of the hexagrams. --Martin Seymour-Smith, The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written (1998), p. 4

When did the blogosphere begin? The best answer is with ancient priests of Sumer--now southern Iraq--around 3000 BC. They invented 'text,' in that the symbols they scratched onto clay tablets were the first known use of writings. --Hugh Hewitt, 'Blog' 2005 p. 63 August 13, 3114 B.C. starting date of the Mayan calendar --Robert Kaplan, Mayan Mathematics: The Dark Side of Zero, American Scholar, Summer 1999, p. 27 October 22, 4004 B.C. 6:00 p.m. creation of the world as calculated by James Ussher, Archbishop of Armaugh --Robert Kaplan, Mayan Mathematics: The Dark Side of Zero, American Scholar, Summer 1999, p. 28

300 B.C.-A.D. 300 >



Revised November 23, 2009.

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