This selection of lapidary nuggets drawn from 33 of antiquity’s major authors includes poetry, dialogue, philosophical writing, history, descriptive reporting, satire, and fiction—giving a glimpse at the wide range of arts and sciences, thought and styles, of Greco-Roman culture.

The selections span twelve centuries, from Homer to Saint Jerome. The texts and translations are reproduced as they appear in Loeb volumes.

The Loeb Classical Library is the only existing series of books which, through original text and facing English translation, gives access to all that is important in Greek and Latin literature. A Loeb Classical Library Reader offers a unique sampling of this treasure trove. In these pages you will find:

Odysseus tricking the Cyclops in order to escape from the giant’s cave; Zeus creating the first woman, Pandora, cause of mortals’ hardships ever after; the Athenian general Nicias dissuading his countrymen from invading Sicily; Socrates, condemned to die, saying farewell; a description of Herod’s fortified palace at Masada; Cicero’s thoughts on what we owe our fellow men; Livy’s description of the rape of the Sabine women; Manilius on the signs of the zodiac; and Pliny’s observation of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE.

Here you can enjoy looking in on people, real and imaginary, who figure prominently in ancient history, and on notable events. Here, too, you can relish classical poetry and comedy, and get a taste of the ideas characteristic of the splendid culture to which we are heir.

Homer — Odyssey
Hesiod — Works and Days
Pindar — Olympian Odes
Sophocles — Antigone
Euripides — Medea
Herodotus — Persian Wars
Thucydides — History of the Peloponnesian War
Aristophanes — Lysistrata
Xenophon — Anabasis
Plato — Phaedo
Aristotle — Poetics
Callimachus — Hymns
Josephus — Jewish War
Plutarch — Brutus
Lucian — Dialogues of the Gods
Pausanias — Description of Greece
Terence — The Brothers
Cicero — On Duties
Caesar — Gallic War
Lucretius — On the Nature of Things
Virgil — Aeneid
Horace — Odes
Livy — History of Rome
Propertius — Elegies
Ovid — Heroines
Manilius — Astronomica
Seneca — Octavia
Pliny — Natural History
Petronius — Satyricon
Pliny the Younger — Letters
Juvenal — Satires
Apuleius — Metamorphoses
Jerome — Letters