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Read Me What to read, 300 B.C.-A.D. 300 Of the making of many books there is no end --Ecclesiastes 12:12

< through 301 B.C. | A.D. 301-1100 >

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3rd Century A.D.

The Zend-Avesta (3rd-4th Cent.) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Avesta -- Zoroastrian Archives 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 208

PATANJALI (c. 300) Etext: The Online Books Page
One star: Yoga Sutras The aphorisms are not in any sense a philosophical or religious system: they are practical notes towards the attainment of certain psychological states. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 138 The classical Hindu philosophical treatise on the discipline of yoga, which, though one of the oldest concepts of Indian civilization, continues to attract the serious attention of the Western world. --A Guide to Oriental Classics (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 93

Saddharma-Pundarika Sutra [The Sutra of the Lotus of the True Law] (before 255) Etext: Buddhist Information of North America 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 168

Mallanga VATSYAYANA (c. 3rd Century A.D.) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism:
Kama Sutra 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 176

DIOGENES Laertius (c. 225-275) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Downs
Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

JUAN Chi (210-263)
Poetry

PLOTINUS (205-269) Etext: The Online Books Page
One star: The Enneads 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 Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 342

2nd Century A.D.

SEXTUS Empiricus (fl. 2nd, 3rd?, C.) Etext: George MacDonald Ross
Outlines of Pyrrhonism

BHASA (fl. c. 200) Reference: Moonstruck Drama Bookstore
The Dream of Vasavadatta a love story taken from an incident in the 'Ramayana' epic. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 93

TERTULIAN (Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus, c. 155-c. 220) Reference: The Tertullian Project
De Carne Christi

The Mahasatipatthana Sutta Etext: Access to Insight The Greater Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness, one of the 'larger discourses' of the Pali canon, has long been a primary Theravada text on the most essential of the Buddhist practices--meditation. --A Guide to Oriental Classics (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 110

Ilango ADIGAL (2nd [or 3rd?] Century) Reference: KarnATik
Shilappadikaram [The Ankle Bracelet] 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 330

The Gospel of Truth (1st to 2nd C?) Etext: The Gnostic Society Library Criticism: Irenaeus

The Sukhavativyuha Sutras Etext: Shin Dharma Net 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 (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 120

The Srimaladevisimhanada Sutra [The Lions Roar of Queen Srimala] '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 (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 116

Prajnaparamita (c. 100 B.C.-A.D. 400) 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 (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 112

Claudius GALEN (c. 130-c. 200) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Downs
One star: On the Natural Faculties Galen was the greatest systematizer of physiological and medical knowledge that the world had yet seen. --V. J. McGill, Biology, Psychology, and Medicine (1963), p. 73
On the Humour

Lucius APULEIUS (c. 125-c. 180) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Rexroth
One star: The Golden Ass [Metamorphoses] 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 16

MARCUS Aurelius Antoninus (Marcus Annius Verus, 121-180) Etext: The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive Criticism: Fadiman | Rexroth | Van Doren
Three stars: Meditations (ca. 167) Notice how Marcus Aurelius insists, as such introspective moralists always do, upon small things done or undone; it is because he has not hate or love enough to make a moral revolution. He gets up early in the morning, just as our own aristocrats living the Simple Life get up early in the morning; because such altruism is much easier than stopping the games in the amphitheatre or giving the English people back their land. --G. K. Chesterton, 'Orthodoxy' (1908), Ch. V '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.' --P.G. Wodehouse, 'The Mating Season' (1949) 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 238 called *Ta eis heauton* in Greek, the language he wrote them in. --J. Rufus Fears, Famous Romans, Lecture 23: Marcus Aurelius, The Teaching Company

LUCIAN (120-190) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Downs
One star: Dialogues
One star: True History or The Way to Write History probably his most sustained satire is the parody of Herodotus... --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 194
One star: Satires
The Fisher
Sale of Creeds
The Way to Write History
Alexander the Oracle Monger
Charon
The Sale of Lives

PAUSANIAS (c. 120-180) Etext: The Online Books Page
Hellados Periegeseos [Description of Greece] (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 Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 94

ARRIAN (Flavius Arrianus c. 100-180) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Wikipedia
Anabasis 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 18

Kuruntokai (1st-3rd Centuries) Etext: Project Maduri (Tamil) consists of poems in the genre of courtly love, called *akam*. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 334

One star: The Songs of the South (Ch'u Tz'u) [Songs from the Kingdom of Ch'u] (125) 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 317 An anthology of seventeen works compiled in the second century C.E. on the basis of a tradition dating from the third century B.C. ... --A Guide to Oriental Classics (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 244

1st Century A.D.

PTOLEMY (Claudius Ptolemaeus, c. 100-170) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Downs | Van Doren
One star: 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, Foundations of Science and Mathematics (1960), p. 83 G. J. Toomer, trans., Duckworth (U.K.) 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, In Search of Eden, review of 'Mapping Paradise: A History of Heaven on Earth' by Alessandro Scafi, First Things, February 2007, p. 29

Sayings of the Fathers (Pirke Aboth, 1st Century A.D.)

Three stars: The Bible (1000 B.C.-A.D. 150) Etext: Greek N.T. audio | Gutenberg | Douay-Rheims | BSF | Gateway | Unbound Reference: Review of Biblical Literature | Early Church Fathers | see The Talmud Study: Baker Criticism: Neuhaus | Johnson | Wilken | Novak | Alison | Williamson | Jacobs | Barr | Blowers | Blowers, et al. | Levenson | Downs | Rexroth Humor: Garrison | Price 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, Religion and Theology (1961), p. 32 Since the 4th century, apart from some discussion during the Protestant Reformation, most Christians have accepted the decisions of the ancient church concerning the books that make up the Old and New Testaments. --Luke Timothy Johnson, In and Out--Canonical and Apocryphal Gospels, Lecture 25, Jesus and the Gospels, The Teaching Company ...Stephen Langton, who was born in 1150 and died in 1228. He was the archbishop of Canterbury in England, who numbered the individual passages or verses and the larger units called chapters. --Gary A. Rendsburg, The Book of Genesis, Lecture 2: The Second Creation Story, The Teaching Company
The Bible (Authorized Version, or King James Version) Criticism: Gleason | Heffernan | Hitchens | Yardley | Hays For every Englishman who had read Sidney or Spenser, or who had seen Shakespeare acted at the Globe, there were hundreds who had read or heard the Bible with close attention as the words of God. The effect of the continual domestic study of the book upon the national character, imagination and intelligence for nearly three centuries to come, was greater than any literary movement in our annals, or any religious movement since the coming of St. Augustine. --G. M. Trevleyan
Old Testament Criticism: Levenson | Anderson 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, Religion and Theology (1961), p. 33 Covenants are, in fact, contracts. To understand the relationship between God and the Israelites that Moses mediates, the suzerainty-vassal model, is basically to understand contract law. --Amy-Jill Levine, The Old Testament, Lecture 10: Covenant and Law, Part I, The Teaching Company
Old Testament: Pentateuch Criticism: Updike | Shulevitz | Simon | Dembski
Three stars: Genesis Criticism: Whitaker It may come as a surprise to learn that there are two different Creation stories in the Book of Genesis, but looking at the larger world of the ancient Near East, multiple Creation stories in a single culture are quite expected. --Gary A. Rendsburg, The Book of Genesis, Lecture 2: The Second Creation Story, The Teaching Company
Three stars: 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. --Timeline of Democracy, 'America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Government Inaction' (2004) by John Stewart, et al., p. 4
Three stars: Leviticus
Three stars: Numbers
Three stars: Deuteronomy
Old Testament: Historical books
Three stars: Joshua
Three stars: Judges
Three stars: Ruth
Three stars: 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, The Development of Political Theory and Government (1959), p. 47
Three stars: II Samuel
Three stars: I Kings
Three stars: II Kings
Three stars: I Chronicles
Old Testament: Wisdom books
Four stars: Job Criticism: Chesterton The problem with which Job wrestles may be indicated by a very simple question: How are divine rewards and punishments allocated? Or, more agonizingly, why, in God's universe, do the good sometimes suffer and the wicked prosper? --Peter Wolff, A General Introduction to the Great Books and to a Liberal Education (1959), p. 73 Wisdom is the knowledge to know what justice, courage, and moderation are. That is ultimately what makes the book of Job a work of wisdom. For its goal is not to give you a great deal of erudite learning, but to give you the wisdom with which to apply these values to your life. --J. Rufus Fears, Books That Have Changed History, Books That Can Change Your Life, Lecture 10: Book of Job, The Teaching Company
Four stars: Psalms Criticism: Anderson | Alter
Three stars: Proverbs
Four stars: Ecclesiastes
Three stars: Song of Songs
Old Testament: Prophetic books
Three stars: Isaiah
Three stars: Jeremiah
Three stars: Ezekial
Three stars: Daniel
Three stars: Hosea
Three stars: Joel
Three stars: Jonah
Three stars: Micah
Three stars: Zechariah
Three stars: Malachi
   Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical Books Criticism: Klinghoffer 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, Religion and Theology (1961), p. 33
Three stars: Ecclesiaticus
Three stars: Tobit
Three stars: Wisdom of Solomon
New Testament Criticism: Lindbeck | Johnson | Meilaender 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, Religion and Theology (1961), p. 33 Dates from 'Redating the New Testament' (2000), by John A. T. Robinson, Ch. XI Conclusions and Corollaries
New Testament: Gospels Criticism: Johnson | Johnson | Hays | Girard | Dodaro | Hays Jesus was interpreted within a remarkable number of literary forms, even within the broad genre called gospel, and this testifies to the widespread literacy of the early Christian movement. --Luke Timothy Johnson, Jesus and the Gospels, Lecture 35: Jesus in and Through the Gospels, The Teaching Company It's also important to note that the Four Canonical Gospels are the earliest datable Gospels. No historian has ever been able to challenge that proposition. --Luke Timothy Johnson, In and Out--Canonical and Apocryphal Gospels, Lecture 25, Jesus and the Gospels, The Teaching Company
New Testament: SynopticGospels Reference: A Synoptic Gospels Primer Criticism: Harvey
Three stars: Matthew (c. 40-c. 60) Criticism: Faatz | Criticism: Thomas Aquinas Jesus divides the political and the religious realm. Render unto each its own, He says. --Peter Wolff, The Development of Political Theory and Government (1959), p. 48 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, Religion and Theology (1961), p. 54-55
Luke
   Four stars: Gospel (c. 57-c. 62)
   Three stars: Acts (c. 57-c. 62) This account is of interest because it shows the workings of the Roman judicial system. --Peter Wolff, The Development of Political Theory and Government (1959), p. 48
New Testament: Epistles (Letters)
Paul (c. 8-c. 68) Reference: Pauline Year Criticism: Woodward | Johnson Humor: Paul's PowerPoint
   Four stars: I Corinthians (55) You can examine all the problems in 1 Corinthians and see them in light of this overarching thesis of Paul--that there is a future physical resurrection and that should affect how we behave in the present--as individuals with ethics and within the church community as a whole. -- Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament; Lecture 15: Paul and the Crisis of His Churches--First Corinthians; The Teaching Company
   Four stars: II Corinthians (56)
   Three stars: 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, Philosophy of Law and Jurisprudence (1961), p. 56

The Lotus Sutra or Sutra on the White Lotus of the Sublime Dharma (Saddharma Pundarika Sutra, or Miao-fa Lien-hua ching, 1st Century) Etext: Nichiren Buddhism One of the most influential of all Mahayana texts throughout East Asia. --A Guide to Oriental Classics (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 201 ...Avalokiteshvara is described as a protean deity, a deity who takes on all sorts of different forms in order to manifest compassion to people in this world, especially to people who call upon his name. --Malcolm David Ecker, Buddhism; Lecture 11: Celestial Buddhas and Boddhisattvas; The Teaching Company

JUVENAL (Decimus Junius Juvenalis, c. 60-c. 140) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Kimball | Downs like most satirists he was somewhat discreet about his own private circumstances... --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 210
Two stars: 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 210

EPICTETUS (c. 60-c.138) Etext: Internet Classics Archive Criticism: Van Doren
Two stars: Discourses ...for the wise and virtuous man, threats of physical pain, mutilation, or death carry no terror or perturbation. In the first place, such things are of no importance, affecting only the body; secondly if they are unavoidable and out of our power to prevent, there is no point in getting perturbed aobut them. What is important and in our power is our attitude and response to such events. --Seymour Cain, Ethics: The Study of Moral Values (1962), p. 76 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 231
One star: Handbook or Encheiredion

NICHOMACHUS of Gerasa (fl. c. 100) Reference: History of Mathematics Archive
Introduction to Arithmetic (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, Foundations of Science and Mathematics (1960), pp. 47-48

Gaius SUETONIUS Tranquillus (c. 70-140) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Downs
One star: Lives of the Caesars 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 8

Cornelius TACITUS (c. 55-c. 120) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Beard | Downs | Rexroth | Van Doren
Dialogues on Oratory (Dialogus de oratoribus c. 84-85) enquired about the causes of the decline in Roman oratory, and assessed its future prospects. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 4
One star: Agricola (98)
One star: Germania (98)
Two stars: Histories (c. 106-107)
Three stars: Annals (c. 117) We may call Tacitus a political historian; that is, a historian who primarily recorded political events rather than external affairs. --Peter Wolff, The Development of Political Theory and Government (1959), p. 61

PLINY the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, c. 62-c. 113)
Letters (c. 99-109) were written for publication, the first 247 appearing in print during his own lifetime. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 31

LONGINUS (c. 1st Century A.D.)
One star: On the Sublime [T]he Longinus Sublime is not sublimity in its narrower sense, but all that quality, or combination of qualities, which creates *enthusiasm* in literature, all that give consummateness to it, all that deserves the highest critical encomium either in prose or in poetry. --George Edward Bateman Saintsbury, History of Criticism, I, 154 '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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 68

PLUTARCH (Mestrius Plutarchus c. 45-120) Etext: The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive Criticism: Downs | Van Doren | Kimball Why is it that Plutarch--'for centuries Europe's schoolmaster,' as the classicist C. J. Gianakaris put it--should quite suddenly move from center stage to the mental off-off-Broadway of reference books and dissertations? --Roger Kimball, The New Criterion, December 2000, p. 4
Five stars: Parallel Lives Plutarch's 'Lives' are also called 'Parallel Lives', because Plutarch usually follows the life of a famous Greek with that of a famous Roman, and then compares the two men. (Sometimes, to be sure, the extant text lacks the comparison, or even one of the parallel lives.) --Peter Wolff, The Development of Political Theory and Government (1959), p. 33 or The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (c. 101) The 'Lives' is one of those books with which almost everyone is familiar, even if he has never read any of it. --Peter Wolff, A General Introduction to the Great Books and to a Liberal Education (1959), p. 65 his chief glory is the series of 'Lives', 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 23
One star: Moralia

MARTIAL (Marcus Valerius Martialis, c. 40-104) Criticism: Downs
One star: Epigrams (80-c. 104)
Epitaphs (80-c. 104)
Poems (80-c. 104)

Pedacius DIOSCORIDES (c. 40-80) Criticism: Downs
Materia Medica

Gaius PETRONIUS Arbiter (d. c. 65 or 66) Etext: The Online Books Page
One star: Satyricon Criticism: Rexroth tells in a mixture of prose and verse how Encolpius and his friend Ascyltos (with the boy Giton) explore the low taverns of Campania and Magna Graecia. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 249

LUCAN (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, 39-65) 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 126
De bello civili [Concerning the Civil War] (62-63)
Pharsalia

Flavius JOSEPHUS (37-c. 100) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Antiquities of the Jews
Autobiography
The Wars of the Jews

QUINTILIAN (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, c. 35-95) Criticism: Downs
One star: The Institutes of Oratory

Aulus PERSIUS Flaccus (34-62)
Satires

WANG Ch'ung (27-c. 97)
Lun-Heng 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 58

PLINY the Elder (23-79) Criticism: Downs
Natural History (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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 31

1st Century B.C.

Lucius Annaeus SENECA (c. 4 B.C.-A.D. 65) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Jones | Downs 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, 'Seneca' in 'Selected Essays' (1950) p. 52
One star: Moral Essays or Dialogi They write and write their desiccat ing learned la-di-da-di, as if *primum scribere, deindre philosophari*. --Friedrich Nietzsche, 'Seneca et hoc genus omne', The Gay Science 34
One star: Medea [T]he five-act division of the modern European play is due to Seneca. --T. S. Eliot, 'Seneca' in 'Selected Essays' (1950) p. 52
One star: Hercules furens
Letters to Lucilius [Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium] 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 63
Quaestiones Naturales

PHILO of Alexandria (20 B.C.-after A.D. 40) Reference: Resource Pages for Biblical Studies
Allegorical Expositions of the Holy Laws

Aulus Cornelius CELSUS (c. 25 B.C.-A.D. 50) Criticism: Downs
De Medicina

One star: The Milindapanha [The Milinda-Questions] (c. 1st Century B.C.) The civilized wit and enlightenment which both men bring to their dialogues is particularly Greco-Buddhist, though one need not lend absolute credence to the work's conclusion, that the king adopted Buddhism. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 194 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 (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 108

Three stars: Bhagavad Gita (c. 100 B.C.-A.D. 100) Etext: The Online Books Page | Bhagavad Gita On-line Criticism: Weblog | Fadiman Orthodox Hindus do not revere the Sanskrit 'Song of God' as *Sruti* (scriptures revealed directly by God, such as the 'Upanishads') but as *Smriti* (teachings of the prophets or saints); that is, they regard it technically as of secondary revelation. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 164 It is the central text of Hindu devotion as well as the classic statement of Hindu social ethics. --A Guide to Oriental Classics (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 86

Two stars: Mahabharata (c. 5th Century B.C.-4th Century A.D.) Etext: Sacred Texts Criticism: Fadiman | Rexroth Through a process perhaps analogous to that by which Greek heroic poetry coalesced around the Trojan War, the plot of this poem ostensibly crystallized around the tale of a struggle between rival claimants to the throne of a minor Indian kingdom. But the Mahabarata includes an extraordinary diversity of matter, most of which is only loosely attached to the central theme. --William H. McNeill, The Rise of the West, p. 369 The longer of the two major Indian epics, it is primarily a folk epic that includes many religious poems, didactic passages, myths, and legends, and as such is the modern encyclopedic source for the significant themes of Indian civilization. --A Guide to Oriental Classics (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 82

OVID (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 B.C.-A.D. 17) Etext: The Online Books Page | What Good Is It That Girls Need Never Go To War? Criticism: Ormsby | Jarman | Nikolaidis 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 21-22
Two stars: The Metamorphoses (c. A. D. 10)
One star: The Art of Love (Ars amatoria) 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 307
Heroides or Epistulae heroidum
Epistulae Ex Ponto
Fasti Criticism: Boyd

Sextus PROPERTIUS (c. 50-c. 16 B.C.) Reference: PoeForward
Works 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 216

MELEAGER (fl. 1st Century B.C.) Ed. Criticism: Rexroth
The Greek Anthology

Marcus VITRUVIUS Pollio (1st Century B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Downs
On Architecture

LIVY (Titus Livius, 59 B.C.-A.D. 17) Etext: Internet Classics Archive Criticism: Downs | Rexroth
One star: History of Rome or Early Rome

STRABO (c. 64 B.C.-A.D. 21) Etext: Internet Classics Archive Criticism: Downs
Geography

HORACE (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Downs Perhaps the most technically accomplished of all the Roman poets... --Thomas F. X. Noble, Rome's Golden and Silver Ages,, Lecture 22, The Foundations of Western Civilization, The Teaching Company
Two stars: Satires (I c. 35 B.C., II 30 B.C.) Etext: Horace’s Satires I:VI | From Book II, Satire VI
One star: Odes (23 B.C.) Criticism: Pavlock | Carne-Ross The themes of Horace are the brevity of life and the need for moderation in all things to make the ideal citizen. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 241 It might be worth adding that what are normally called the 'Odes' and 'Epodes' of Horace were not names used by the poet: he called them 'carmina' ('songs,' a good Latin word, unlike the heavily Hellenic 'odes') and 'iambi' ('iambs,' the Greek name for he metre and the genre. --Nicholas Horsfall, 'Ach so, Herr Major,' review of Horace: Odes and Epodes, edited and translated by Niall Rudd, London Review of Books, June 23, 2005, p.r 35
One star: Epistles (20 B.C.)
Epistula ad Pisones or Ars Poetica (Letter to the Pisos or On the Art of Poetry, c. 20 B.C.) deals largely with drama... --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 68

VIRGIL (Publius Vergilius Maro, 70-19 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Institute for Learning Technologies Criticism: Weblog | Downs | Fadiman | Rexroth | Van Doren
Eclogues (37 B.C.)
Georgics (29 B.C.) the most accomplished work of poetry. --Montaigne The best poem of the best poet. --John Dryden
Five stars: Aeneid (19 B. C.) Criticism: Weblog ...stands midway between the Homeric epics and Dante's 'Divine Comedy'. Its middle position is not merely historical but also literary. --Seymour Cain, Imaginative Literature I: From Homer to Shakespeare (1961), p. 81 Virgil's epic poem on the glory of Rome from its (spurious) origin at the fall of Troy to the time of the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, was a conscious attempt to endow his city with a poem to equal the 'Iliad' of Homer. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 40 Aeneas, in some ways the dullest character in epic literature, elicited the values that the Romans wished to hold up to themselves, what the Romans wanted to see when they looked in the mirror. --Thomas F. X. Noble, Rome's Golden and Silver Ages,, Lecture 22, The Foundations of Western Civilization, The Teaching Company

Gaius Valerius CATULLUS (c. 84-c. 54 B. C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Negenborn Criticism: Downs | Rexroth
Two stars: Poems infected Latin poetry with gaiety, informality, and idiosyncrasy. He is mocking, ironic and often malicious, but never dull. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 45

SALLUST (Gaius Sallustius Crispus, 86-34 B.C.) Etext: Project Gutenberg Criticism: Sauertieg | Downs
One star: The War with Catiline
The War with Jugurtha

Titus LUCRETIUS Carus (c. 96-55 B.C.) Etext: Internet Classics Archive Criticism: Downs | Fadiman | Rexroth | Van Doren 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, The New Criterion, September 2001, p. 17
Five stars: On the Nature of Things (De rerum natura) It is both the most instructive document which we possess of Epicurean philosophy and also a magnificent, glowing, passionate poem. --Seymour Cain, Philosophy (1963), p. 73 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 75

2nd Century B.C.

Caius Julius CAESAR (102-44 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive Criticism: Weblog | Downs | Rexroth victor in the civil war, failed utterly to solve the political crisis that had destroyed peace and order in republican Rome. --Thomas R. Martin, From Polis to Imperium, review of 'The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian' by Robin Lane Fox, Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2007, p. 43
One star: Commentaries on the Gallic War (51 B.C.)

Marcus Tullius CICERO (106-43 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Internet Classics Archive Criticism: Greenfield | Downs 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, Enemies of the Permanent Things (1969) p. 32
One star: Against Gaius Verres I (In Verrem I, 70 B.C.)
One star: Letters to Atticus (Epistulae ad Atticum 68 B.C.-43 B.C.)
About oratory (De Oratore 55 B.C.)
On the Laws (De Legibus 52 B.C.)
About the Best Kind of Orators (De Optimo Genere Oratorum 52 B.C.)
On the Republic (De Republica 51 B.C.)
About the Orator (Orator ad M. Brutum 46 B.C.)
Stoic Paradoxes (Paradoxa Stoicorum 46 B.C.)
Questions debated at Tusculum (Tusculanae Quaestiones 45 B.C.)
About the Ends of Goods and Evils (De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum 45 B.C.) Source of 'Lorem ipsum' --Wikipedia, 'Cicero'
On the Nature of the Gods (De Natura Deorum 45 B.C.)
On Divination (De Divinatione 45 B.C.)
On Fate (De Fato 45 B.C.)
One star: On the Nature of the Gods (De Natura Deorum 45 B.C.)
One star: Second Philippic (Philippica II, 44 B.C.)
On Duties (De Officiis 44 B.C.)
One star: On Friendship (Laelius de Amicitia 44 B. C.)
Two stars: On Old Age (Cato Maior de Senectute 43 B. C.)

SSU-MA Ch'ien (145-86 B.C.) Etext: Sacred Texts Criticism: Fadiman | Rexroth
Two stars: Shih Chi [Records of the Historian] The work of Ssu-ma Ch'ien combined Herodotus' scope with Thucydides' exactness (in intention if not always in fact), and his example fixed the mold for subsequent Chinese historiography. --William H. McNeill, The Rise of the West (1963) p. 357 Shortly after Emperor Wu acceded in 141 B.C., he appointed Ssu-ma T'an to be Grand Historian, a position which then carried with it the tasks of astrologer and augur. But the Court historian began to collect materials for a history of China and, on his deathbed, charged his son Ssu-ma Ch'ien to write the work. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 28 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 (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 197

TERENCE (Publius Terentius Afer, c. 195-159 B.C.) Etext: Project Gutenberg Criticism: Tsai Shu-hui 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 115
One star: The Girl from Andros
One star: The Eunuch
One star: The Mother-in-Law

VALMIKI (c. 200 B.C.) Etext: Sacred Texts Reference: Maxwell Criticism: Fadiman
Two stars: Ramayana Like the Mahabarata, it is Vaishnavite, for Rama is protrayed as an avatar of that god. But explicit religious teachings and moral instruction are less important than the vibrant and very human portraits of the hero and his faithful wife. --William H. McNeill, The Rise of the West (1963) p. 370 the poem is thus a text sacred to Hindus, but because it is considered an artificial poem, rather than a scripture, it has been altered by generations of scribes and story-tellers to bring it into line with other court epics. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 178 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 (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 90

Pancatantra (c. 200 B.C.)
see PURNABHADRA (c. 1199)

3rd Century B.C.

POLYBIUS (c. 204-122 B.C.) Etext: Ancient History Sourcebook Criticism: Downs
The Histories

Marcus Porcius CATO (234-149 B.C.) Criticism: Plutarch | Downs
On Agriculture

APOLLONIUS Rhodius (fl. 220 B.C.) Etext: Internet Classics Archive Reference: A Hellenistic Bibliography
Argonautica Criticism: Davidson Humor: Amazon perhaps it [the Golden Fleece] was found after all, like many golden prizes, not worth the trouble it cost to procure it. --Thomas Bulfinch 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 314

APOLLONIUS of Perga (fl. c. 240 B.C.) Reference: Weisstein
On Conic Sections

CALLIMACHUS (fl. c. 250 B.C.) Reference: A Hellenistic Bibliography
Hymns
Epigrams

Titus Maccius PLAUTUS (c. 255-184 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Theatre Database Criticism: Downs 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, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 38
One star: Pseudolus
One star: The Braggart Soldier
One star: The Rope
One star: Amphitryon

THEOCRITUS (fl. 3rd Century B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page | Ancient History Sourcebook
Idylls

HSUN Tzu (3rd Century B.C.) Reference: Whitlock
Works Writings of the third great formulator of Confucian teaching ... who gave special attention to the basis of learning and rites. --A Guide to Oriental Classics (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 191

HAN Fei Tzu (c. 280-233 B.C.) Etext: Humanistic Texts Reference: Kyle M.
One star: Complete Works or Basic Writings Briefly, in the name of stability it [Legalism] justifies the rejection of all theoretical morality in favour of a clearly-defined and harsh series of laws and punishments, and the belief that these controls are valid above family ties. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 221 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 (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 194

ARCHIMEDES (c. 287-212 B.C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Rorres | Mythbusters 46 | Mythbusters 16 Criticism: Downs | Rexroth | Van Doren