Series: Loeb Classical Library

Cicero (Marcus Tullius, 106–43 BCE), Roman lawyer, orator, politician and philosopher, of whom we know more than of any other Roman, lived through the stirring era which saw the rise, dictatorship, and death of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic. In his political speeches especially and in his correspondence, we see the excitement, tension and intrigue of politics and the...

Julian, Volume II by Julian recounts the life of Julian (Flavius Claudius Iulianus) "the Apostate", a Roman Emperor who lived from 331 or 332 to 363 CE. Born and educated in Constantinople as a Christian, Julian's early years were marked by precariousness, influencing his devotion to literature and philosophy. Eventually, he embraced paganism, studying in various Greek cities. In 355,...

Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner, and writer, was born at Stagirus in 384 BCE. He was the son of Nicomachus, a physician, and Phaestis. Under Plato's tutelage at Athens, he studied and later taught there from 367 to 347 BCE. Subsequently, he spent three years at the court of a former pupil, Hermeias, in Asia Minor. During this...

In letters to his dear friend Atticus, Cicero reveals himself as to no other of his correspondents except, perhaps, his brother. These letters, in this four-volume series, also provide a vivid picture of a momentous period in Roman history—years marked by the rise of Julius Caesar and the downfall of the Republic. When the correspondence begins in November 68 BCE,...

To his dear friend Atticus, Cicero reveals himself as to no other of his correspondents except perhaps his brother. In Cicero's Letters to Atticus we get an intimate look at his motivations and convictions and his reactions to what is happening in Rome. These letters also provide a vivid picture of a momentous period in Roman history, years marked by...

Cicero was a prodigious letter writer, and happily a splendid treasury of his letters has come down to us: collected and in part published not long after his death, over 800 of them were rediscovered by Petrarch and other humanists in the fourteenth century. Among classical texts this correspondence is unparalleled; nowhere else do we get such an intimate look...

The philosopher Philo was born about 20 BCE to a prominent Jewish family in Alexandria, the chief home of the Jewish Diaspora as well as the chief centre of Hellenistic culture. He was trained in Greek as well as Jewish learning. In attempting to reconcile biblical teachings with Greek philosophy, he developed ideas that had wide influence on Christian and...

Suetonius (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, born ca. 70 CE), son of a military tribune, was at first an advocate and a teacher of rhetoric, but later became the emperor Hadrian's private secretary from 119–121. He dedicated to C. Septicius Clarus, prefect of the praetorian guard, his Lives of the Caesars. After the dismissal of both men for some breach of court...

Plutarch (Plutarchus), ca. 45–120 CE, was born at Chaeronea in Boeotia in central Greece. He studied philosophy at Athens and, after coming to Rome as a teacher in philosophy, was given consular rank by the emperor Trajan and a procuratorship in Greece by Hadrian. He was married and the father of one daughter and four sons. He appears as a...

Valerius Maximus compiled his handbook of notable deeds and sayings during the reign of Tiberius (14-37 CE). The collection was very popular in the Renaissance and has recently attracted renewed scholarly attention. Yet to date, there has been no modern English translation of Memorable Doings and Sayings. This work is now added to the Loeb Classical Library, featuring a freshly...

Plutarch (Plutarchus), ca. 45–120 CE, was born at Chaeronea in Boeotia in central Greece, studied philosophy at Athens, and, after coming to Rome as a teacher in philosophy, was given consular rank by the emperor Trajan and a procuratorship in Greece by Hadrian. He was married and the father of one daughter and four sons. He appears as a man...

Plutarch (Plutarchus), ca. 45–120 CE, was born at Chaeronea in Boeotia in central Greece. He studied philosophy at Athens and, after coming to Rome as a teacher in philosophy, was given consular rank by the emperor Trajan and a procuratorship in Greece by Hadrian. He was married and the father of one daughter and four sons. He appears as a...

Pliny the Elder, tireless researcher and writer, is the author of the encyclopedic Natural History, in 37 books, an unrivalled compendium of Roman knowledge. The contents of the books are as follows. Book 1: Table of contents of the others and of authorities. Book 2: Mathematical and metrological survey of the universe. Books 3-6: Geography and ethnography of the known...

Pliny the Elder, tireless researcher and writer, is author of the encyclopedic Natural History, in 37 books, an unrivalled compendium of Roman knowledge. The contents of the books are as follows: Book 1: table of contents of the others and of authorities; 2: mathematical and metrological survey of the universe; 3-6: geography and ethnography of the known world; 7: anthropology...

Hesiod describes himself as a Boeotian shepherd who heard the Muses call upon him to sing about the gods. His exact dates are unknown, but he has often been considered a younger contemporary of Homer. The first volume of this revised Loeb Classical Library edition offers Hesiod's two extant poems and a generous selection of testimonia regarding his life, works,...

A. Cornelius Celsus was the author, probably during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius (14–37 CE), of a general encyclopaedia of agriculture, medicine, military arts, rhetoric, philosophy, and jurisprudence, in that order of subjects. Of all this great work, there survives only the 8 books on medicine, De Medicina. Book 1 includes an excellent survey of Greek schools (Dogmatic,...

If the work of Hippocrates is taken as representing the foundation upon which the edifice of historical Greek medicine was reared, then the work of Galen, who lived some six hundred years later, may be looked upon as the summit of the same edifice. He was born in Pergamum in 129 CE, and both there and in other academic centres...

Aeschylus (ca. 525–456 BCE), the dramatist who made Athenian tragedy one of the world's great art forms, witnessed the establishment of democracy at Athens and fought against the Persians at Marathon. He won the tragic prize at the City Dionysia thirteen times between ca. 499 and 458, and in his later years was probably victorious almost every time he put...

Pro Archia. Post Reditum in Senatu. Post Reditum ad Quirites. De Domo Sua. De Haruspicum Responsis. Pro Plancio by Cicero captures the essence of a dramatic era in Roman history. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE) was a prominent Roman lawyer, orator, politician, and philosopher. We know more about him than any other Roman figure, as he lived through an eventful...

Pro Caelio. De Provinciis Consularibus. Pro Balbo by Cicero offers a glimpse into the life and work of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE), a Roman lawyer, orator, politician, and philosopher. We know more about Cicero than any other Roman, as he lived through the stirring era which saw the rise, dictatorship, and death of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic....

Pro Lege Manilia. Pro Caecina. Pro Cluentio. Pro Rabirio Perduellionis Reo by Cicero offers a remarkable insight into the life and times of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE), a prominent Roman lawyer, orator, politician, and philosopher. Cicero's life spanned an era of significant change, witnessing the rise, dictatorship, and ultimate assassination of Julius Caesar amidst a crumbling republic. Through his...

Silius (T. Catius Silius Italicus), 25 CE–101, was consul in 68 and governor of the province of Asia in 69. He sought no further office but lived thereafter on his estates as a literary man and collector. He revered the work of Cicero, whose Tusculan villa he owned, and that of Virgil, whose tomb at Naples he likewise owned and...

Dio Cassius (Cassius Dio), circa 150–235 CE, was born at Nicaea in Bithynia in Asia Minor. Upon the death of his father, who was the Roman governor of Cilicia, he went to Rome in 180, entered the Senate, and served as an advocate under Emperor Commodus. During his career, he held high offices and became a close friend of several...

Dio Cassius (Cassius Dio), ca. 150–235 CE, was born at Nicaea in Bithynia in Asia Minor. On the death of his father (Roman governor of Cilicia), he went in 180 to Rome, entered the Senate, and under the emperor Commodus was an advocate. He held high offices, becoming a close friend of several emperors. He was made governor of Pergamum...

Dio Cassius (Cassius Dio), ca. 150–235 CE, was born at Nicaea in Bithynia in Asia Minor. On the death of his father, a Roman governor of Cilicia, he went in 180 to Rome, entered the Senate, and under the emperor Commodus became an advocate. He held high offices, becoming a close friend of several emperors. He was made governor of...

The Saturnalia, Macrobius's encyclopedic celebration of Roman culture written in the early fifth century CE, has been prized since the Renaissance as a treasure trove of otherwise unattested lore. Cast in the form of a dialogue, the Saturnalia treats subjects as diverse as the divinity of the Sun and the quirks of human digestion, while showcasing Virgil as the master...

Xenophon (ca. 430 to ca. 354 BCE) was a wealthy Athenian and friend of Socrates. He left Athens in 401 and joined an expedition including ten thousand Greeks led by the Persian governor Cyrus against the Persian king. After the defeat of Cyrus, it fell to Xenophon to lead the Greeks from the gates of Babylon back to the coast...

Josephus, a soldier, statesman, and historian, was a Jew born in Jerusalem around 37 CE. A man of high descent, he was early learned in Jewish law and Greek literature and was a Pharisee. After pleading in Rome the cause of some Jewish priests, he returned to Jerusalem and in 66 tried to prevent a revolt against Rome, managing for...

Theocritus (early third century BCE), born in Syracuse and also active on Cos and at Alexandria, was the inventor of the bucolic genre. Like his contemporary Callimachus, Theocritus was a learned poet who followed the aesthetic, developed a generation earlier by Philitas of Cos (LCL 508), of refashioning traditional literary forms in original ways through tightly organised and highly polished...

Herodotus, the great Greek historian, was born about 484 BCE, at Halicarnassus in Caria, Asia Minor, when it was subject to the Persians. He travelled widely in most of Asia Minor, Egypt (as far as Assuan), North Africa, Syria, the country north of the Black Sea, and many parts of the Aegean Sea and the mainland of Greece. He lived,...

Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 BCE–17 CE), born at Sulmo, studied rhetoric and law at Rome. Later, he did considerable public service there and otherwise devoted himself to poetry and to society. Famous at first, he offended the emperor Augustus with his Ars Amatoria and was banished because of this work and some other reason unknown to us, dwelling in...

Arrian's Anabasis of Alexander in seven books is the best account we have of Alexander's adult life. Indica, a description of India and of Nearchus's voyage therefrom, was to be a supplement. A student of Epictetus, Arrian took notes at his lectures and published them (in eight books of which we have four, The Discourses) and also the Encheiridion or...

Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius, composed in the 3rd century BCE, is the epic retelling of Jason's quest for the golden fleece. Along with his contemporaries Callimachus and Theocritus, Apollonius refashioned Greek poetry to meet the interests and aesthetics of a Hellenistic audience, especially that of Alexandria in the Ptolemaic period following Alexander's death. In this carefully crafted work of 5,835...

This volume contains the poetic fragments of the two illustrious singers of early sixth-century Lesbos: Sappho, the most famous woman poet of antiquity, whose main theme was love; and Alcaeus, poet of wine, war, and politics, and composer of short hymns to the gods. Also included are the principal testimonia, the ancients' reports on the lives and work of the...

Vitruvius (Marcus V. Pollio), a Roman architect and engineer, studied Greek philosophy and science and gained experience throughout his professional career. He was one of those appointed to oversee imperial artillery or military engines and was the architect of at least one building unit for Augustus during the reconstruction of Rome. Late in life and in ill health, he completed...

Cicero (Marcus Tullius, 106–43 BCE), a Roman lawyer, orator, politician, and philosopher of whom we know more than any other Roman, lived through the stirring era of the rise, dictatorship, and death of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic. In his political speeches and correspondence, we see the excitement, tension, and intrigue of politics and the role he played during...

The Library provides in three books a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Written in a clear and unaffected style, the compendium faithfully follows the Greek literary sources. It is thus an important record of Greek accounts of the origin and early history of the world and their race. This work has been attributed to Apollodorus of...

The Library provides in three books a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Written in a clear and unaffected style, the compendium faithfully follows the Greek literary sources. It is thus an important record of Greek accounts of the origin and early history of the world and their race. This work has been attributed to Apollodorus of...

Herodotus, the great Greek historian, was born about 484 BCE, at Halicarnassus in Caria, Asia Minor, when it was subject to the Persians. He travelled widely in most of Asia Minor, Egypt (as far as Aswan), North Africa, Syria, the country north of the Black Sea, and many parts of the Aegean Sea and the mainland of Greece. He lived,...

Plato, the great philosopher of Athens, was born in 427 BCE. In his early manhood, he was an admirer of Socrates and later founded the famous school of philosophy in the grove of Academus. Much else recorded of his life is uncertain; it is probable that he left Athens for a time after Socrates' execution, while it is possible he...

The wonderful achievement of Greek mathematics is here illustrated in two volumes of selected mathematical works. Volume I contains: The divisions of mathematics; mathematics in Greek education; calculation; arithmetical notation and operations, including square root and cube root; Pythagorean arithmetic, including properties of numbers; square root of 2; proportion and means; algebraic equations; Proclus; Thales; Pythagorean geometry; Democritus; Hippocrates of...

The rollicking comedies of Plautus, who brilliantly adapted Greek plays for Roman audiences c. 205–184 BCE, are the earliest Latin works to survive complete and are cornerstones of the European theatrical tradition from Shakespeare and Molière to modern times. This first volume of a new Loeb edition of all 21 of Plautus's extant comedies presents Amphitruo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, and...

Aristotle, the eminent Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner, and writer, was born in Stagirus in 384 BCE. He was the son of Nicomachus, a physician, and Phaestis. Aristotle studied under Plato in Athens and taught there from 367 to 347 BCE. He later spent three years at the court of a former pupil, Hermeias, in Asia Minor, during which he married...

Augustinus (354–430 CE), son of a pagan, Patricius of Tagaste in North Africa, and his Christian wife Monica, while studying in Africa to become a rhetorician, plunged into a turmoil of philosophical and psychological doubts in search of truth, joining for a time the Manichaean society. He became a teacher of grammar at Tagaste and lived much under the influence...

Cornelius Nepos was born in Cisalpine Gaul but lived in Rome and was a friend of Cicero, Atticus, and Catullus. Most of his writings, which included poems, moral examples from history, a chronological sketch of general history, a geographical work, Lives of Cato the Elder and Cicero, and other biographies, are lost. Extant is a portion of his De Viris...

The passionate and dramatic elegies of Propertius gained him a reputation as one of Rome's finest love poets. Here he portrays the exciting, uneven course of his love affair with Cynthia and tells us much about his contemporaries and the society in which he lives. In later poems, he turns to mythological themes and the legends of early Rome. In...

Aristophanes, one of the world's greatest comic dramatists, has been admired since antiquity for his iridescent wit and beguiling fantasy, exuberant language, and brilliant satire of the social, intellectual, and political life of Athens at its height. This is the fourth and final volume in the new Loeb Classical Library edition of his plays. Frogs was produced in 405 BCE,...

Galen of Pergamum (129–?199/216), physician to the court of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was a philosopher, scientist, medical historian, theoretician, and practitioner who wrote forcefully and prolifically on an astonishing range of subjects. His impact on later eras rivalled that of Aristotle. Galen synthesised the entirety of Greek medicine as a basis for his own doctrines and practice, which comprehensively...

Julian (Flavius Claudius Iulianus), known as "the Apostate", was a Roman Emperor who lived from 331 or 332 to 363 CE. Born and educated in Constantinople as a Christian, he survived a precarious childhood and later dedicated himself to literature and philosophy, ultimately converting to paganism. His studies spanned various Greek cities. In 355, his cousin, Emperor Constantius, summoned him...

Plato, the great philosopher of Athens, was born in 427 BCE. In early manhood an admirer of Socrates, he later founded the famous school of philosophy in the grove Academus. Much else recorded of his life is uncertain; that he left Athens for a time after Socrates' execution is probable; that later he went to Cyrene, Egypt, and Sicily is...

Of the Greek lyric poets, Pindar (ca. 518-438 BCE) was "by far the greatest for the magnificence of his inspiration" in Quintilian's view; Horace judged him "sure to win Apollo's laurels." The esteem of the ancients may help explain why a good portion of his work was carefully preserved. Most of the Greek lyric poets come down to us only...

Aristotle, a great Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner, and writer, was born at Stagirus in 384 BCE as the son of Nicomachus, a physician, and Phaestis. He studied under Plato at Athens and taught there from 367 to 347 BCE. Subsequently, he spent three years at the court of a former pupil, Hermeias, in Asia Minor, and during this time, he...

Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner, and writer, was born at Stagirus in 384 BCE. He was the son of Nicomachus, a physician, and Phaestis. He studied under Plato at Athens and taught there from 367 to 347 BCE. Subsequently, he spent three years at the court of a former pupil, Hermeias, in Asia Minor, and during this time...

Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner, and writer, was born at Stagirus in 384 BCE to Nicomachus, a physician, and Phaestis. He studied under Plato at Athens and taught there from 367–347 BCE. Subsequently, he spent three years at the court of a former pupil, Hermeias, in Asia Minor, and during this time he married Pythias, a relation of...

Appian (Appianus) is among our principal sources for the history of the Roman Republic, particularly in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, and sometimes our only source, as for the Third Punic War and the destruction of Carthage. Born circa AD 95, Appian was an Alexandrian official at ease in the highest political and literary circles who later became a...

Dio Cassius (Cassius Dio), circa 150–235 CE, was born at Nicaea in Bithynia in Asia Minor. Upon the death of his father, who was the Roman governor of Cilicia, he went to Rome in 180. There, he entered the Senate and served as an advocate under the emperor Commodus. Throughout his career, he held several high offices, becoming a close...

Procopius, born at Caesarea in Palestine late in the 5th century, became a lawyer. In 527 CE, he was made legal adviser and secretary of Belisarius, commander against the Persians, and went with Belisarius again in 533 against the Vandals and in 535 against the Ostrogoths. Sometime after 540, he returned to Constantinople. He may have been that Procopius who...

Herodotus, the great Greek historian, was born about 484 BCE, at Halicarnassus in Caria, Asia Minor, when it was subject to the Persians. He travelled widely in most of Asia Minor, Egypt (as far as Assuan), North Africa, Syria, the country north of the Black Sea, and many parts of the Aegean Sea and the mainland of Greece. He lived,...

Aulus Gellius (ca. 123–170 CE) is known almost wholly from his Noctes Atticae, Attic Nights, so called because it was begun during the nights of an Attic winter. The work collects in twenty books (of Book VIII only the index is extant) interesting notes covering philosophy, history, biography, all sorts of antiquities, points of law, literary criticism, and lexicographic matters....

Pausanias, born probably in Lydia in Asia Minor, was a Greek of the 2nd century CE, approximately 120–180, who travelled widely not only in Asia Minor, Palestine, Egypt, and North Africa, but also in Greece and Italy, including Rome. He left a description of Greece in ten books, which is akin to a topographical guidebook or tour of Attica, the...

Nonnos of Panopolis in Egypt, who lived in the fifth century of our era, composed the last great epic poem of antiquity. The Dionysiaca, in 48 books, has for its chief theme the expedition of Dionysus against the Indians. However, the poet contrives to include all the adventures of the god (as well as much other mythological lore) in a...

Achilles Tatius was a Greek from Alexandria in Egypt; he is now believed to have flourished in the second century CE. Of his life, nothing is known, though the Suidas says he became a Christian and a bishop and wrote a work on etymology, one on the sphere, and an account of great men. He is famous, however, for his...

Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian from Agyrium in Sicily, lived approximately between 80–20 BCE. He authored forty books of world history, titled Library of History, divided into three parts: the mythical history of peoples, both non-Greek and Greek, up to the Trojan War; history leading up to Alexander's death in 323 BCE; and history until 54 BCE. In his collection,...

Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian from Agyrium in Sicily, active approximately 80–20 BCE, authored forty books of world history under the title Library of History. This work is structured in three parts: mythical history of various peoples, both non-Greek and Greek, up until the Trojan War; history covering the period up to Alexander the Great's death in 323 BCE; and...

The philosopher Philo was born about 20 BCE to a prominent Jewish family in Alexandria, the chief home of the Jewish Diaspora as well as the chief centre of Hellenistic culture; he was trained in Greek as well as Jewish learning. In attempting to reconcile biblical teachings with Greek philosophy, he developed ideas that had wide influence on Christian and...

The philosopher Philo was born about 20 BCE to a prominent Jewish family in Alexandria, the chief home of the Jewish Diaspora as well as the chief centre of Hellenistic culture. He was trained in Greek as well as Jewish learning. In attempting to reconcile biblical teachings with Greek philosophy, he developed ideas that had wide influence on Christian and...

Cult classics. Orphic Collection delves into the rich tapestry of Orpheus's legacy, who is renowned from Greek mythology as a peerless bard. As the Thracian son of a Muse, Orpheus possessed superhuman musical abilities, famously using them to attempt to rescue his young wife, Eurydice, from Hades, though ultimately losing her on their journey back to the living world. Beyond...

Florus, born apparently in Africa, lived in Spain and in Rome during Hadrian's time. He wrote, in a brief and pointed rhetorical style, a summary of Roman history (especially wars) in two books to demonstrate the greatness and decline of Roman morals. It is based chiefly on Livy. The work was perhaps intended to reach his own times, but the...

Bede "the Venerable," an English theologian and historian, was born in 672 or 673 CE in the territory of the single monastery at Wearmouth and Jarrow. He was ordained deacon (691–2) and priest (702–3) of the monastery, where his whole life was spent in devotion, choral singing, study, teaching, discussion, and writing. Besides Latin, he knew Greek and possibly Hebrew....

Plotinus (204/5-270 CE) was the first and greatest of Neoplatonic philosophers. His writings were edited by his disciple Porphyry, who published them many years after his master's death in six sets of nine treatises each, known as the Enneads. Plotinus regarded Plato as his master, and his own philosophy is a profoundly original development of the Platonism of the first...

Theophrastus of Eresus in Lesbos, born about 370 BCE, is the author of the most important botanical works that have survived from classical antiquity. He was in turn student, collaborator, and successor of Aristotle. Like his predecessor, he was interested in all aspects of human knowledge and experience, especially natural science. His writings on plants form a counterpart to Aristotle's...

Sophocles (497/6–406 BCE), the second of the three great tragedians of Athens, is by common consent one of the world's greatest poets. He wrote more than 120 plays, but only seven of these survive complete. However, we have a wealth of fragments from which much can be learned about Sophocles' language and dramatic art. This volume presents a collection of...

The Greek poetry of the archaic period that we call elegy was composed primarily for banquets and convivial gatherings. Its subject matter consists of almost any topic, excluding only the scurrilous and obscene. In this completely new Loeb Classical Library edition, Douglas Gerber provides a faithful translation of the fragments and significant testimonia that have come down to us, with...

The wonderful achievement of Greek mathematics is here illustrated in two volumes of selected mathematical works. Volume I (Loeb Classical Library no. 335) contains: The divisions of mathematics; mathematics in Greek education; calculation; arithmetical notation and operations, including square root and cube root; Pythagorean arithmetic, including properties of numbers; square root of 2; proportion and means; algebraic equations; Proclus; Thales;...

Tacitus (Cornelius), the famous Roman historian, was born in 55, 56 or 57 CE and lived to about 120. He became an orator and married a daughter of Julius Agricola in 77, before Agricola went to Britain. Tacitus served as quaestor in 81 or 82, was a senator under the Flavian emperors, and a praetor in 88. After a four-year...

Livy (Titus Livius), the great Roman historian, was born at or near Patavium (now Padua) in 64 or 59 BCE. He may have lived mostly in Rome but died at Patavium, in either 12 or 17 CE. Livy's only extant work is part of his history of Rome from the foundation of the city to 9 BCE. Of its 142...

Procopius, born at Caesarea in Palestine late in the 5th century, became a lawyer. In 527 CE, he was made legal adviser and secretary of Belisarius, commander against the Persians. He accompanied Belisarius again in 533 against the Vandals and in 535 against the Ostrogoths. Sometime after 540, he returned to Constantinople. He may have been the Procopius who was...

The Younger Pliny was born in 61 or 62 CE, the son of Lucius Caecilius of Comum (Como) and the Elder Pliny's sister. He was educated at home and then in Rome under Quintilian. He was at Misenum at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 (described in two famous letters) when the Elder Pliny died. Pliny started...

Plutarch (Plutarchus), ca. 45–120 CE, was born at Chaeronea in Boeotia in central Greece. He studied philosophy at Athens and, after coming to Rome as a teacher in philosophy, was given consular rank by the emperor Trajan and a procuratorship in Greece by Hadrian. He was married and the father of one daughter and four sons. He appears as a...

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, born at Corduba (Cordova) around 4 BCE, hailed from a prominent and wealthy family. He spent his ailing childhood and youth in Rome, under the care of an aunt. Throughout his life, he became renowned in rhetoric, philosophy, money-making, and imperial service. Despite experiencing disgrace during Claudius' reign, he later became a tutor and subsequently, in 54...