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Babrius's humorous and pointed fables in Greek verse probably date from the first century CE. From the same period come the lively fables in Latin verse written by Phaedrus, which satirize social and political life in Augustan Rome.

Works such as those of the mime-writer Publilius Syrus, who flourished c. 45 BCE, and Rutilius Namatianus, who gave a graphic account of his voyage from Rome to Gaul in 416 CE, represent the wide variety of theme that lends interest to Latin poetry produced during a period of four and a half centuries.

Fourth century BCE orators were involved in Athenian resistance to Philip of Macedon. Lycurgus was with Demosthenes in the anti-Macedonian faction. Hyperides was also hostile to Philip and led Athenian patriots after 325 BCE. But Dinarchus favored an oligarchy under Macedonian control and Demades supported the Macedonian cause too.

The three surviving works by Sextus Empiricus (c. 160-210 CE) are Outlines of Pyrrhonism, Against the Dogmatists, and Against the Professors. Their value as a source for the history of thought is especially that they represent development and formulation of former sceptic doctrines.

Dio Cassius (Cassius Dio), c. 150-235 CE, was born in Bithynia. Little of his Roman History survives, but missing portions are partly supplied from elsewhere and there are many excerpts. Dio's work is a vital source for the last years of the Roman republic and the first four Roman emperors.

Cyropaedia by Xenophon (c. 430-c. 354 BCE) is a historical romance on the education of the sixth century BCE Persian king Cyrus the Elder that reflects Xenophon's ideas about rulers and government.

The era of Old Comedy (c. 485-c. 380 BCE), when theatrical comedy was created and established, is best known through the extant plays of Aristophanes. But the work of many other poets, including Cratinus and Eupolis, the other members, with Aristophanes, of the canonical Old Comic Triad, survives in fragments.

The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer (eighth century BCE) are the two oldest European epic poems. The former tells of Achilles's anger over an insult to his honour during the Trojan War, and of its consequences for the Achaeans, the Trojans, and Achilles himself.

Sophocles (497/6-406 BCE), considered one of the world's greatest poets, forged tragedy from the heroic excess of myth and legend. Seven complete plays are extant, including Oedipus Tyrannus, Ajax, Antigone, and Philoctetes. Among many fragments that also survive is a substantial portion of the satyr drama The Searchers.

Apuleius (born ca. 125 AD), one of the great stylists of Latin literature, was a prominent figure in Roman Africa best known for his picaresque novel Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass. This edition, new to the Loeb Classical Library, contains Apuleius' other surviving works that are considered genuine.

Tacitus (c. 55-c. 120 CE), renowned for concision and psychology, is paramount as a historian of the early Roman empire. What survives of Histories covers the dramatic years 69-70. What survives of Annals tells an often terrible tale of 14-28, 31-37, and, partially, 47-66.

Heroic epic of the eighth to the fifth century BCE includes poems about Hercules and Theseus, as well as the Theban Cycle and the Trojan Cycle. Genealogical epic of that archaic era includes poems that create prehistories for Corinth and Samos. These works are an important source of mythological record.

The Greek poetry of the seventh to the fifth century BCE 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 the melancholy elegies of the Tristia and the Ex Ponto, Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE) writes as from exile in Tomis on the Black sea, appealing to such people as his wife and the emperor.

Tacitus (c. 55-c. 120 CE), renowned for concision and psychology, is paramount as a historian of the early Roman empire. Agricola includes Agricola's career in Britain. Germania is a description of German tribes as known to the Romans. Dialogus concerns the decline of oratory and education.

In Tetrabiblos, a core text in the history of astrology, the preeminent ancient astronomer Ptolemy (c. 100-178 CE) treats the practical use of astronomical knowledge: making predictions about individuals' lives and the outcome of human affairs.

Aristotle (384-322 BC), the great Greek thinker, researcher, and educator, ranks among the most important and influential figures in the history of philosophy, theology, and science. Rhetoric, probably composed while he was still a member of Plato's Academy, is the first systematic approach to persuasive public speaking and a classic of its kind.

Appian (ca. AD 95-161) is a principal source for the history of the Roman Republic. His theme is the process by which Rome achieved her contemporary prosperity, and his method is to trace in individual books the story of each nation's wars with Rome up through her own civil wars. This Loeb edition replaces the original by Horace White (1912-13).

Though attributed to Hesiod (eighth or seventh century BC) in antiquity, the Catalogue of Women, a presentation of legendary Greek heroes and episodes according to maternal genealogy; The Shield, a counterpoint to the Iliadic shield of Achilles; and certain poems that survive as fragments were likely not composed by Hesiod himself.

In his treatises Hygiene, Thrasybulus, and On Exercise with a Small Ball, Galen of Pergamum addresses topics of preventive medicine, health, and wellness that continue to resonate with practices of modern doctors and physical therapists.

The writings of the Apostolic Fathers (first and second centuries CE) give a rich and diverse picture of Christian life and thought in the period immediately after New Testament times. Some were accorded almost Scriptural authority in the early Church.

Works in this volume recount the circumstances of Socrates' trial and execution in 399 BC. Euthyphro attempts to define holiness; Apology is Socrates' defense speech; in Crito he discusses justice and defends his refusal to be rescued from prison; Phaedo offers arguments for the immortality of the soul.

Volume VIII of the nine-volume Loeb edition of Early Greek Philosophy includes the so-called sophists Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus, Thrasymachus, and Hippias, along with testimonia relating to the life, views, and argumentative style of Socrates.

Volume VII of the nine-volume Loeb edition of Early Greek Philosophy includes the atomists Leucippus and Democritus.

Volume III of the nine-volume Loeb edition of Early Greek Philosophy includes the early Ionian thinkers Xenophanes and Heraclitus.

Volume II of the nine-volume Loeb edition of Early Greek Philosophy presents preliminary chapters on ancient doxography, the cosmological and moral background, and includes the early Ionian thinkers Pherecydes, Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes.

Volume IV of the nine-volume Loeb edition of Early Greek Philosophy presents Pythagoras and the Pythagorean School, including Hippasus, Philolaus, Eurytus, Archytas, Hicetas, and Ecphantus, along with chapters on doctrines not attributed by name and reception.

We know more of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE), lawyer, orator, politician and philosopher, than of any other Roman. Besides much else, his work conveys the turmoil of his time, and the part he played in a period that saw the rise and fall of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic.

Longus's Daphnis and Chloe (second or early third century CE), in which an idealized pastoral environment provides the setting as a boy and girl discover their sexuality, is one of the great works of world literature. Xenophon's Anthia and Habrocomes (first century CE) is perhaps the earliest extant novel.

Plutarch (c. 45-120 CE) wrote on many subjects. His extant works other than the Parallel Lives are varied, about sixty in number, and known as the Moralia (Moral Essays). They reflect his philosophy about living a good life, and provide a treasury of information concerning Greco-Roman society, traditions, ideals, ethics, and religion.