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Documents for "Classical Literature: Biographies":
  • Aelian fl. 2d cent. AD, Greek rhetorician, b. Praenesta; his original name was Claudius Aelianus. He taught rhetoric in Rome c.220. His works, all in Greek, include Historical Miscellanies, stories of supernatural...
  • Aeschines c.390-314? BC, Athenian orator, rival of Demosthenes. Aeschines rose from humble circumstances and became powerful in politics because of his oratorical gifts. At first he opposed Philip II of Macedon, then later changed sides, arguing that...
  • Aeschylus 525-456 BC, Athenian tragic dramatist, b. Eleusis. The first of the three great Greek writers of tragedy, Aeschylus was the predecessor of Sophocles and Euripides.
  • Aesop legendary Greek fabulist. According to Herodotus, he was a slave who lived in Samos in the 6th cent. BC and eventually was freed by his master. Other accounts associate him with many wild...
  • Agathon c.450-c.400 BC, Athenian tragedian. Plato's Symposium has as its scene the celebration of Agathon's first dramatic victory. Less than 40 lines of his work survive.
  • Alcaeus c.620-c.580 BC, Greek lyric poet of Lesbos. An aristocrat, he was often embroiled in political battles with the ruling tyrants. He wrote drinking songs, hymns, love songs, and political odes. He...
  • Alciphron fl. c.AD 200?, Greek satirist. His only extant work, in fine Attic style, consists of over 100 fictitious letters from ordinary people living in Athens in the 4th cent. BC
  • Alcman fl. 620 BC, Greek lyric poet of Sparta. He was the earliest writer of Dorian choral poetry whose work has survived. Short choral fragments and a longer one (part of a parthenion or choir song for...
  • Anacreon c.570-c.485 BC, Greek lyric poet, b. Teos in Ionia. He lived at Samos and at Athens, where his patron was Hipparchus. His poetry, graceful and elegant, celebrates the joys of wine and love. Little...
  • Andocides c.440-390 BC, one of the Ten Attic Orators (see oratory ). In 415 BC he was accused of mutilating the hermae (sacred pillars topped by busts of the gods) and, in association with Alcibiades , of other sacrilege. He went into exile, and one of his speeches was a plea to be restored to citizenship. After he returned in 403, he was again accused (399) of sacrilege and again successfully...
  • Apollinaris Sidonius (Caius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius) , fl. 455-75, Latin writer, b. Lyons. He had a minor role in imperial politics and was bishop of Clermont. Although his panegyric poetry is of little consequence, his letters are an interesting...
  • Apollodorus (of Athens), fl. 2d cent. BC, Greek scholar. He wrote many works on grammar, history, and mythology. His best-known books, only fragments of which survive, are On the Gods, a prose treatise; and his...
  • Apollonius Rhodius fl. 3d cent. BC, epic poet of Alexandria and Rhodes. He became librarian at Alexandria. His extant work, the Argonautica, is a Homeric imitation in four books on the story of the Argonaut heroes....
  • Apuleius, Lucius c.124-c.170, Latin writer, satirist, rhetorician, b. Hippo (now Bône, Algeria). His narrative romance The Golden Ass or Metamorphoses is the only Latin work of fiction to survive in entirety. It tells the story of Lucius of Corinth, who is transformed into an ass by a Thessalian woman and undergoes a series of strange and...
  • Aratus fl. 3d cent. BC, Greek court poet, from Soli in Cilicia. He wrote an astronomical treatise, Phenomena, which was quoted by Paul at Athens.
  • Archilochus fl. c.700 or c.650 BC, Greek poet, b. Paros. As an innovator in the use and construction of the personal lyric, his language was intense and often violent. Many fragments of his verse survive.
  • Arion Greek poet, inventor of the dithyramb. He is said to have lived at Periander's court in Corinth in the late 7th cent. BC A legend repeated by Herodotus tells how, having been thrown overboard by...
  • Aristarchus of Samothrace c.217-c.145 BC, Greek scholar, successor to his teacher, Aristophanes of Byzantium, as librarian at Alexandria. He was an innovator of scientific scholarship, and his critical revision of Homer is...
  • Aristophanes c.448 BC-c.388 BC, Greek playwright, Athenian comic poet, greatest of the ancient writers of comedy. His plays, the only full extant samples of the Greek Old Comedy, mix political, social, and literary satire. The direct attack on persons, the severity of invective, and the burlesque...
  • Aristophanes of Byzantium c.257-180 BC, Greek scholar. He was librarian at Alexandria, edited various texts, and reputedly invented the Greek diacritical marks. Aristarchus of Samothrace was his pupil.
  • Athenaeus fl. c.200, Greek writer, b. Naucratis, Egypt. His anthological work, the Deipnosophistae (Banquet of the Sophists), is a collection of anecdotes and excerpts from ancient writers whose works are otherwise...
  • Ausonius (Decimus Magnus Ausonius) , c.310-c.395, Latin poet and man of letters, b. Bordeaux. He tutored Gratian, who, when he ascended the throne, made Ausonius prefect of Gaul, and finally consul (379). When Gratian died, Ausonius...
  • Babrius fl. 2d cent.?, Greek fabulist, versifier of the fables of Aesop. Many of the medieval prose collections of Aesop were based on Babrius. He may have been a Hellenized Roman.
  • Bacchylides fl. c.470 BC, Greek lyric poet, b. Ceos; nephew of Simonides of Ceos. A contemporary of Pindar, he was patronized by Hiero I. His poetry is noted for its narrative powers, clarity, and lucidity. A...
  • Bion fl. 2d cent.? BC, Greek bucolic poet, an imitator of Theocritus, b. Phlossa, near Smyrna. Only fragments of his work survive. The Lament for Adonis, attributed to him, was the model for Shelley's...
  • Callimachus fl. c.280-45 BC, Hellenistic Greek poet and critic, b. Cyrene. Educated at Athens, he taught before obtaining work in the Alexandrian library. There he drew up a catalog, with such copious notes...
  • Callinus fl. 7th cent. BC, Greek poet. He is the earliest of the known elegiac poets. An excerpt from a patriotic exhortation to his fellow Ephesians is the longest of the few fragments of his poetry that...
  • Calpurnius (Titus Calpurnius Siculus) , fl. 1st cent. AD, Roman poet. His Eclogues (seven pastorals) imitate Vergil with grace and charm.
  • Capella, Martianus fl. 5th cent.?, Latin writer, b. Carthage. His one famous work, The Marriage of Mercury and Philology, also called the Satyricon and Disciplinae, is a long allegory about the liberal arts. Its...
  • Catullus (Caius Valerius Catullus) , 84? BC-54? BC, Roman poet, b. Verona. Of a well-to-do family, he went c.62 BC to Rome. He fell deeply in love, probably with Clodia, sister of Cicero's opponent Publius Clodius. She was suspected...
  • Censorinus fl. c.238, Roman grammarian. He wrote De die natali [on the day of birth], an essay partly astrological, partly chronological, which affords much information on ancient methods of computing time....
  • Claudian (Claudius Claudianus) , c.370-c.404, last notable Latin classic poet. Probably born in Alexandria, he flourished at court under Arcadius and Honorius. Besides panegyrics, idylls, epigrams, and occasional poems, he wrote...
  • Corinna fl. c.500? BC, Greek poet of Tanagra. Her verse, fragments of which remain, deals with mythological themes and is written in Boeotian dialect. There exists no consensus on the date of her poetry,...
  • Crates fl. 449 BC, Athenian comic dramatist. He is said to have introduced into comedy themes other than those of personal satire, and he was one of the first to show the comic possibilities of the...
  • Cratinus d. c.419 BC, Athenian comic dramatist. He won the prize at the Athenian drama contest when Aristophanes competed with The Clouds and was regarded with Aristophanes and Eupolis as one of the greatest...
  • Didymus Chalcenterus fl. 1st cent. BC, Hellenistic Greek grammarian and expositor. Famous for his prodigious literary output, he supposedly produced over 3,500 works. He collated much of the work of the Alexandrian...
  • Dio Chrysostom d. after AD 112, Greek Sophist and orator [Chrysostom=golden-mouthed], b. Prusa (modern Bursa) in Bithynia. He lived at Rome under Emperor Domitian, who subsequently banished him. He traveled...
  • Dionysius Periegetes fl. c.300? BC, Greek poet. He wrote the poem Description of the Inhabited Earth, which was popular in antiquity.
  • Dionysius Thrax [Lat.,=the Thracian], c.170-c.90 BC, Greek grammarian of Alexandria. His Art of Grammar remained a standard work for centuries and was a model for subsequent grammars.
  • Diphilus fl. 300 BC, Greek dramatist of the New Comedy, b. Sinope. His many dramas (perhaps 100) were extensively adapted by Plautus and Terence and influenced the entire Roman stage. The fragments of his...
  • Duris of Samos fl. 3d cent. BC, Greek historian. A descendent of Alcibiades , Duris was tyrant of Samos for a time. He wrote Samian Chronicle —a history of Samos—and a rambling history of Greece and...
  • Ennius, Quintus 239-169? BC, Latin poet, regarded by the Romans as the father of Latin poetry, b. Calabria. His birthplace was the meeting point of three civilizations—Oscan, Greek, and Latin—and Ennius learned...
  • Epicharmus c.550-c.460 BC, Sicilian Greek comic dramatist. He was the first to write a coherent artistic comedy, and he dealt with forms other than personal satire such as mythological burlesque.
  • Eratosthenes c.275-c.195 BC, Greek scholar, b. Cyrene. A pupil of Callimachus in Athens, he became (c.240 BC) head of the library at Alexandria. Known for his versatility, he wrote poetry and works (most of them lost) on literature, the theater (notably on ancient comedy),...
  • Euphorion c.275-187? BC, Greek poet, b. Chalcis. He was made (c.223 BC) librarian at Antioch by Antiochus the Great and held the position until his death. Highly regarded by Latin poets of the 1st cent. BC,...
  • Eupolis fl. 430-411 BC, Athenian comic poet. He seems to have collaborated with Aristophanes, whom he also attacked; another of his victims was Alcibiades. His plays, satirical and malicious, were greatly...
  • Euripides 480 or 485-406 BC, Greek tragic dramatist, ranking with Aeschylus and Sophocles. Born in Attica, he lived in Athens most of his life, though he spent much time on Salamis. He died in Macedonia, at the court of King Archelaus. He wrote perhaps 92 plays (the first produced in...
  • Fronto (Marcus Cornelius Fronto) , fl. 2d cent., Roman teacher and rhetorician, b. Numidia, Africa. Antoninus Pius made him consul in 143. A successful teacher and government official, Fronto was an admirer of the early Latin...
  • Heliodorus of Emesa fl. 3d cent., Syrian Greek writer. He wrote the romance Aethiopica, one of the oldest and best of surviving Greek romances. Little is known of his life except that he was a Phoenician from Emesa,...
  • Herodas fl. 3d cent. BC, Greek poet. He wrote realistic mimes in choliambic verse often depicting bawdy situations. A papyrus containing some 700 readable lines by Herodes is extant. His name is also...
  • Herodes Atticus (Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes) , c.101-c.177, Greek Sophist, rhetorician, and patron of learning, b. Marathon. A great public benefactor, he used his fortune to adorn Athens and other Greek cities. One speech, doubtfully...
  • Hesiod fl. 8th cent.? BC, Greek poet. He is thought to have lived later than Homer, but there is no absolute certainty about the dates of his life. Hesiod portrays himself as a Boeotian farmer. Little is...
  • Hipponax fl. 540 BC, Greek iambic poet. Banished from Ephesus after insulting the tyrants there, he went to live in Clazomenae. He is believed to have been the inventor of the choliambic, or "limping" iambic...
  • Homer principal figure of ancient Greek literature; the first European poet.
  • Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) , 65 BC-8 BC, Latin poet, one of the greatest of lyric poets, b. Venusia, S Italy. He studied at Rome and Athens and, joining Brutus and the republicans, fought (42 BC) at Philippi. Returning to...
  • Horatius (Horatius Cocles) , legendary Roman hero. With two companions he held Lars Porsena's Etruscan army at bay while the Romans cut down the Sublician Bridge (connecting Rome with the road westward) behind them. Horatius...
  • Ibycus fl. before 500 BC, Greek lyric poet, b. Rhegium, S Italy. The extant fragments of his work contain the earliest-known example of the triadic choral lyric. He spent some time at the court of...
  • Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenalis) , fl. 1st to 2d cent. AD, Roman satirical poet. His verse established a model for the satire of indignation, in contrast to the less harsh satire of ridicule of Horace. Little is known about his...
  • Lasus fl. 6th cent. BC, Greek poet from the town of Hermione in Argolis. He is said to have been Pindar's teacher. Lasus contributed to the development of the dithyramb.
  • Livius Andronicus fl. 3d cent. BC, Roman poet, a Greek, b. Tarentum (Taranto). He was captured and made a slave at the fall of Tarentum and was freed by his master, a Livian noble, hence his name. Later he became a...
  • Longinus fl. 1st cent.? AD, Greek literary critic; writer of the famous treatise On the Sublime. Nothing is known of his life, and for a long time his work was attributed to Cassius Longinus. On the Sublime...
  • Longus fl. 3d cent. AD, Greek writer. The pastoral romance Daphnis and Chloë is attributed to him. Idyllic in nature, the poem tells the charming story of the love of a goatherd and a shepherdess....
  • Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) , AD 39-AD 65, Latin poet, b. Córdoba, Spain, nephew of the philosopher Seneca. At first in Nero's favor, he was later forced to kill himself when his part in a plot against the emperor was...
  • Lucian b. c.120, d. after 180, Greek writer, also called Lucianus, b. Samosata, Syria. In late life he held a government position in Egypt. Lucian wrote an easy, masterly Attic prose, which he turned to...
  • Lucilius, Gaius c.180-102? BC, Latin satiric poet, considered the founder of Latin satire, b. Campania, Italy. About 1,300 fragments survive from his 30 books. He influenced Horace, Persius, and Juvenal.
  • Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus) , c.99 BC-c.55 BC, Roman poet and philosopher. Little is known about his life. A chronicle of St. Jerome speaks of the loss of his reason through taking a love potion. It states that in sane...
  • Lycophron fl. early 3d cent. BC, b. Chalcis, Alexandrian Greek poet, one of the Pleiad. His only extant poem Cassandra or Alexandra, is an obscure and difficult work in iambic verse. In ancient times his...
  • Macrobius fl. c.430, Latin writer and philosopher. His Saturnalia, a dialogue in seven books chiefly concerned with a literary evaluation of Vergil, incorporates valuable quotations from other writers. He also...
  • Manilius, Marcus fl. AD 10, Roman poet. Of his didactic poem on astrology, the Astronomica, five books remain. These may or may not have constituted the whole work.
  • Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis) , c.AD 40-c.AD 104, Roman epigrammatic poet, b. Bilbilis, Spain. After AD 64 he lived in Rome for many years, winning fame by his wit and poetic gifts. He enjoyed the patronage of Domitian, Titus,...
  • Menander 342?-291? BC, Greek poet, the most famous writer of New Comedy. He wrote ingenious plays using the love plot as his theme; his style is elegant and elaborate and his characters are highly...
  • Mimnermus fl. late 7th cent. BC, Greek elegiac poet of Colophon in Ionia. Only fragments of his poetry survive. Although he mainly wrote love poetry, he did write some martial and historical verse as well...
  • Moschus fl. c.150 BC, Greek bucolic poet of the school of Theocritus. He is called a Syracusan and lived in Alexandria. Among his few extant pieces is an idyl on Europa. Although Lament for Bion, a beautiful...
  • Naevius, Gnaeus c.264-195 BC, Roman poet and dramatist. Born in Campania, he served in the first Punic War (264-241 BC), which he evoked in De Bello Punico. Now only available in fragments, this work is considered the first Latin epic. In his plays, Naevius satirized Roman society from the perspective of a plebeian. Forced to leave Rome, he retired to...
  • Nonnus fl. 5th cent.?, Greek poet, b. Panopolis, Egypt. His extant epic, Dionysiaca (in 48 books), a collection of legends about Dionysus, has innovations in meter that predict the later accentual versification. He is probably also the author of a hexameter version of the Gospel...
  • Oppian fl. 2d cent., Greek poet. He is the author of a didactic poem (in five books of hexameters) on fishing called Halieutica. Two other poems, formerly attributed to Oppian, are now believed to be by...
  • Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) , 43 BC-AD 18, Latin poet, b. Sulmo (present-day Sulmona), in the Apennines. Although trained for the law, he preferred the company of the literary coterie at Rome. He enjoyed early and widespread...
  • Palladius fl. 4th cent. AD, Roman author. He was a specialist on agriculture and possessed estates in both Italy and Sardinia. Palladius wrote a 14-volume treatise on farming that was well known in the...
  • Persius or Aulus Persius Flaccus , AD 34-AD 62, Roman satirical poet, b. Etruria. A member of a distinguished family, he went to Rome in boyhood, was educated there, and came under the influence of the Stoic philosopher Lucius...
  • Petronius d. c.AD 66, Roman satirist, known as Petronius Arbiter because of his now generally accepted identity with Gaius Petronius, to whom Tacitus refers as arbiter elegantiae in the court of Nero. According to Tacitus, Petronius served first as proconsul, then as consul of Bithynia. He is remembered