Expert: Conrad T. Jalowski - 5/10/2008

Question
Please could you list some of the greatest literature from the Ancient World that I may have missed. I studied Latin and Greek at school, so already know of Caesar's works, Virgil's Aeneid, Virgil's The Georgics, Herodotus's Histories, Thucydides' The Pelopponnesian War. I've also read bits and pieces of many other works, that I can't offhand remember the details of (all in the original language), but would like you to cite any other major works that you can think of, that I may have missed.

Thanks,
Geoff

Answer
Greetings sir and thank you for the question,

I must commend you on the vast conglomeration of books that you have read such as Julius Caesar's The Gallic Wars and The Civil War, Herodotus' The Histories, and Thucydides' The History of the Peloponnesian War. Before I get on to answering the main point of your question, I must say that Thucydides' The History of the Peloponnesian War was the most voluptuous for me. Thucydides wrote of a general symmachia under a unicameral synhedrion being the Delian League that was set up to provide an offensive and defensive alliance inimical to the Medio-Achaemenids, to establish thalassocracy within the Propontic, Euxine and Aegean Seas, and to enable mercantile trade to constitute an effervescent and volatile economy. What was an alliance, however, became a despotism. Athens was recognized as the imperial hegemon and suzerain. All of the 'autarchies' or states tributed triremes, manpower and wealth to that vast voracious behemoth being the First Athenian Empire: 478-404 BCE. At first, it consisted of Thessaly, Boeotia, Megaria, however, after the Pentecontaetia Athens relinquished these mainland cleruchies for coastline suzerainties. The First Athenian Empire consisted of the the Archipelago of Naxos or the Cycladic Islands, the Eteokarpathioi of the Dodecanese, Ionia, Caria, Mysia, Lydia, Lycia, Hellespontine Phrygia, Amphipolis, Olynthus, Potidae, Perinthus, Selymbria and Byzantium, the Tauric Chersonesus of Panticapaeum, Locria, Cephallenia, Zacynthus and Corcyra. It was divided into five districts: the Thema Thrace, Thema Ionia, Thema Caria, Thema Hellespontine and Thema Cycladic Islands or the Archipelago of Naxos. Thucydides also mentioned the aetataureate or resultant Golden Age due to the flosculative opulence and pulchritudinous form of the empire. Under Pericles, who in his Funeral Oration or eulogium offered encomium and panegyric to the fallen Athenians, the glory of the greater empire, the ideals of the Athenian citizen who, according to Pericles, was not consumed by hubris but utilized sophrosyne, and that Athenians were not effeminate nor ostentatious but respected the heads of state and opened their capital to the oecumene. What is interesting to note is Pericles' use of the rhetorical devices of antithesis, anacoluthon, anastrophe, asyndeton, hyperbaton and polysyndeton. Overall, Thucydides' work is open to idiographic and nomothetic case-study counterfactuals or any hypothesis that utilizes fact to render a hypothetical situation. (The rise and fall of Athens is similar to the rise and fall of the Deinomenid-Emmanid Dynasty of Syracuse in the fact that both were hubristic and wanted to expand and subjugate to create a multifarious empire.)

As for other antiquity books that you may have missed, other examples include: The Periochae by Titus Livy or the other summary of Titus Livy's History being the Oxyrhynchus Epitome which consists of books 37-40 and 48-55.

Another example includes Justinus' preservation of Pompeius Trogus' The Philippic Histories which is a universal history; here are the book's divisions:

Book 1 - The kings of the Assyrians, Medes and Persians

Book 2 - The early history of Athens; the Persians invade Greece

Book 3 - The early history of Sparta; the start of the Peloponnesian War

Book 4 - The early history of Sicily; the Athenian expedition to Sicily

Book 5 - Alcibiades and the end of the Peloponnesian War; Athens surrenders to Sparta

Book 6 - The domination of Sparta in Greece; Sparta is defeated by the Thebans

Book 7 - The early history of Macedonia

Book 8 - Philippus II expands the kingdom of Macedonia and fights against the Phocians

Book 9 - Philippus defeats the Athenians and the Thebans; the death of Philippus

Book 10 - The death of Artaxerxes III of Persia, and the accession of Dareius III

Book 11 - Alexander invades Asia; the defeat and death of Dareius

Book 12 - The despotic behaviour of Alexander; his invasion of India, and death at Babylon

Book 13 - The regency and death of Perdiccas; Antipater suppresses a Greek revolt

Book 14 - Antigonus defeats Eumenes; Cassander puts Olympias to death.

Book 15 - The wars of Antigonus against Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Cassander.

Book 16 - Demetrius, Lysimachus and Pyrrhus fight over Macedonia; the history of Heracleia.

Book 17 - The deaths of Lysimachus and Seleucus; Pyrrhus and the history of Epirus.

Book 18 - The war between Pyrrhus and the Romans; the early history of Carthage.

Book 19 - The Carthaginians in Sicily; the army of Himilco is destroyed by a plague

Book 20 - The exploits of Dionysius I, tyrant of Syracuse

Book 21 - Dionysius II is expelled from Syracuse

Book 22 - Agathocles becomes tyrant of Syracuse, and invades Africa.

Book 23 - The death of Agathocles; Pyrrhus and Hieron in Sicily.

Book 24 - The Gauls kill Ptolemaeus Ceraunus and invade Greece, but are defeated at Delphi.

Book 25 - War between Antigonus and Pyrrhus; the death of Pyrrhus.

Book 26 - The reign of Antigonus Gonatas in Macedonia; Demetrius "the Fair" in Cyrene.

Book 27 - Wars of Seleucus II against Ptolemaeus III, and then against his brother Antiochus.

Book 28 - Revolution in Epirus; Antigonus Doson defeats Cleomenes of Sparta.

Book 29 - Philippus fights against the Aetolians and the Romans.

Book 30 - The weak rule of Ptolemaeus IV in Egypt; the Romans defeat Philippus.

Book 31 - The Romans defeat Antiochus III, king of Syria, and Nabis, tyrant of Sparta.

Book 32 - The deaths of Philopoemen, Antiochus, Demetrius, Philippus and Hannibal.

Book 33 - The Romans defeat Perseus and gain control of Macedonia.

Book 34 - The Romans defeat the Achaeans, and force Antiochus IV out of Egypt.

Book 35 - Alexander Balas defeats and kills Demetrius I of Syria.

Book 36 - Antiochus VII attacks the Jews; Attalus III bequeaths Asia to the Romans.

Book 37 - The early adventures of Mithridates.

Book 38 - Mithridates invades Asia; the Parthians defeat Antiochus VII.

Book 39 - Civil war in Egypt and Syria.

Book 40 - Tigranes of Armenia invades Syria; Syria becomes a Roman province.

Book 41 - The early history of the Parthians; the reign of Eucratides, king of Bactria.

Book 42 - The early history of Armenia; the expansion of the Parthian empire.

Book 43 - The early history of Rome and Massilia.

Book 44 - Spain and Lusitania; Augustus completes the conquest of Spain.

Another example includes Eutropius' Breviarium Historiae Romanae which in ten books wrote of the history of Rome from its foundation to the acession of Basileus and Porphyrogennetus Valens.

Another example includes Sallust's works on the Catiline Conspiracy with the appellation of De coniuratione Catilinae or Bellum Catilinae, and of the Jugurthine Wars with the appellation of Bellum Jugurthinum.

Another example of a major work is Suetonius' Lives of the Twelve  Caesars, or of the lives of  Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian.

I hope this has helped,

                      Conrad Jalowski