The True Aesthete

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Classics Masterlist

The True Aesthete

The School of Athens, Raphael

When I first began learning about the major classical works, I failed to find exactly what I wanted; a single source listing major, extant works of ancient: history, philosophy, and fiction, that were widely available in a physical format, and in a chronological order. So here I present what I was looking for three years ago.

 

Useful Resources

History

N.B. Bracketed dates are the periods the works cover, not when the works were written

 

Greek

Roman

  • Livy - History of Rome (753-9 BC)

    • Books 1-5 (753-390 BC)

    • Books 6-10 (389-293 BC)

    • Books 21-30 (218-202 BC; cover the Hannibalic War)

    • Books 31-40 (201-179 BC)

    • Books 41-45 (178-167 BC)

    • Books 46-142 (166-9 BC)

Livy's magnum opus is divided into separate volumes in groups of 5-10 books (chapters) by modern publishers. Books 46-142 only survive in summaries which together, are called The Periochae. As these are only summaries of full books, I would come back to these after reading other, better sources, for this period.

I can highly recommend the Oxford World Classics editions of Livy. I loved the translations, and they have great introductions, detailed notes, and maps.

Focuses a lot on history and events outside of Rome.

The Oxford edition of this also includes the continuations by Anonymous Sources of the Alexandrian, African, and Hispanic Wars)

  • Appian - Roman History (133-35 BC)

Originally in 24 books, only parts now survive; but the five books (13-17) on the Civil War are the only detailed source covering the period. An excellent work.

Biographies of the first Emperors. Not the most trustworthy source, but great fun.

Cover the reigns of the emperors Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero.

A sequel to Suetonius. Incredibly inaccurate but like Suetonius, great fun. The second half is now regarded as pure fiction.

After I finished the younger Pliny's Letters, I began working my way through some secondary historical works that I had acquired. These continued from around the early 2nd Century AD, through to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, and down to the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453 AD.

Although these are not primary works, they are all excellent, and classics of modern history

A magisterial 5-volume work published 1854-1856, which begins with the founding of Rome in 753 BC and goes down to the reign of Julius Caesar. This work helped Mommsen win the Nobel Prize for Literature; this being the only work of History to receive such an honour.

Sadly, the beautiful Folio Society edition is abridged, and although I strongly agree with Montaigne's view that "every abridgement of a good book is a foolish abridgement.", I would still recommend it; it is intelligently abridged (as far as such a phrase can be used), and beautifully produced. There are unabridged, multi-volume editions available.

The immortal and monumental six-volume epic. Gibbon was somewhat biased in his views on Byzantium, or the eastern roman empire, and so for this reason, if you find you are interested in Byzantium, I would recommend supplementing Gibbon with other works, of which, Norwich's excellent 3-volume history below is an excellent place to start.

Gibbon's work is famous for its incredibly large number of footnotes. Personally, I sought a copy which contained all of these, and if you desire the same, there are three editions which I would recommend:

  • 6-volume edition (edited by J. B. Bury) published by Everyman's Library

  • 3-volume edition (edited by J. B. Bury) published by The Heritage Press

  • 3-volume edition (edited by David Womersley) published by Allen Lane/The Penguin Press

If in doubt, go with the Everyman's Library edition.

Published 1880-1899 in 8 volumes. Beginning with the history of the Goths and Alaric's siege of Rome, it continues with the Huns and Vandals, the Ostrogoths, Lombards, finally ending with the Franks and the crowning and death of Charlemagne down to 814 AD. It's thoroughly researched (for it's time; as was Gibbon), and made even more impressive by the fact that Hodgkin worked on it during his spare time as a Banker, working at a house that would eventually become Lloyds, which still exists to this day.

N.B. The Folio Society edition is renamed: The Barbarian Invasions of the Roman Empire. Despite this name change, it is complete and unabridged.

An excellent, accessible work opening with Constantine in 274 AD, and running up to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD. Great if you enjoyed reading about the Eastern Empire in Gibbon, and would like to learn more. I would urge you to read the complete, 3 volume edition, and not his condensed, A Short History of Byzantium.

Fiction

N.B. Bracketed dates are when the authors were alive

 

Greek

Contain some interesting information about Greek Mythology, but these poems are not as interesting or expansive as Homer.

The two Greek epics. You could read the Aeneid as a sequel to The Iliad.

A collection of poems commonly attributed to Homer in antiquity.

A collection of poems and fragments of iambic, elegiac, and melic poets.

 Incredibly dense and allusive.

Some incredibly powerful Dramatical works. I would highly recommend reading Aristotle's Poetics beforehand, which is a superb exploration of dramatic theory.

  Bucolic/pastoral poetry.

A short epic about Jason & The Golden Fleece

  • "Pseudo-Apollodorus" (1st/2nd Century AD)

An excellent collection of Greek Mythology.

The two above are short novels.

Latin

Latin Playwright.

Latin playwright.

A poem transmitting the ideas of Epicureanism.

Beautiful poems full of energy and passion, often dedicated to his Love, Lesbia.

The Aeneid follows Aeneas after the Trojan War and could be read as a sequel to The Iliad. Virgil wished for his masterpiece to be burned following his death. His two other works are, respectively, bucolic/pastoral poetry, and a didactic poem on agriculture

Beautiful elegiac poetry, some of which is dedicated to his Love, Delia.

His Satires contain some excellent ethical discussion, and this continues in his Epistles, whilst his Odes & Epodes are an outstanding collection of poetry.

Beautiful poems often dedicated to his love, Cynthia.

Ovid's epic, the Metamorphoses, contain stories from Greek & Roman mythology.

Seneca's tragedies. See his philosophical works below.

Unfortunately incomplete, the surviving sections are interesting nevertheless, especially the section known as Trimalchio's Dinner.

A poem detailing the war between Caesar & Pompey.

A must read, very entertaining.

Philosophy

Ancient Greek

There are a number of pre-socratic philosophers which I will not list, but more information can be found in the link above; they were primarily focused with cosmology, ontology, and mathematics.

Famous for his "Socratic Method", Socrates did not write anything down, and so his views are preserved through other philosophers, the main two being Plato and Xenophon.

The first nine bullet-points are ordered according to the canon of Thrasyllus, who arranged Plato's dialogues into nine tetralogies (groups of four), according to subject. All of the works on the last bullet-point are generally regarded as spurious, as well as as the ones asterisked in the tetralogies. I would recommend reading all of Plato's works, both authentic and spurious.

Socratic dialogues.

Works marked with an asterisk are generally considered spurious. Unlike Plato, I would not recommend reading all of Aristotle's works (at least, not at first). This is because a lot of his works like the ones on animals, can get very repetitive, and do not contain relatively deep insights or discussions. I would recommend starting with his Major Works: Nicomachean Ethics, Magna Moralia, Eudemian Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, Poetics, and The Organon (if you like Metaphysics). The Problems, a collection of almost 900 problems written in a question-and-answer format, can make for some entertaining reading.

Stoicism

A collection of 124 letters addressed to his friend Lucilius showcasing Seneca's brand of stoicism through discussions on a wide variety of subjects. These had a significant influence on Montaigne. Possibly my favourite work of Philosophy.

His Discourses were written down from his lectures by his pupil, Arrian. The Enchridion is something of a handbook of brief, practical precepts.

 An excellent text containing brief thoughts and musings from the great Roman Emperor.

Other

A collection of 78 essays and speeches which is unfortunately, not easily available in a physical format, although complete electronic editions can be found quite easily online. From what I've seen of them via Montaigne, they seem incredibly interesting.

Others

A very entertaining short work, recounting the march of ten thousand Greek mercenary soldiers from Persia back to Greece.

Collected together in this Oxford World Classics Volume are the works Catasterisms by Eratosthnes, The Poetic Astronomy by Hyginus, and the poem Phaenomena by Aratus. The works all provide information on the constellations. The volume is superbly structured, and contains an excellent introduction and detailed notes.

His letters are very interesting and provide insights into Roman life during the time of Pompey and Caesar. He is also well known for being one of the greatest orators, and his wide range of orations certainly prove this.

The world’s first encyclopaedia. Pliny was alive 23-79 AD. Penguin publishes a selection from his work, and the Folio Society has a beautifully produced complete edition in five-volumes.

The nephew of the Elder Pliny, the younger was alive 61-113 AD. His letters are a mixture of everyday life, and administrative insights.

Alive 46-120 AD, Plutarch's collection of 50 Lives is a detailed and entertaining source for various individuals and periods throughout. Many of them do an excellent job in humanising these figures throughout history, and really fleshing them out as living, breathing, human beings.

Although originally presented as a pair (one Greek life with one Roman, followed by a short comparison) after having read them in this way, I personally would recommend reading whichever lives you have an interest in, in any order you want. You could the Greek Lives as you're reading about Greek History and do the same for the Roman Lives, or you could simply read them at any time, in any order you like.

Oxford & Penguin have produced editions where they have organised the biographies by time periods.

Alive ~37-100 AD, Joesphus' History chronicles the first Jewish-Roman War (66-73 AD), culminating in the capture of Jerusalem by the Roman Emperor Titus.

Alive 155-235 AD, Dio's work consists of 80 books chronicling the History of Rome from the foundation up to 229 AD. Only books 37-54 remain almost fully extant; of the rest, only fragments survive.

Alive in the 3rd century AD, Diogenes wrote biographies of no fewer than 82 Greek Philosophers.

Alive ~110-180 AD, Pausanias wrote a comprehensive geographical guide to Greece in 10 books for a Roman audience.

Alive ~120-180 AD, Lucian wrote a large number of satirical works and dialogues.

Alive in the 1st century BC; Diodorus wrote a universal history in 40 books. Only books 1-5, and 11-20 have survived intact.

Alive in the 1st century BC/AD, Dionysius wrote a work of Roman History in 20 books. Books 1-9 are complete, 10 & 11 nearly complete, and the rest are fragmentary.

Alive ~74-130 AD, Florus wrote a bombastic short sketch of Roman History compiled chiefly from Livy, from the foundation of the city to the closing of the temple of Janus by Augustus in 25 BC.

Alive ~170-240AD, Herodian wrote a history in 8 books covering the years 180-238 AD.

Alive ~40-103 AD, Frontinus composed a work on the state of the aqueducts of Rome in two books, which was presented to Nerva or Trajan. 

Alive ~64 BC-24 AD, Strabo wrote an encyclopaedia of geographical knowledge.

Alive from the mid-4th century to the mid-3rd century, the Elements is a major work of geometry, and was taught in schools and universities for centuries.

Alive ~100-170 AD, the Almagest was an incredibly influential mathematical and astronomical treatise.