Top 87 Ancient works in the Loeb Classical Library

Of the some 450 volumes in the Loeb series, here are the most widely read!

Updated November 17, 2023
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Metamorphoses
Apuleius.
Paper Book
A beguiling tale of mistaken transformation. In the Metamorphoses of Apuleius, also known as The Golden Ass, we have the only Latin novel which survives entire. It is truly enchanting: a delightful romance combining realism and magic. The hero,...
Aristophanes
Aristophanes.
Paper Book
The master of Old Comedy. Aristophanes of Athens, 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...
The art of rhetoric
Aristotle.
Paper Book
With the emergence of democracy in the city-state of Athens in the years around 460 BC, public speaking became an essential skill for politicians in the Assemblies and Councils - and even for ordinary citizens in the courts of law. In response, the technique of rhetoric rapidly developed, bringing...
Aristotle, the Politics
Aristotle.
Paper Book
This new edition of The Politics provides students with an unusually lucid and accessible account of this complex, difficult and enormously influential work. It is based on Jonathan Barnes' revision of the renowned Jowett translation, and includes detailed note, a guide to further reading and a...
The art of rhetoric
Aristotle.
Paper Book
With the emergence of democracy in the city-state of Athens in the years around 460 BC, public speaking became an essential skill for politicians in the Assemblies and Councils - and even for ordinary citizens in the courts of law. In response, the technique of rhetoric rapidly developed, bringing...
Poetics
Aristotle.
Paper Book
Classic criticism. This volume brings together the three most influential ancient Greek treatises on literature. Aristotle's Poetics contains his treatment of Greek tragedy: its history, nature, and conventions, with details on poetic diction. Stephen...
The Gallic war
Caesar, Julius.
Paper Book
The conquest that begot the Roman Empire. Caesar (C. Iulius, 102-44 BC), statesman and soldier, defied the dictator Sulla; served in the Mithridatic wars and in Spain; entered Roman politics as a "democrat" against the senatorial government; was the real leader of the...
On moral ends
Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
Paper Book
This new translation makes one of the most important texts in ancient philosophy freshly available to modern readers. Cicero was an intelligent and well-educated amateur philosopher, and in this work he presents the major ethical theories of his time in a way designed to get the reader...
De officiis/On duties
Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
Paper Book
The republic ; and, The laws
Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
Paper Book
`However one defines Man, the same definition applies to us all. This is sufficient proof that there is no essential difference within mankind.' (Laws l.29-30) Cicero's The Republic is an impassioned plea for responsible governement written just before the civil war that ended the Roman Republic in...
The letters to his brother Quintus
Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
Paper Book
De senectute ; De amicitia ; De divinatione
Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
Paper Book
Three late dialogues. Cicero (Marcus Tullius, 106-43 BC), Roman lawyer, orator, politician, and philosopher, of whom we know more than of any other Roman, lived through the stirring era that saw the rise, dictatorship, and death of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic. In his...
M. Tulli Ciceronis scripta quae manserunt omnia. Fasc 44, Tusculanae disputationes
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Ebook
No detailed description available for "Tusculanae disputationes".
Bacchae ; Iphigenia at Aulis ; Rhesus
Euripides.
Paper Book
Three plays by ancient Greece's third great tragedian. One of antiquity's greatest poets, Euripides has been prized in every age for the pathos, terror, and intellectual probing of his dramatic creations. The new Loeb Classical Library edition of his plays is in six volumes....
Children of Heracles ; Hippolytus ; Andromache ; Hecuba
Euripides.
Paper Book
Four plays by ancient Greece's third great tragedian. One of antiquity's greatest poets, Euripides has been prized in every age for the pathos, terror, and intellectual probing of his dramatic creations. The new Loeb Classical Library edition of his plays is in six volumes.
Euripides
Euripides.
Paper Book
Three plays by ancient Greece's third great tragedian. One of antiquity's greatest poets, Euripides has been prized in every age for the pathos, terror, and intellectual probing of his dramatic creations. The new Loeb Classical Library edition of his plays is in six volumes....
Helen ; Phoenician women ; Orestes
Euripides.
Paper Book
Three plays by ancient Greece's third great tragedian. One of antiquity's greatest poets, Euripides has been prized in every age for the pathos, terror, and intellectual probing of his dramatic creations. The new Loeb Classical Library edition of his plays is in six volumes....
Suppliant women ; Electra ; Heracles
Euripides.
Paper Book
Three plays by ancient Greece's third great tragedian. One of antiquity's greatest poets, Euripides has been prized in every age for the pathos, terror, and intellectual probing of his dramatic creations. The new Loeb Classical Library edition of his plays is in six volumes....
Trojan women ; Iphigenia among the Taurians ; Ion
Euripides.
Paper Book
Three plays by ancient Greece's third great tragedian. One of antiquity's greatest poets, Euripides has been prized in every age for the pathos, terror, and intellectual probing of his dramatic creations. The new Loeb Classical Library edition of his plays is in six volumes....
Method of medicine
Galen.
Paper Book
Antiquity's most prolific and influential medical writer and practitioner. Galen of Pergamum (129-?199/216), physician to the court of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was a philosopher, scientist, and medical historian, a theoretician and practitioner, who wrote forcefully and...
Greek elegiac poetry : from the seventh to the fifth centuries B.C.
Gerber, Douglas E.
Paper Book
Noble verse. 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...
Greek iambic poetry : from the seventh to the fifth centuries BC
Gerber, Douglas E.
Paper Book
Scurrilous verse. The poetry of the archaic period that the Greeks called iambic is characterized by scornful criticism of friend and foe and by sexual license. The purpose of these poems is unclear, but they seem to have some connection with cult songs used in religious...
Hippocrates : Places in man
Hippocrates.
Paper Book
The wide-ranging content of Places in Man represents the entire Hippocratic Corpus: anatomy, physiology, pathology, medical ideology, clinical instruction, traditional love, gynaecology. Despite this wide and varied scope, the work is conceptually coherent and stylistically consistent. In this new...
Hippocrates : Places in man
Hippocrates.
Paper Book
The wide-ranging content of Places in Man represents the entire Hippocratic Corpus: anatomy, physiology, pathology, medical ideology, clinical instruction, traditional love, gynaecology. Despite this wide and varied scope, the work is conceptually coherent and stylistically consistent. In this new...
Iliad
Homer.
Paper Book
The epic tale of wrath and redemption. Here is a new Loeb Classical Library edition of Homer's stirring heroic account of the Trojan war and its passions. The eloquent and dramatic epic poem captures the terrible anger of Achilles, "the best of the Achaeans," over a grave...
The Odyssey
Homer.
Paper Book
The hero's journey home from war. Here is a new Loeb Classical Library edition of the resplendent epic tale of Odysseus' long journey home from the Trojan War and the legendary temptations, delays, and perils he faced at every turn. Homer's classic poem features Odysseus'...
Epodes and odes
Horace.
Paper Book
This fully annotated Latin edition, by Daniel H. Garrison, of Horace's "Epodes, Odes," and "Carmen Saeculare" is the first comprehensive English commentary on these works since 1903. The full text of the "Epodes" is included and placed before the "Odes," as it was originally written and published...
Satires and Epistles of Horace : a modern English verse translation
Horace.
Paper Book
The writings of Horace have exerted strong and continuing influence on writers from his day to our own. Sophisticated and intellectual, witty and frank, he speaks to the cultivated and civilized world of today with the same astringent candor and sprightliness that appeared so fresh at the height of...
Epigrams
Martial.
Paper Book
Poetic concision in abundance. It was to celebrate the opening of the Roman Colosseum in AD 80 that Martial published his first book of poems, "On the Spectacles." Written with satiric wit and a talent for the memorable phrase, the poems in this collection record the broad...
Pindar
Pindar.
Paper Book
The preeminent lyric poet of ancient Greece. Of the Greek lyric poets, Pindar (ca. 518-438 BC) 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...
The last days of Socrates
Plato.
Paper Book
Socrates spent a lifetime analyzing ethical issues, and the Euthyphro finds him outside the court-house, still debating the nature of piety with an arrogant acquaintance. The Apology is both a robust rebuttal to the charges of impiety and corrupting young minds and a definitive defence of the...
Tetrabiblos
Ptolemy
Paper Book
Classic astrology. The Tetrabiblos of the famous astronomer and geographer Claudius Ptolemaeus (ca. AD 100-178) of Egypt consists of four books, the title given in some manuscripts meaning "Mathematical Treatise in Four Books," in others "The Prognostics addressed to...
The orator's education
Quintilian.
Paper Book
A central work in the history of rhetoric. Quintilian, born in Spain about AD 35, became a widely known and highly successful teacher of rhetoric in Rome. The Orator's Education (Institutio Oratoria), a comprehensive training program in twelve books, draws on his...
Suetonius
Suetonius
Paper Book
Antiquity's imperial biographer par excellence. Suetonius (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, born ca. AD 70), son of a military tribune, was at first an advocate and a teacher of rhetoric, but later became the emperor Hadrian's private secretary, 119-121. He dedicated to C....
Tacitus' Agricola, Germany, and Dialogue on orators
Tacitus, Cornelius.
Paper Book
Apology De Spectaculis
Tertullian
Paper Book
Austere apologetics. Q. Septimus Florens Tertullianus (ca. AD 150-222) was born a soldier's son at Carthage, educated in Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, and medicine, and later studied law to became a pleader, remaining a clever and often tortuous arguer. At Rome he...
Virgil
Virgil.
Paper Book
"The classic of all Europe." --T. S. Eliot Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) was born in 70 BC near Mantua and was educated at Cremona, Milan, and Rome. Slow in speech, shy in manner, thoughtful in mind, weak in health, he went back north for a quiet life. Influenced by the...
Anabasis
Xenophon.
Paper Book
Greek mercenaries on the march. Xenophon (ca. 430 to ca. 354 BC) 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,...

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