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
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
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,...
Acharnians, Clouds, Knights, Wasps
Aristophanes
Paper Book
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
Aristotle, great Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner, and writer, born at Stagirus in 384 BCE, was the son of Nicomachus, a physician, and Phaestis. He studied under Plato at Athens and taught there (367-47); subsequently he spent three years at the court of a former pupil, Hermeias, in Asia...
Categories On interpretation ; Prior analytics
Aristotle
Paper Book
Aristotle, great Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner, and writer, born at Stagirus in 384 BCE, was the son of Nicomachus, a physician, and Phaestis. He studied under Plato at Athens and taught there (367-47); subsequently he spent three years at the court of a former pupil, Hermeias, in Asia...
The politics of Aristotle
Aristotle.
Ebook
A touchstone in Western debates about society and government, the Politics is Aristotle's classic work on the nature of political community. Here, he argues that people band together into political communities to secure a good and self-sufficient life. He discusses the merits and defects of...
The "art" of rhetoric
Aristotle.
Paper Book
Aristotle, great Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner, and writer, born at Stagirus in 384 BCE, was the son of Nicomachus, a physician, and Phaestis. He studied under Plato at Athens and taught there (367-47); subsequently he spent three years at the court of a former pupil, Hermeias, in Asia...
The Athenian constitution ; The Eudemian ethics ; On virtues and vices
Aristotle.
Paper Book
Aristotle, great Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner, and writer, born at Stagirus in 384 BCE, was the son of Nicomachus, a physician, and Phaestis. He studied under Plato at Athens and taught there (367-47); subsequently he spent three years at the court of a former pupil, Hermeias, in Asia...
The Nicomachean ethics
Aristotle.
Paper Book
Antiquity's most influential account of life's Supreme Good. Aristotle, great Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner, and writer, born at Stagirus in 384 BC, was the son of a physician. He studied under Plato at Athens and taught there (367-347); subsequently he spent three...
On the heavens
Aristotle.
Ebook
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 conquest of Gaul
Caesar, Julius.
Paper Book
Between 58 and 50BC Caesar conquered most of the area now covered by France, Belgium and Switzerland, and twice invaded Britain. This is the record of his campaigns. Caesar's narrative offers insights into his military strategy & paints a fascinating picture of his encounters with the...
On moral ends
Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
Ebook
This 2001 translation makes one of the most important texts in ancient philosophy available to modern readers. Cicero is increasingly being appreciated as 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...
The republic and, the laws
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Ebook
`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...
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....
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....
Hesiod
Hesiod.
Paper Book
Hesiod describes himself as a Boeotian shepherd who heard the Muses call upon him to sing about the gods. His exact dates are unknown, but he has often been considered a younger contemporary of Homer. This volume of the new Loeb Classical Library edition offers a general introduction, a fluid...
Epodes and odes
Horace.
Ebook
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, Epistles and Ars poetica
Horace.
Paper Book
Artful hexameters. Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 BC) was born at Venusia, son of a freedman clerk who had him well educated at Rome and Athens. Horace supported the ill-fated killers of Caesar, lost his property, became a secretary in the Treasury, and began to write...
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...
Fasti
Ovid
Paper Book
The Roman book of days. Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 BC-AD 17), born at Sulmo, studied rhetoric and law at Rome. Later he did considerable public service there, and otherwise devoted himself to poetry and to society. Famous at first, he offended the emperor Augustus by his...
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...
Charmides
Plato
Ebook
"Moore and Raymond's Charmides is very impressive. The translation is excellent, and the Introduction and notes guide the reader into thorny problems in a way that renders them understandable: e.g., how to translate sôphrosunê , why we should care about self-knowledge, or how to seek to clarify...
The last days of Socrates
Plato.
Paper Book
The trial and condemnation of Socrates on charges of heresy and corrupting young minds is a defining moment in the history of Classical Athens. In tracing these events through four dialogues, Plato also developed his own philosophy, based on Socrates' manifesto for a life guided by self...
The histories
Polybius.
Paper Book
Polybius (born ca. 208 BCE) of Megalopolis in the Peloponnese (Morea), served the Achaean League in arms and diplomacy for many years, favouring alliance with Rome. From 168 to 151 he was hostage in Rome where he became a friend of Aemilius Paulus and his two sons, and especially adopted Scipio...
Hercules, Trojan women, Phoenician women, Media, Phaedra
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus
Paper Book
Seneca is a figure of first importance in both Roman politics and literature: a leading adviser to Nero who attempted to restrain the emperor's megalomania; a prolific moral philosopher; and the author of verse tragedies that strongly influenced Shakespeare and other Renaissance dramatists. Here is...
Naturales quaestiones
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus
Paper Book
Following nature in pursuit of ethics. Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, born at Corduba (Cordova) ca. 4 BC, of a prominent and wealthy family, spent an ailing childhood and youth at Rome in an aunt's care. He became famous in rhetoric, philosophy, money-making, and imperial service....
Tacitus' Agricola, Germany, and Dialogue on orators
Tacitus, Cornelius.
Ebook
A modern version of Tacitus' (c55-117 A.D.) earliest historical works, translated from the Latin by Herbert Benario (classics emeritus, Emory U.). In this edition (first was 1967), Benario has expanded his notes and introductory essays, and has added chapter summaries. Annotation copyrighted by Book...
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...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.