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Top 87 Ancient works in the Loeb Classical Library
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Of the some 450 volumes in the Loeb series, here are the most widely read!
Updated November 17, 2023
University of Victoria Libraries
Michael Lines, Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian
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The Oresteia : Agamemnon, Libation-bearers, Eumenides
Aeschylus
Paper Book
The tragic cycle of justice. Aeschylus (ca. 525-456 BC), the dramatist who made Athenian tragedy one of the world's great art forms, witnessed the establishment of democracy at Athens, fought against the Persians at Marathon and probably also at Salamis, and had one of his...
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Persians. Seven against Thebes. The suppliants. Prometheus bound
Aeschylus
Paper Book
Four unconnected but unforgettable plays from ancient Athens' first great tragedian. Aeschylus (ca. 525-456 BC), the dramatist who made Athenian tragedy one of the world's great art forms, witnessed the establishment of democracy at Athens, fought against the Persians at Marathon...
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Argonautica
Apollonius, Rhodius.
Paper Book
The Greek epic account of the quest for the golden fleece. Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica, composed in the 3rd century BC, is the epic retelling of Jason's quest for the golden fleece. Along with his contemporaries Callimachus and Theocritus, Apollonius refashioned Greek...
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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, Lucius,...
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Frogs Assemblywomen ; Wealth
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 its...
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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 its...
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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 its...
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Art of rhetoric
Aristotle
Paper Book
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The "art" of rhetoric
Aristotle.
Paper Book
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The Nicomachean ethics
Aristotle.
Paper Book
The Oxford Classical Texts, or Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, are renowned for their reliability and presentation. The series consists of a text without commentary but with a brief apparatus criticus at the foot of each page.
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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...
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The Gallic war
Caesar, Julius.
Paper Book
The Gallic War, published on the eve of the civil war which led to the end of the Roman Republic, is an autobiographical account written by one of the most famous figures of European history. This new translation reflects the purity of Caesar's Latin while preserving the pace and flow of his...
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Testimonia. Origines
Cato
Paper Book
Ancient Rome's original archconservative. M. Porcius Cato (234-149 BC), one of the best-known figures of the middle Roman Republic, remains legendary for his political and military career, especially his staunch opposition to Carthage; his modest way of life; his integrity of...
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On agriculture
Cato, Marcus Porcius
Paper Book
Cato (M. Porcius Cato) the elder (234-149 BCE) of Tusculum, statesman and soldier, was the first important writer in Latin prose. His speeches, works on jurisprudence and the art of war, his precepts to his son on various subjects, and his great historical work on Rome and Italy are lost. But we...
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Brutus Orator
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Paper Book
The statesman on the history and practice of Roman oratory. 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...
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De finibus bonorum et malorum
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Paper Book
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...
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De inventione De optimo genere oratorum ; Topica
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Paper Book
Three rhetorical treatises. 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...
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De officiis
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Paper Book
The De Officiis (`On Duties'), written hurriedly not long before Cicero's death, has always commanded attention. It is based on the moral philosophy of the Greek Stoic Panaetius; but Cicero adapted the material to his audience in such a way that the book stands as an invaluable witness to Roman...
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De re publica De legibus
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Paper Book
Cicero's On the Commonwealth and On the Laws were his first and most substantial attempt to adapt Greek theories of political life to the circumstances of the Roman Republic. They represent Cicero's vision of an ideal society, and remain his most important works of political philosophy. On the...
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Rhetorica ad Herennium
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Paper Book
Spurious composition. 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...
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De natura deorum ; Academica
Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
Paper Book
Book 1 of De Natura Deorum exhibits in a nutshell Cicero's philosophical method, with the prior part stating the case for Epicurean theology, the latter (rather longer) part refuting it. Thus the reader observes Cicero at work in both constructive and skeptical modes as well as his art of...
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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.
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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. ...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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On temperaments ; On non-uniform distemperment ; The soul's traits depend on bodily temperament
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, medical historian, theoretician, and practitioner who wrote forcefully and...
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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...
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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...
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Ancient Medicine. Airs, Waters, Places. Epidemics 1 and 3. The Oath. Precepts. Nutriment
Hippocrates
Paper Book
Hippocrates, said to have been born in Cos in or before 460 BCE, learned medicine and philosophy; travelled widely as a medical doctor and teacher; was consulted by King Perdiccas of Macedon and Artaxerxes of Persia; and died perhaps at Larissa. Apparently he rejected superstition in favour of...
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Hippocrates. Volume 1
Hippocrates
Paper Book
The definitive English edition of the "Father of Medicine." This is the first volume in the Loeb Classical Library's complete edition of Hippocrates' invaluable texts, which provide essential information about the practice of medicine in antiquity and about Greek theories...
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Iliad
Homer.
Paper Book
The 'red Macmillan' Iliad in the edition of W. Leaf, which had served since the 1880s, was replaced by this classic two-volume edition of M.M. Willcock. Coverage of twelve books of the Iliad in each volume demands a concise introduction and commentary. The editor also includes, for...
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The Odyssey
Homer.
Paper Book
First published in the outstanding and long-running 'red Macmillan' series in 1947 and substantially updated in 1959 (with, for example, sections on the relationship between Homer and the Mycenaean world), Stanford's Odyssey - of which this is the first of two volumes - has remained the...
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Odes and epodes
Horace.
Paper Book
Monumental verse. The poetry of Horace (born 65 BC) is richly varied, its focus moving between public and private concerns, urban and rural settings, Stoic and Epicurean thought. The Loeb Classical Library edition of the great Roman poet's Odes and Epodes boasts a...
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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...
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Juvenal and Persius
Juvenal.
Paper Book
Mordant verse satire. The bite and wit of two of antiquity's best satirists are captured in this Loeb Classical Library edition. Persius (AD 34-62) and Juvenal (writing about sixty years later) were heirs to the style of Latin verse satire developed by Lucilius and...
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History of Rome
Livy
Paper Book
Livy (Titus Livius), the great Roman historian, was born at or near Patavium (Padua) in 64 or 59 BCE; he may have lived mostly in Rome but died at Patavium, in 12 or 17 CE. Livy's only extant work is part of his history of Rome from the foundation of the city to 9 BCE. Of its 142 books, we...
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The civil war (Pharsalia)
Lucan
Paper Book
Epic history. Lucan (M. Annaeus Lucanus, AD 39-65), son of wealthy M. Annaeus Mela and nephew of Seneca, was born at Corduba (Cordova) in Spain and was brought as a baby to Rome. In AD 60 at a festival in Emperor Nero's honor Lucan praised him in a panegyric and was promoted to...
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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...
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Ars Rhetorica
Menander, of Laodicea
Paper Book
How to write a speech in ancient Greek. This volume contains three rhetorical treatises dating probably from the reign of Diocletian (AD 285-312) that provide instruction on how to compose epideictic (display) speeches for a wide variety of occasions both public and private....
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The art of love, and other poems
Ovid
Paper Book
Seductive verse. 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 Ars...
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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...
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Heroides ; and, Amores
Ovid
Paper Book
Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 BCE-17 CE), 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 Ars Amatoria, and was banished...
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Tristia ; Ex Ponto
Ovid
Paper Book
The poet in exile. 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 Ars...
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Lives of the sophists
Philostratus, the Athenian
Paper Book
Two sophists on the history of sophistry. Flavius Philostratus, known as "the Elder" or "the Athenian," was born to a distinguished family with close ties to Lesbos in the later second century, and died around the middle of the third. A sophist who studied at Athens and later...
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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 why...
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Lysis ; Symposium ; Phaedrus
Plato
Paper Book
Platonic forms of love. Plato of Athens, who laid the foundations of the Western philosophical tradition and in range and depth ranks among its greatest practitioners, was born to a prosperous and politically active family circa 427 BC. In early life an admirer of Socrates, Plato...
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Natural history
Pliny, the Elder.
Paper Book
An unrivaled compendium of ancient Roman knowledge. Pliny the Elder, Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23-79), a Roman of equestrian rank of Transpadane Gaul (N. Italy), was uncle of Pliny the letter writer. He pursued a career partly military in Germany, partly administrative in Gaul...
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The histories
Polybius.
Paper Book
Hellenistic history. The historian Polybius (ca. 200-118 BC) was born into a leading family of Megalopolis in the Peloponnese (Morea) and served the Achaean League in arms and diplomacy for many years, favoring alliance with Rome. From 168 to 151 he was held hostage in Rome,...
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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...
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Hercules ; Trojan women ; Phoenician women ; Medea ; 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...
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Ajax. Electra. Oedipus Tyrannus
Sophocles
Paper Book
Ancient Athens' most successful tragedian. Sophocles (497/6-406 BC), with Aeschylus and Euripides, was one of the three great tragic poets of Athens, and is considered one of the world's greatest poets. The subjects of his plays were drawn from mythology and legend. Each play...
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Agricola. Germania. Dialogue on Oratory
Tacitus
Paper Book
Tacitus (Cornelius), famous Roman historian, was born in 55, 56 or 57 CE and lived to about 120. He became an orator, married in 77 a daughter of Julius Agricola before Agricola went to Britain, was quaestor in 81 or 82, a senator under the Flavian emperors, and a praetor in 88. After four years'...
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The Woman of Andros. The Self-Tormentor. The Eunuch
Terence
Paper Book
The Roman comic playwright "whose every word delights." Terence brought to the Roman stage a bright comic voice and a refined sense of style. His six comedies--first produced in the half dozen years before his premature death in 159 BC--imaginatively reformulated in Latin plays...
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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, it...
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