Ancient History and Literature Anthology II

This anthology gathers the defining voices of the late ancient world—pagan and Christian, poetic and historical—into a single dialogue on virtue and the meaning of civilization.

From Sallust’s Bellum Catilinae, a meditation on Rome’s moral decay, to Plutarch’s Lives and Tacitus’ searing portraits of power, these works trace the rise and corruption of empire. Suetonius’ vivid biographies reveal the emperors’ private vices and public masks, while Josephus and Eusebius extend the record beyond Rome—to Israel and the early Church. The martyrdom of Polycarp and the epistle of Clement stand as living witnesses to faith amid empire’s collapse.

In the realm of art and drama, Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Euripides’ Medea, and Aristophanes’ Cloud serve a good Greek foundation for later roman poetry. The comedies of Terence and Plautus capture early Roman poetic effort and domestic life, and Cicero’s Against Catiline resounds with the rhetoric of civic duty. The high roman poetry, with Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Horace’s Poems and Satires, and Virgil’s Eclogues, transform myth and pastoral song into enduring meditations on change, beauty, and order.

Finally, the Odes of Solomon and the Sibylline Hymn to Christ carry the lyric tradition into the dawn of Christianity—where prophecy, praise, and divine love reshape the ancient voice of song.