Documents for "Classical Literature: Biographies":

• Aelian fl. 2d cent. AD, Greek rhetorician, b. Praenesta; his original name was Claudius Aelianus. He taught rhetoric in Rome c.220. His works, all in Greek, include Historical Miscellanies, stories of supernatural...

• Aeschines c.390-314? BC, Athenian orator, rival of Demosthenes. Aeschines rose from humble circumstances and became powerful in politics because of his oratorical gifts. At first he opposed Philip II of Macedon, then later changed sides, arguing that...

• Aeschylus 525-456 BC, Athenian tragic dramatist, b. Eleusis. The first of the three great Greek writers of tragedy, Aeschylus was the predecessor of Sophocles and Euripides.

• Aesop legendary Greek fabulist. According to Herodotus, he was a slave who lived in Samos in the 6th cent. BC and eventually was freed by his master. Other accounts associate him with many wild...

• Agathon c.450-c.400 BC, Athenian tragedian. Plato's Symposium has as its scene the celebration of Agathon's first dramatic victory. Less than 40 lines of his work survive.

• Alcaeus c.620-c.580 BC, Greek lyric poet of Lesbos. An aristocrat, he was often embroiled in political battles with the ruling tyrants. He wrote drinking songs, hymns, love songs, and political odes. He...

• Alciphron fl. c.AD 200?, Greek satirist. His only extant work, in fine Attic style, consists of over 100 fictitious letters from ordinary people living in Athens in the 4th cent. BC

• Alcman fl. 620 BC, Greek lyric poet of Sparta. He was the earliest writer of Dorian choral poetry whose work has survived. Short choral fragments and a longer one (part of a parthenion or choir song for...

• Anacreon c.570-c.485 BC, Greek lyric poet, b. Teos in Ionia. He lived at Samos and at Athens, where his patron was Hipparchus. His poetry, graceful and elegant, celebrates the joys of wine and love. Little...

• Andocides c.440-390 BC, one of the Ten Attic Orators (see oratory ). In 415 BC he was accused of mutilating the hermae (sacred pillars topped by busts of the gods) and, in association with Alcibiades , of other sacrilege. He went into exile, and one of his speeches was a plea to be restored to citizenship. After he returned in 403, he was again accused (399) of sacrilege and again successfully...

• Andronicus, Livius see Livius Andronicus.

• Apollinaris Sidonius (Caius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius) , fl. 455-75, Latin writer, b. Lyons. He had a minor role in imperial politics and was bishop of Clermont. Although his panegyric poetry is of little consequence, his letters are an interesting...

• Apollodorus (of Athens), fl. 2d cent. BC, Greek scholar. He wrote many works on grammar, history, and mythology. His best-known books, only fragments of which survive, are On the Gods, a prose treatise; and his...

• Apollonius Rhodius fl. 3d cent. BC, epic poet of Alexandria and Rhodes. He became librarian at Alexandria. His extant work, the Argonautica, is a Homeric imitation in four books on the story of the Argonaut heroes....

• Apuleius, Lucius c.124-c.170, Latin writer, satirist, rhetorician, b. Hippo (now Bône, Algeria). His narrative romance The Golden Ass or Metamorphoses is the only Latin work of fiction to survive in entirety. It tells the story of Lucius of Corinth, who is transformed into an ass by a Thessalian woman and undergoes a series of strange and...

• Aratus fl. 3d cent. BC, Greek court poet, from Soli in Cilicia. He wrote an astronomical treatise, Phenomena, which was quoted by Paul at Athens.

• Archilochus fl. c.700 or c.650 BC, Greek poet, b. Paros. As an innovator in the use and construction of the personal lyric, his language was intense and often violent. Many fragments of his verse survive.

• Arion Greek poet, inventor of the dithyramb. He is said to have lived at Periander's court in Corinth in the late 7th cent. BC A legend repeated by Herodotus tells how, having been thrown overboard by...

• Aristarchus of Samothrace c.217-c.145 BC, Greek scholar, successor to his teacher, Aristophanes of Byzantium, as librarian at Alexandria. He was an innovator of scientific scholarship, and his critical revision of Homer is...

• Aristophanes c.448 BC-c.388 BC, Greek playwright, Athenian comic poet, greatest of the ancient writers of comedy. His plays, the only full extant samples of the Greek Old Comedy, mix political, social, and literary satire. The direct attack on persons, the severity of invective, and the burlesque...

• Aristophanes of Byzantium c.257-180 BC, Greek scholar. He was librarian at Alexandria, edited various texts, and reputedly invented the Greek diacritical marks. Aristarchus of Samothrace was his pupil.

• Athenaeus fl. c.200, Greek writer, b. Naucratis, Egypt. His anthological work, the Deipnosophistae (Banquet of the Sophists), is a collection of anecdotes and excerpts from ancient writers whose works are otherwise...

• Atticus Herodes see Herodes Atticus.

• Aulus Gellius see Gellius, Aulus.

• Ausonius (Decimus Magnus Ausonius) , c.310-c.395, Latin poet and man of letters, b. Bordeaux. He tutored Gratian, who, when he ascended the throne, made Ausonius prefect of Gaul, and finally consul (379). When Gratian died, Ausonius...

• Babrius fl. 2d cent.?, Greek fabulist, versifier of the fables of Aesop. Many of the medieval prose collections of Aesop were based on Babrius. He may have been a Hellenized Roman.

• Bacchylides fl. c.470 BC, Greek lyric poet, b. Ceos; nephew of Simonides of Ceos. A contemporary of Pindar, he was patronized by Hiero I. His poetry is noted for its narrative powers, clarity, and lucidity. A...

• Bion fl. 2d cent.? BC, Greek bucolic poet, an imitator of Theocritus, b. Phlossa, near Smyrna. Only fragments of his work survive. The Lament for Adonis, attributed to him, was the model for Shelley's...

• Callimachus fl. c.280-45 BC, Hellenistic Greek poet and critic, b. Cyrene. Educated at Athens, he taught before obtaining work in the Alexandrian library. There he drew up a catalog, with such copious notes...

• Callinus fl. 7th cent. BC, Greek poet. He is the earliest of the known elegiac poets. An excerpt from a patriotic exhortation to his fellow Ephesians is the longest of the few fragments of his poetry that...

• Calpurnius (Titus Calpurnius Siculus) , fl. 1st cent. AD, Roman poet. His Eclogues (seven pastorals) imitate Vergil with grace and charm.

• Capella, Martianus fl. 5th cent.?, Latin writer, b. Carthage. His one famous work, The Marriage of Mercury and Philology, also called the Satyricon and Disciplinae, is a long allegory about the liberal arts. Its...

• Catullus (Caius Valerius Catullus) , 84? BC-54? BC, Roman poet, b. Verona. Of a well-to-do family, he went c.62 BC to Rome. He fell deeply in love, probably with Clodia, sister of Cicero's opponent Publius Clodius. She was suspected...

• Censorinus fl. c.238, Roman grammarian. He wrote De die natali [on the day of birth], an essay partly astrological, partly chronological, which affords much information on ancient methods of computing time....

• Claudian (Claudius Claudianus) , c.370-c.404, last notable Latin classic poet. Probably born in Alexandria, he flourished at court under Arcadius and Honorius. Besides panegyrics, idylls, epigrams, and occasional poems, he wrote...

• Corinna fl. c.500? BC, Greek poet of Tanagra. Her verse, fragments of which remain, deals with mythological themes and is written in Boeotian dialect. There exists no consensus on the date of her poetry,...

• Crates fl. 449 BC, Athenian comic dramatist. He is said to have introduced into comedy themes other than those of personal satire, and he was one of the first to show the comic possibilities of the...

• Cratinus d. c.419 BC, Athenian comic dramatist. He won the prize at the Athenian drama contest when Aristophanes competed with The Clouds and was regarded with Aristophanes and Eupolis as one of the greatest...

• Didymus Chalcenterus fl. 1st cent. BC, Hellenistic Greek grammarian and expositor. Famous for his prodigious literary output, he supposedly produced over 3,500 works. He collated much of the work of the Alexandrian...

• Dio Chrysostom d. after AD 112, Greek Sophist and orator [Chrysostom=golden-mouthed], b. Prusa (modern Bursa) in Bithynia. He lived at Rome under Emperor Domitian, who subsequently banished him. He traveled...

• Dionysius Periegetes fl. c.300? BC, Greek poet. He wrote the poem Description of the Inhabited Earth, which was popular in antiquity.

• Dionysius Thrax [Lat.,=the Thracian], c.170-c.90 BC, Greek grammarian of Alexandria. His Art of Grammar remained a standard work for centuries and was a model for subsequent grammars.

• Diphilus fl. 300 BC, Greek dramatist of the New Comedy, b. Sinope. His many dramas (perhaps 100) were extensively adapted by Plautus and Terence and influenced the entire Roman stage. The fragments of his...

• Duris of Samos fl. 3d cent. BC, Greek historian. A descendent of Alcibiades , Duris was tyrant of Samos for a time. He wrote Samian Chronicle —a history of Samos—and a rambling history of Greece and...

• Ennius, Quintus 239-169? BC, Latin poet, regarded by the Romans as the father of Latin poetry, b. Calabria. His birthplace was the meeting point of three civilizations—Oscan, Greek, and Latin—and Ennius learned...

• Epicharmus c.550-c.460 BC, Sicilian Greek comic dramatist. He was the first to write a coherent artistic comedy, and he dealt with forms other than personal satire such as mythological burlesque.

• Eratosthenes c.275-c.195 BC, Greek scholar, b. Cyrene. A pupil of Callimachus in Athens, he became (c.240 BC) head of the library at Alexandria. Known for his versatility, he wrote poetry and works (most of them lost) on literature, the theater (notably on ancient comedy),...

• Euphorion c.275-187? BC, Greek poet, b. Chalcis. He was made (c.223 BC) librarian at Antioch by Antiochus the Great and held the position until his death. Highly regarded by Latin poets of the 1st cent. BC,...

• Eupolis fl. 430-411 BC, Athenian comic poet. He seems to have collaborated with Aristophanes, whom he also attacked; another of his victims was Alcibiades. His plays, satirical and malicious, were greatly...

• Euripides 480 or 485-406 BC, Greek tragic dramatist, ranking with Aeschylus and Sophocles. Born in Attica, he lived in Athens most of his life, though he spent much time on Salamis. He died in Macedonia, at the court of King Archelaus. He wrote perhaps 92 plays (the first produced in...

• Fronto (Marcus Cornelius Fronto) , fl. 2d cent., Roman teacher and rhetorician, b. Numidia, Africa. Antoninus Pius made him consul in 143. A successful teacher and government official, Fronto was an admirer of the early Latin...

• Heliodorus of Emesa fl. 3d cent., Syrian Greek writer. He wrote the romance Aethiopica, one of the oldest and best of surviving Greek romances. Little is known of his life except that he was a Phoenician from Emesa,...

• Herodas fl. 3d cent. BC, Greek poet. He wrote realistic mimes in choliambic verse often depicting bawdy situations. A papyrus containing some 700 readable lines by Herodes is extant. His name is also...

• Herodes Atticus (Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes) , c.101-c.177, Greek Sophist, rhetorician, and patron of learning, b. Marathon. A great public benefactor, he used his fortune to adorn Athens and other Greek cities. One speech, doubtfully...

• Herondas see Herodas.

• Hesiod fl. 8th cent.? BC, Greek poet. He is thought to have lived later than Homer, but there is no absolute certainty about the dates of his life. Hesiod portrays himself as a Boeotian farmer. Little is...

• Hipponax fl. 540 BC, Greek iambic poet. Banished from Ephesus after insulting the tyrants there, he went to live in Clazomenae. He is believed to have been the inventor of the choliambic, or "limping" iambic...

• Homer principal figure of ancient Greek literature; the first European poet.

• Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) , 65 BC-8 BC, Latin poet, one of the greatest of lyric poets, b. Venusia, S Italy. He studied at Rome and Athens and, joining Brutus and the republicans, fought (42 BC) at Philippi. Returning to...

• Horatius (Horatius Cocles) , legendary Roman hero. With two companions he held Lars Porsena's Etruscan army at bay while the Romans cut down the Sublician Bridge (connecting Rome with the road westward) behind them. Horatius...

• Ibycus fl. before 500 BC, Greek lyric poet, b. Rhegium, S Italy. The extant fragments of his work contain the earliest-known example of the triadic choral lyric. He spent some time at the court of...

• Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenalis) , fl. 1st to 2d cent. AD, Roman satirical poet. His verse established a model for the satire of indignation, in contrast to the less harsh satire of ridicule of Horace. Little is known about his...

• Lasus fl. 6th cent. BC, Greek poet from the town of Hermione in Argolis. He is said to have been Pindar's teacher. Lasus contributed to the development of the dithyramb.

• Livius Andronicus fl. 3d cent. BC, Roman poet, a Greek, b. Tarentum (Taranto). He was captured and made a slave at the fall of Tarentum and was freed by his master, a Livian noble, hence his name. Later he became a...

• Longinus fl. 1st cent.? AD, Greek literary critic; writer of the famous treatise On the Sublime. Nothing is known of his life, and for a long time his work was attributed to Cassius Longinus. On the Sublime...

• Longus fl. 3d cent. AD, Greek writer. The pastoral romance Daphnis and Chloë is attributed to him. Idyllic in nature, the poem tells the charming story of the love of a goatherd and a shepherdess....

• Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) , AD 39-AD 65, Latin poet, b. Córdoba, Spain, nephew of the philosopher Seneca. At first in Nero's favor, he was later forced to kill himself when his part in a plot against the emperor was...

• Lucian b. c.120, d. after 180, Greek writer, also called Lucianus, b. Samosata, Syria. In late life he held a government position in Egypt. Lucian wrote an easy, masterly Attic prose, which he turned to...

• Lucilius, Gaius c.180-102? BC, Latin satiric poet, considered the founder of Latin satire, b. Campania, Italy. About 1,300 fragments survive from his 30 books. He influenced Horace, Persius, and Juvenal.

• Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus) , c.99 BC-c.55 BC, Roman poet and philosopher. Little is known about his life. A chronicle of St. Jerome speaks of the loss of his reason through taking a love potion. It states that in sane...

• Lycophron fl. early 3d cent. BC, b. Chalcis, Alexandrian Greek poet, one of the Pleiad. His only extant poem Cassandra or Alexandra, is an obscure and difficult work in iambic verse. In ancient times his...

• Macrobius fl. c.430, Latin writer and philosopher. His Saturnalia, a dialogue in seven books chiefly concerned with a literary evaluation of Vergil, incorporates valuable quotations from other writers. He also...

• Manilius, Marcus fl. AD 10, Roman poet. Of his didactic poem on astrology, the Astronomica, five books remain. These may or may not have constituted the whole work.

• Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis) , c.AD 40-c.AD 104, Roman epigrammatic poet, b. Bilbilis, Spain. After AD 64 he lived in Rome for many years, winning fame by his wit and poetic gifts. He enjoyed the patronage of Domitian, Titus,...

• Martianus Capella see Capella, Martianus.

• Menander 342?-291? BC, Greek poet, the most famous writer of New Comedy. He wrote ingenious plays using the love plot as his theme; his style is elegant and elaborate and his characters are highly...

• Mimnermus fl. late 7th cent. BC, Greek elegiac poet of Colophon in Ionia. Only fragments of his poetry survive. Although he mainly wrote love poetry, he did write some martial and historical verse as well...

• Moschus fl. c.150 BC, Greek bucolic poet of the school of Theocritus. He is called a Syracusan and lived in Alexandria. Among his few extant pieces is an idyl on Europa. Although Lament for Bion, a beautiful...

• Naevius, Gnaeus c.264-195 BC, Roman poet and dramatist. Born in Campania, he served in the first Punic War (264-241 BC), which he evoked in De Bello Punico. Now only available in fragments, this work is considered the first Latin epic. In his plays, Naevius satirized Roman society from the perspective of a plebeian. Forced to leave Rome, he retired to...

• Nonnus fl. 5th cent.?, Greek poet, b. Panopolis, Egypt. His extant epic, Dionysiaca (in 48 books), a collection of legends about Dionysus, has innovations in meter that predict the later accentual versification. He is probably also the author of a hexameter version of the Gospel...

• Oppian fl. 2d cent., Greek poet. He is the author of a didactic poem (in five books of hexameters) on fishing called Halieutica. Two other poems, formerly attributed to Oppian, are now believed to be by...

• Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) , 43 BC-AD 18, Latin poet, b. Sulmo (present-day Sulmona), in the Apennines. Although trained for the law, he preferred the company of the literary coterie at Rome. He enjoyed early and widespread...

• Palladius fl. 4th cent. AD, Roman author. He was a specialist on agriculture and possessed estates in both Italy and Sardinia. Palladius wrote a 14-volume treatise on farming that was well known in the...

• Persius or Aulus Persius Flaccus , AD 34-AD 62, Roman satirical poet, b. Etruria. A member of a distinguished family, he went to Rome in boyhood, was educated there, and came under the influence of the Stoic philosopher Lucius...

• Petronius d. c.AD 66, Roman satirist, known as Petronius Arbiter because of his now generally accepted identity with Gaius Petronius, to whom Tacitus refers as arbiter elegantiae in the court of Nero. According to Tacitus, Petronius served first as proconsul, then as consul of Bithynia. He is remembered chiefly, however, as an indolent and profligate lover of luxury. When...

• Phaedrus fl. 1st cent. AD, Latin writer, a Thracian slave, possibly a freedman of Augustus. He wrote fables in verse based largely on those of Aesop. The prose collections of fables that were popular throughout...

• Pherecrates fl. c.437 BC, inventive and highly esteemed Greek poet of the Old Comedy. Fragments and titles of 15 of his plays are extant.

• Philemon c.360-c.265 BC, Greek poet of the New Comedy. He was in ancient times considered second only to Menander. Fragments of his plays, originally numbering 97, survive.

• Philochorus fl. 3d cent. BC, Greek historian. He wrote extensively on Greek religious customs. Philochorus is probably the best known of the many chroniclers of events in Athens and surrounding Attica. His Atthis...

• Philoxenus c.436-c.380 BC, Greek dithyrambic poet, b. Cythera. Having fallen out of grace with the emperor Dionysius, he was imprisoned in Syracuse. There he wrote his Cyclops, mocking Dionysius. In Cyclops...

• Phocylides fl. 6th cent. BC, Greek poet, b. Miletus. His gnomic (aphoristic) verses exist in fragments.

• Phrynichus fl. c.510-476 BC, Athenian dramatist, considered by some ancients (including Plato) to be the founder of tragedy. His historical play, The Taking of Miletus, which concerns the capture of Miletus by the Persians, had such a painful theme that it moved the Athenian audience to tears, and Phrynichus was fined. He is said to have been the first to use...

• Phrynichus fl. 430 BC, Athenian comic poet. Fragments of his works, of the Old Comedy, survive.

• Pindar 518?-c.438 BC, Greek poet, generally regarded as the greatest Greek lyric poet. A Boeotian of noble birth, he lived principally at Thebes. He traveled widely, staying for some time at Athens and...

• Planudes Maximus or Maximus Planudes, c.1260-c.1330, Byzantine scholar, an exceptionally learned monk. His edition of the Greek Anthology was long the standard. His prose collection of Aesop's Fables is outstanding....

• Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) , c.254-184 BC, Roman writer of comedies, b. Umbria. His plays, adapted from those of Greek New Comedy, are popular and vigorous representations of middle-class and lower-class life. Written with a...

• Pliny the Elder (Caius Plinius Secundus) , c.AD 23-AD 79, Roman naturalist, b. Cisalpine Gaul. He was a friend and fellow soldier of Vespasian, and he dedicated his great work to Titus. He died of asphyxiation in the neighborhood of...

• Pollux, Julius fl. 170, Egyptian Greek lexicographer, b. Naucratis. He compiled a Greek lexicon for Emperor Commodus.

• Polyaenus fl. c.153, Macedonian Greek writer. His Stratagems, anecdotes on the ruses of war, takes much from various ancient sources now lost.

• Pratinas fl. c.500 BC, Greek dithyrambic poet of Phlius, said to have introduced the satyr play into Athens.

• Propertius, Sextus c.50 BC-c.16 BC, Roman elegiac poet, b. Umbria. He was a member of the circle of Maecenas. A master of the Latin elegy, he wrote with vigor, passion, and sincerity.

• Prudentius (Aurelius Clemens Prudentius) , b. 348, Christian Latin poet, b. Spain. He wrote a number of hymns, occasional Christian lyrics, and poems on saints. Although he held a high place at the Roman court, he eventually retired to...

• Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus) , c.AD 35-c.AD 95, Roman rhetorician, b. Calagurris (now Calahorra), Spain. He taught rhetoric at Rome (Pliny the Younger and possibly Tacitus were among his pupils) and, as a public teacher, was...

• Sappho fl. early 6th cent. BC, greatest of the early Greek lyric poets (Plato calls her "the tenth Muse" ), b. Mytilene on Lesbos. Facts about her life are scant. She was an aristocrat, who wrote poetry for her circle of friends, mostly but not exclusively women. She may have had a daughter. The term...

• Semonides of Amorgos fl. c.650 BC, Greek iambic poet, b. Samos. He led a colony to the island of Amorgos in the SE Cyclades c.630 BC In one of the few extant fragments of his work, he satirizes women and likens their...

• Seneca the elder (Lucius, or Marcus, Annaeus Seneca) , c.60 BC-c.AD 37, Roman rhetorician and writer, b. Corduba (present-day Córdoba), Spain; grandfather of Lucan and father of Seneca the younger....

• Seneca the younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) loo´shes enē´es sĕn´eke , c.3 BC-AD 65, Roman philosopher, dramatist, and statesman, b. Corduba (present-day Córdoba), Spain. He was the son of Seneca the elder. The younger Seneca went to Rome in his childhood, studied rhetoric and philosophy, and earned renown as an orator when still a youth. He was exiled by Claudius (AD 41) ostensibly because...

• Sidonius, Apollinaris see Apollinaris Sidonius.

• Silius Italicus AD 25-AD 101, Latin poet. An orator and state functionary, Silius was made consul in AD 68 and proconsul in Asia Minor in AD 77. Retiring to his estate near Naples, he purchased the villas of...

• Simonides of Amorgos see Semonides of Amorgos.

• Simonides of Ceos c.556-468? BC, Greek lyric poet, b. Ceos. At Athens for a time under the patronage of Hipparchus, he seems then to have gone to Thessaly, returning to Athens at the time of the Persian Wars. He...

• Sophocles c.496 BC-406 BC, Greek tragic dramatist, younger contemporary of Aeschylus and older contemporary of Euripides , b. Colonus, near Athens. A man of wealth, charm, and genius, Sophocles was given posts of responsibility in peace and in war by the Athenians. He was a general and a priest; after his death he was...

• Statius, Publius Papinius c.AD 45-c.AD 96, Latin poet, b. Naples. A favorite of Emperor Domitian , he won the poetry prize at an annual festival under Domitian's auspices but later was an unsuccessful competitor at the Capitoline contest in Rome. His surviving works include two epics in the...

• Stesichorus fl. c.600 BC, Greek lyric poet. He lived at Himera and seems to have been originally named Tisias or Teisias. Legend says he invented the choral "heroic hymn" and added the epode to the Greek strophe...

• Stesimbrotus fl. 5th cent. BC, Greek biographer, b. Thasos. He wrote biographical studies of Pericles, Themistocles, and Thucydides, son of Melesias. In addition he wrote books on Homer and on Samothracian...

• Stobaeus, Joannes fl. 5th cent.? AD, Greek anthologist. He made a large collection of excerpts from poets and prose writers on a variety of subjects, originally for the education of his son. The collection is...

• Suetonius (Caius Suetonius Tranquillus) , c.AD 69-c.AD 140, Roman biographer. Little is known about his life except that he was briefly the private secretary of Emperor Hadrian. His De vita Caesarum [concerning...

• Symmachus, Quintus Aurelius c.345-c.405, Roman government official and orator. Educated in Gaul, he held several official positions, including the consulship in 391. He is best known for his report to the emperor Valentinian II in 384 in which he argued for the retention of the old Roman religion in official state functions. His eloquent defense of ancient religious customs in the face of the inroads made by Christianity...

• Terence (Publius Terentius Afer) , b. c.185 or c.195 BC, d. c.159 BC, Roman writer of comedies, b. Carthage. As a boy he was a slave of Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, who brought him to Rome, educated him, and gave him his...

• Theocritus fl. c.270 BC, Hellenistic Greek poet, b. Syracuse. The history of the pastoral begins with him, and in him the form seems to have reached its height. His poetic style is finished and at times artificial, but the bucolic characters in his idyls seem alive. Theocritus has been...

• Theognis fl. 6th cent. BC, Greek didactic poet of Megara. An aristocrat with fierce partisan feelings, he wrote for his young friend Cyrnus a series of elegies, often passionate in hate and in love,...

• Theopompus fl. 4th cent. BC, Greek historian and rhetorician, b. Chios. He studied with the orator Isocrates and became a friend of both Philip and Alexander of Macedon. His pro-Macedonian sympathies often caused...

• Thespis fl. 534 BC, of Icaria in Attica. In Greek tradition, he was the inventor of tragedy. Almost nothing is known of his life or works. He is supposed to have modified the dithyramb (which had been, in...

• Tibullus (Albius Tibullus) , c.55? BC-19 BC, Roman elegiac poet, b. Pedum, near Praeneste. Probably of the equestrian order, he was a friend of Messala, whom he accompanied on campaign. A master of the Latin love elegy,...

• Timotheus c.450-c.357 BC, Greek poet and musician of Miletus. An innovator in music, he added a string to the kithara. Fragments of his dithyrambs and nomes remain. Euripides wrote the prologue for his Persae,...

• Tully see Cicero.

• Tyrtaeus fl. 7th cent. BC at Sparta, Greek elegiac poet. Fragments of his martial elegies in Dorian Greek, which were written to spur Spartan soldiers to victory, are extant. An Athenian legend relates...

• Valerius Maximus c.20 BC-c.AD 50, Roman author. Little is known of his life. His Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX [nine books of memorable deeds and sayings] was written c.AD 30 and is a miscellany of anecdotes about a variety of subjects. The work was widely popular, especially as a source for writers and...

• Varro, Marcus Terentius 116 BC-27? BC, Roman man of letters. Known as the most erudite man and the most prolific writer of his times, Varro is estimated to have written about 620 volumes. He served as Pompey's legate in...

• Vegetius (Flavius Vegetius Renatus) , fl. c.385-400, Roman writer. He is the author of Epitoma rei militaris [a summary of military matters], which is an important source of information about the Roman military...

• Venantius Fortunatus, Saint (Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus) , d. c.600, Latin poet, b. near Treviso, Italy. A priest in Gaul and later bishop of Poitiers, he wrote a long poem on St. Martin of Tours and also the hymn...

• Vergil or Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) , 70 BC-19 BC, Roman poet, b. Andes dist., near Mantua, in Cisalpine Gaul. Vergil's father, a farmer, took his son to Cremona for his education. Thereafter Vergil continued his studies in Milan,...

• Victorinus (Caius Marius Victorinus Afer) , fl. 361, Roman grammarian, b. Africa. He became renowned as a teacher of rhetoric in Rome and as an advocate of Neoplatonism. Becoming a Christian in his later life, he was forbidden to teach by...

• Virgil see Vergil.