1.5 What are the famous classical authors? S-X
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This article is from the Classical Studies FAQ, by Richard M. Alderson III alderson@netcom2.netcom.com with numerous contributions by others.
1.5 What are the famous classical authors? S-X
Seneca (the elder)
dates:
language of composition: Latin
genre: drama, letters
style:
diff :
works: Letter, Medea
Seneca (the younger)
dates: 55 BCE - 65 CE
language of composition: Latin
genre:
style:
diff:
works:
Sophocles
dates: 496-406 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: drama
style: Classical Attic tragedy
diff : 7
works: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, Ajax, Electra,
Women of Trachis, Philoctetes
fun fact: According to Aristotle, he introduced to Tragedy the third actor,
scene-painting, and the fifteen-man (as opposed to the twelve-man)
chorus.
fun fact II: When he was about 90 years old, his heirs decided they couldn't
wait for their inheritance any more. So they applied to the court for
guardianship, explaining that Sophocles was not in his proper mind any
more and needed someone to take of his finances. At that moment he was
writing Oedipus at Colonus and in court he just read what he had done
so far. He didn't get any guardians.
Suetonius
dates: 69-140 CE
language of composition: Latin
genre: biography (mostly)
style:
diff :
works: The Twelve Caesars
fun fact: Had access to the Imperial Archives.
Tacitus
dates: 56/57 - (not before) 115 CE
language of composition: Latin
genre: history
style: very odd!
diff: 8
works: Annals, Germania, Agricola, Histories, Dialogus
Terence
dates: c. 195-159 BCE
language of composition: Latin
genre: comedy
style: very deep psychological investigation in his characters, frequent
monologues; inspired by Menander, he was never loved by his
contemporaries
diff : 7
works: Andria, Hecyra (The mother-in-law), Adelphoe (The brothers), Phormio,
Heautontimoroumenos (The self-punisher), Eunuchus (The eunuch),
Theocritus
dates: 300-260 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: bucolic lyric/mime
style: polished, deceptively simple
diff : 6
works: 31 short poems
fun fact: Poem 11 is a love song sung by the Cyclops Polyphemus to the nymph
Galatea, who has rejected him.
Thucydides
dates: 460-400 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: prose history
style: some poeticisms, elliptical, likes antithesis
diff : 10 (hardest prose author)
works: Peloponnesian War
fun fact: His account of Pericles' funeral oration, a wonderful piece of pro-
Athenian propaganda, is followed by a harrowing account of the plague
that struck Athens shortly afterward. He was the first historian to
dispense with "gods" and "oracles" as machinery of explanation.
Tibullus, Albius
dates: 54-19 BCE
language of composition: Latin
genre: elegy
style: limpid and free of myths. Wrote of life in the country sweetened by love
diff : 5
works: Corpus Tibullianum: the first two books are authentic, the third is in
doubt. He wrote elegies to Delia (First book) and Nemesis (Second book)
Publius Virgilius Maro
dates: 15th October 70 - 19 BCE
language of composition: Latin
genre: idyll, epic
style: idyll: influenced by Theocritus, writes of shepherds' and peasants' life
in a celebrating way; epics: he tells the mythical stories of Rome
celebrating its origin and rulers in a clear and very musical hexameter
diff : 6
works: The Aeneid, Georgics, Eclogues/Bucolics
Xenophon
dates: 428-354 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: prose (history, philosophy, treatise, etc.)
style: simple
diff : 1
works: Hellenica, Anabasis (March Upcountry), Household Manager
fun fact: The Anabasis, about the retreat of Greek mercenaries after their
employer Cyrus, brother to the Persian king Artaxerxes, was deposed
in a coup, features a wonderful scene in which the Greeks at last reach
the sea and shout "THALATTA, THALATTA!!!" (The sea, the sea!!!).
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