epic the ‘Argonautica’, about Jason and his shipmates in search of the golden
fleece. Apollonius studied under Callimachus, with whom he later quarreled. He
also served as librarian at Alexandria for about 13 years. Apart from the
‘Argonautica’, he wrote poems on the foundation of cities as well as a number of
epigrams. The Roman poet Virgil was strongly influenced by the ‘Argonautica’ in
writing his ‘Aeneid’ .
Lesser 3rd-century poets include Aratus of Soli and Herodas. Aratus wrote the
‘Phaenomena’, a poetic version of a treatise on the stars by Eudoxus of Cnidos,
who had lived in the 4th century. Herodas wrote mimes reminiscent of those of
Theocritus. His works give a hint of the popular entertainment of the times.
Mime and pantomime were a major form of entertainment during the early Roman
Empire.
Hellenistic Prose
History. The significant historians in the period after Alexander were
Timaeus, Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Appian of
Alexandria, Arrian, and Plutarch. The period of time they cover extended from
late in the 4th century BC to the 2nd century AD.
Timaeus was born in Sicily but spent most of his life in Athens. His
‘History’, though lost, is significant because of its influence on Polybius. In
38 books it covered the history of Sicily and Italy to the year 264 BC, which is
where Polybius began his work. Timaeus also wrote the ‘Olympionikai’, a valuable
chronological study of the Olympic Games.
Polybius was born about 200 BC. He was brought to Rome as a hostage in 168.
At Rome he became a friend of the general Scipio Aemilianus. He probably
accompanied the general to Spain and North Africa in the wars against Carthage.
He was with Scipio at the destruction of Carthage in 146. The history on which
his reputation rests consisted of 40 books, five of which have been preserved
along with various excerpts. They are a vivid recreation of Rome’s rise to world
power. A lost book, ‘Tactics’, was on military matters.
Diodorus Siculus lived in the 1st century BC, the time of Julius Caesar and
Augustus. He wrote a universal history, ‘Bibliotheca historica’, in 40 books. Of
these, the first five and the 11th through the 20th remain. The first two parts
covered history through the early Hellenistic era. The third part takes the
story to the beginning of Caesar’s wars in Gaul, now France.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus lived late in the 1st century BC. His history of
Rome from its origins to the First Punic War (264 to 241 BC) is written from a
Roman point of view, but it is carefully researched. He also wrote a number of
other treatises, including ‘On Imitation’, ‘Commentaries on the Ancient Orators’,
and ‘On the Arrangement of Words’.
Appian and Arrian both lived in the 2nd century AD. Appian wrote on Rome and
its conquests, while Arrian is remembered for his work on the campaigns of
Alexander the Great. Arrian served in the Roman army. His book therefore
concentrates heavily on the military aspects of Alexander’s life. Arrian also
wrote a philosophical treatise, the ‘Diatribai’, based on the teachings of his
mentor Epictetus .
Best known of the late Greek historians to modern readers is Plutarch, who
died about AD 119. His ‘Parallel Lives’ of great Greek and Roman leaders has
been read by every generation since the work was first published. His other
surviving work is the ‘Moralia’, a collection of essays on ethical, religious,
political, physical, and literary topics.
Science and mathematics. Eratosthenes of Alexandria, who died about 194 BC,
wrote on astronomy and geography, but his work is known mainly from later
summaries. He is credited with being the first person to measure the Earth’s
circumference.
Much that was written by the mathematicians Euclid and Archimedes has been
preserved. Euclid is known for his ‘Elements’, much of which was drawn from his
predecessor Eudoxus of Cnidus. The ‘Elements’ is a treatise on geometry, and it
has exerted a continuing influence on mathematics.
From Archimedes several treatises have come down to the present. Among them
are ‘Measurement of the Circle’, in which he worked out the value of pi; ‘Method
Concerning Mechanical Theorems’, on his work in mechanics; ‘The Sand-Reckoner’;
and ‘On Floating Bodies’.
The physician Galen, in the history of ancient science, is the most
significant person in medicine after Hippocrates, who laid the foundation of
medicine in the 5th century BC. Galen lived during the 2nd century AD. He was a
careful student of anatomy, and his works exerted a powerful influence on
medicine for the next 1,400 years .
Strabo, who died about AD 23, was a geographer and historian. His ‘Historical
Sketches’ in 47 volumes has nearly all been lost. His ‘Geographical Sketches’
remain as the only existing ancient book covering the whole range of people and
countries known to the Greeks and Romans through the time of Augustus.
Pausanias, who lived in the 2nd century AD, was also a geographer. His
‘Description of Greece’ is an invaluable guide to what are now ancient ruins.
His book takes the form of a tour of Greece, starting in Athens. The accuracy of
his descriptions has been proved by archaeological excavations.
The scientist of the Roman period who had the greatest influence on later
generations was undoubtedly the astronomer Ptolemy. He lived during the 2nd
century AD, though little is known of his life. His masterpiece, originally
entitled ‘The Mathematical Collection’, has come to the present under the title
‘Almagest’, as it was translated by Arab astronomers with that title.
It was Ptolemy who devised a detailed description of an Earth-centered
universe, an erroneous notion that dominated astronomical thinking for more than
1,300 years. The Ptolemaic view of the universe endured until the early modern
astronomers Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler overturned it.
The Septuagint. One of the most valuable contributions of the Hellenistic
period was the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. The work was done at
Alexandria and completed by the end of the 2nd century BC. The name Septuagint
means “seventy,” from the tradition that there were 72 scholars who did the work.
Since the language of the early Christian community was Greek, the Septuagint
became its Bible. Other books not in the Hebrew Bible were also written in Greek
and included what is called the Apocrypha
Philosophy. Later philosophical works were no match for Plato and Aristotle.
Epictetus, who died about AD 135, was associated with the moral philosophy of
the Stoics. His teachings were collected by his pupil Arrian in the ‘Discourses’
and the ‘Encheiridion’ (Manual of Study). Diogenes Laertius, who lived in the
3rd century, wrote ‘Lives, Teachings, and Sayings of Famous Philosophers’, a
useful sourcebook. Another major philosopher was Plotinus. He, too, lived in the
3rd century. He transformed Plato’s philosophy into a school called Neoplatonism.
His ‘Enneads’ had a wide-ranging influence on European thought until at least
the 17th century.
BYZANTINE LITERATURE
Constantine the Great moved the capital of the empire from Rome to Byzantium
(now Istanbul) in about AD 330 and renamed the city Constantinople. The Eastern,
or Byzantine, Empire lasted until it was destroyed by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 .
The civilization of this empire was Greek in language and heritage, but it was
Christian in religion.
In religion the crowning literary achievement was considered to be the New
Testament portion of the Christian Bible. This, coupled with a reverence for the
great literary traditions of the past, combined to make Byzantine literature
very conservative. The written language had to preserve the forms of speech of
the New Testament and the Church Fathers. Being heirs to such a great literary
tradition excluded any interest in outside ideas.
This undue emphasis on form smothered any likelihood of originality and
invention. The literary creations of the period have, therefore, bequeathed few
memorable works to the present.
Much of the writing was necessarily religious: sermons, hymns, theological
works, and descriptions of the lives of the martyrs and saints. Of the few
authors who are still read may be mentioned Eusebius (died 340), who wrote the
first church history; St. Basil the Great (died 379), who organized Eastern
monasticism; his brother Gregory of Nyssa (died 394), who wrote many works in
which he combined Platonic philosophy with Christian teaching; and Gregory of
Nazianzus (died 389), who is noted for his poems, sermons, letters, and writings
on theological controversies.
The writings of the historians, geographers, philosophers, scientists, and
rhetoricians are read today largely as curiosities or as sources of historical
information. A work such as ‘Byzantine History’, a 37-volume study by Nicephorus
Gregoras (died 1360), for example, constitutes a valuable primary source for the
14th century.
In philosophy only Proclus (died 485) deserves mention. He was the last major
Greek philosopher and was influential in spreading the ideas of Neoplatonism
throughout the Mediterranean world.
The only literature that showed any real originality was that written in the
vernacular, the language of the common people. This literature including poems,
romances, and epics was only written from the 12th century onward. Of the epics,
the most memorable is the story of Digenis Akritas, based on a historical figure
who died in about 788. It presents Akritas as the ideal medieval Greek hero.
After the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, Greek national life and
culture ended for centuries, as did literary production. It was only revived
when Greece became independent in 1829