An Egyptian priest that flourished in the third century BC, Manetho wrote ‘Aegyptiaca’ (History of Egypt), which provided a detailed history of his homeland to the Hellenic world. Although his original texts are now largely lost, important remains have survived, transmitted to us as fragments from several ancient authors. For many centuries, before hieroglyphics could be read, Manetho’s writings were one of the chief sources of information on Egyptian history. Delphi’s Ancient Clas...

The Roman historian Velleius Paterculus lived during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, serving as a military tribune and later as a cavalry officer and legatus in Germany and Pannonia. Written in a highly rhetorical style, his ‘Compendium of Roman History’ is a summary of Roman history from the mythical fall of Troy to AD 29. As Paterculus approaches his own times, he becomes much fuller in his treatment of history, especially dealing with the years between the death of Julius Caesar in...

A man of unusually complex character, Julian the Apostate was a military commander, philosopher, social reformer and man of letters. He was the last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire and it was his wish to bring the Empire back to its ancient Roman values in order to save it from ‘dissolution’. He purged the top-heavy state bureaucracy and attempted to revive traditional Roman religious practices at the expense of Christianity. Delphi’s Ancient Classics series provides eReade...

A historian of the first century BC, Dionysius of Halicarnassus taught rhetoric in Rome while studying the Latin language, collecting material for his magnum opus, ‘Roman Antiquities’. Dionysius states that his objects in writing history were to please lovers of noble deeds and to repay the benefits he had enjoyed while living in Rome, though he wrote also to reconcile Greeks to Roman rule. Delphi’s Ancient Classics series provides eReaders with the wisdom of the Classical world, w...

Revered statesman and soldier, Cato the Elder was the first important writer in Latin prose. His work ‘On Agriculture’ is famed for its direct, wise and grimly humorous style, providing a valuable insight of a contemporary farmer’s work, as well as interesting details of Roman domestic life. Delphi’s Ancient Classics series provides eReaders with the wisdom of the Classical world, with both English translations and the original Latin texts. This comprehensive eBook presents Cato’s ...

An Asiatic Greek in the time of Augustus, Strabo was a keen voyager that explored the four corners of the ancient world and compiled an important ‘Geography’ in seventeen books on his travels. Offering a window into the lost world of classical Rome and Greece, Strabo’s ‘Geography’ is a major source for the study of ancient geography, while providing important information on Greek cultic history and early theories of the nature of the world. Delphi’s Ancient Classics series provides...

Diogenes Laertius’ compendium on the lives and doctrines of Greek and Italian philosophers ranges over three centuries, from Thales to Epicurus, carefully compiled from hundreds of sources and enriched with numerous quotations. This comprehensive eBook presents Diogenes’ complete extant works, with beautiful illustrations, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Diogenes’ life and w...

Polybius was a leading Hellenistic historian, whom many regard as the natural successor to Thucydides. The great theme to his ‘Histories’ was a study of ‘what made Rome great’, exploring the rise of the Republic, the destruction of Carthage and the eventual Roman domination of the Greek world. The Ancient Classics series provides eReaders with the wisdom of the Classical world, with both English translations and the original Greek texts. This comprehensive eBook presents the complete extan...

Mommsen's history of the Roman Republic in five volumes. These volumes cover from the founding of Rome up to the disintegration of the First Triumvirate (Caesar, Pompey, Crassus). The author cites dates in the Roman style, AUC, from the founding of the city in 753 BC. A table at the end shows modern-day equivalents. According to Wikipedia, Mommsen is "generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century." This work complements Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".

AT the accession of Clovis, who succeeded his father Childeric about the year 481, the Salian Franks had advanced as far as the Somme. Between the Somme and the Loire the suzerainty of the Roman Empire was still maintained. The various Gallo-Roman cities preserved a certain independence, while a Roman official, by name Syagrius, exercised a kind of protection over them. Syagrius was the son of Aegidius, the former magister militum, and he held the command by hereditary right. After the fal...

The epic poem ‘Argonautica’ by Apollonius of Rhodes is the only epic poem to survive from the Hellenistic period, telling of the fabled adventures of Jason and the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece. Delphi’s Ancient Classics series provides eReaders with the wisdom of the Classical world, with both English translations and the original Greek texts. This comprehensive eBook presents the complete epic poem of Apollonius, with a special dual English and Greek section, beauti...

A scholar of the Biblical canon, Eusebius of Caesarea became counsellor of Constantine the Great and is regarded as an extremely learned Christian of the fourth century. Today his fame chiefly rests as a historian, whose pioneer work ‘Ecclesiastical History’ provides a chronological account of the development of Early Christianity from the first century to the fourth century. Eusebius also wrote an informative ‘Life of Constantine’, famously narrating the emperor’s victory at the Battle of...