Ancient Texts audiobooks page 10

A philippic is a fiery, damning speech delivered to condemn a particular political actor. The term originates with Demosthenes, who delivered an attack on Philip II of Macedon in the 4th century BCE.

Cicero consciously modeled his own attacks on Mark Antony, in 44 BC and 43 BC, on Demosthenes’s speeches, and if the correspondence between M. Brutus and Cicero are genuine [ad Brut. ii 3.4, ii 4.2], at least the fifth and seventh speeches were referred to as the Philippics in Cicero’s time. They were also called the Antonian Orations by Aulus Gellius. It is ironic that they were named after a series of speeches that failed to effectively warn the Greeks of the danger of Philip of...

On Duties (Latin: DE OFFICIIS) discusses virtue, expediency and apparent conflicts between the two. St. Ambrose, St. Jerome and other Doctors of the Roman Catholic Church considered it to be legitimate for study. It was the second book after the Bible printed on Gutenberg's press and a standard text taught at Eton College. Written by Marcus Tullius Cicero. Translated by Walter Miller.

Sample a moment of magic realism from the Red Book of Hergest:

On one side of the river he saw a flock of white sheep, and on the other a flock of black sheep. And whenever one of the white sheep bleated, one of the black sheep would cross over, and become white; and when one of the black sheep bleated, one of the white sheep would cross over, and become black.

Before passing on to the Mabinogion proper, Lady Charlotte Guest devotes Volume I of her compilation of medieval Welsh tales to three brief romances of Arthur’s Court. The centrepiece is the story of Peredur, the Dumb Youth – known elsewhere as Perceval, Parzifal, the Holy Fool, et al.

This is the violent world...

Written in the first century b.C., On the Nature of Things (in Latin, "De Rerum Natura") is a poem in six books that aims at explaining the Epicurean philosophy to the Roman audience. Among digressions about the importance of philosophy in men's life and praises of Epicurus, Lucretius created a solid treatise on the atomic theory, the falseness of religion and many kinds of natural phenomena. With no harm to his philosophical scope, the author composed a didactic poem of epic flavor, of which the imagery and style are highly praised.

Η Ιστορία του Θουκυδίδη εξιστορεί τα πρώτα 20 χρόνια του πολέμου μεταξύ της Αθήνας και της Σπάρτης, που κράτησε από το 431 μέχρι το 404 π.Χ. και είναι γνωστός ως Πελοποννησιακός Πόλεμος. Είναι έργο ζωής ενός καλλιεργημένου, ευσυνείδητου και δραστήριου ανθρώπου, που προσφέρει μια διεισδυτική ματιά στα γεγονότα της εποχής του και την ανθρώπινη φύση.
Το αρχαίο κείμενο διαβασμένο με σύγχρονη νεοελληνική προφορά. Βιβλίο Πρώτο από τα οκτώ.

Thucydides' Histories is the history of the first 20 years of the war between Athens and Sparta, which lasted from 431 until 404 B.C., also known as the Peloponnesian War. It is the life's work of a very sophisticated, efficient and active man which...

Economics (Greek: ΟΙΚΟΝΟΜΙΚΑ; Latin: Oeconomica) may not have been written by Aristotle. The author provides examples of methods used by the state to raise money including debt, currency devaluation, commodity controls, tariffs, sales tax, fines, violence and sacrilege.

The Metamorphosis, also known as The Golden Ass, is one of the very few novels of the Ancient World that survived to our days; one of the two novels of Roman Literature that we can still read; and the only one preserved in its entirety (the other one being the extremely fragmentary Satyricon).

The story of the Metamorphosis, the tale of a man turned into a donkey that goes through many adventures to become a man again, inspired many other similar ones later on. However, more than just the plot, the style of the Golden Ass also made it famous.

Considered one of the precursors of the picaresque novel, The Metamorphosis was written in a language that can be humorous and energe...

Esopo é um lendário autor grego, que teria vivido na Antigüidade, ao qual se atribui a paternidade da fábula como gênero literário. As Fábulas de Esopo serviram como base para recriações de outros escritores ao longo dos séculos, como Fedro e La Fontaine.O local de seu nascimento é incerto — Trácia, Frígia, Etiópia, Samos, e Sardes todas clamam a honra. Eventualmente morreu em Delfos. Na verdade, todos os dados referentes a Esopo são discutíveis e trata-se mais de um personagem lendário do que histórico.A única certeza é que as fábulas a ele atribuídas foram reunidas pela primeira vez por Demétrio de Falero, em 325 a.C..

Esopo teria sido um escravo, que foi libertado pelo seu dono,...

This book describes the adventures of ten Kumaras, i.e., young men, (all of whom are either princes or sons of royal ministers), as narrated by the men themselves. These narratives are replete with accounts of demigods, ghosts, gamblers, intrigues with voluptious women, astonishing coincidences, cockfights, anthropophagy, sorcery, robberies, murders and wars.

This tragedy is based on the mythological story of King Pentheus of Thebes and his mother Agave, and their punishment by the god Dionysus (who is Pentheus' cousin) for refusing to worship him.