The Library
1774 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
1–100
1 work
c. 73; date disputed, possibly 2nd–3rd century
Syriac
Mara bar Serapion
A Stoic prisoner writes to his son about the folly of killing wise men: the Athenians killed Socrates and were struck by famine, the Samians burned Pythagoras and were buried by sand, and the Jews executed their wise king and lost their kingdom in the same hour.
101–200
7 works
c. 108
Greek
Epictetus, recorded by Arrian · c. 50 – c. 135
A freed slave teaching Stoicism in Nicopolis, taken down by a student. Some things are up to us and some are not; the rest follows. In one passage he asks why, if madness and habit can make the Galilaeans fearless of tyrants, reason cannot do the same.
c. 116
Latin
Annales
Tacitus · c. 56 – c. 120
Rome from Tiberius to Nero, told with contempt for nearly everyone in it. In the fifteenth book, Nero fastens the guilt for the fire on a class hated for their abominations, whose founder Christus was executed by Pontius Pilate — and the crowd's pity turns to the victims covered in skins and torn by dogs.
c. 121
Latin
De Vita Caesarum
Suetonius · c. 69 – c. 122
Twelve imperial lives assembled from rumour, archive, and gossip in roughly equal parts. Claudius expels the Jews from Rome for rioting at the instigation of one Chrestus; Nero punishes the Christians, a class given to a new and mischievous superstition.
c. 165
Greek
De Morte Peregrini
Lucian of Samosata · c. 125 – c. 180
A charlatan joins the Christians, becomes their prophet and interpreter of books, is imprisoned and showered with support — widows and orphans waiting at the prison from dawn, meals brought in, delegates sent from Asia — then is expelled for eating something forbidden, and finally burns himself alive at Olympia.
c. 170–180
Greek
Ta eis heauton
Marcus Aurelius · 121–180
Private notes written on campaign by an emperor reminding himself to be patient with fools, to accept what the whole sends, and to be ready to leave. A single line rejects the soul that is ready to depart out of mere opposition, as the Christians do, rather than by judgement.
c. 175–192; survives in fragments, partly in Arabic
Greek, partly surviving in Arabic
Galen of Pergamum · 129 – c. 216
The greatest physician of antiquity mentions Christians four or five times in passing, twice comparing arguing with them to arguing with the school of Moses — they accept undemonstrated laws. But he grants that they hold to justice, restrain their appetites, and include some who philosophise as well as anyone.
c. 180
Greek
Lucian of Samosata · c. 125 – c. 180
An exposure of a working oracle cult in Paphlagonia, built on a tame snake with a linen head. When Alexander wanted a crowd purged before the mysteries he had the herald cry out that any atheist, Christian, or Epicurean present should leave.
301–400
1 work
c. 390–395
Latin
Res Gestae
Ammianus Marcellinus · c. 330 – c. 395
The last great history written in Latin, by a pagan soldier who served under Julian, covering the years 353 to 378 and ending at Adrianople. He records the Christians tearing at each other over the see of Rome — a prize worth having, given what the city's matrons will give a bishop — and observes that no wild beasts are so hostile to men as Christians are to one another.
9 of 1774 works