Notorious for his wit, satire, and spontaneity, Lucian of Samosata traveled through Ionia, Greece, Italy, Gaul, and other places giving entertaining and often sarcastic lectures to educated people. Professionally, Lucian was a rhetorician, possessing a mastery of speechcraft and the art of pleading in court. While the details of his personal life elude historians, his extensive writings have survived in more than 150 manuscripts.
Lucian wrote a number of books in addition to his essays, making him one of the earliest novelists of Western civilization. A True Story, included in this collection, is widely recognized as one of, if not the, earliest science fiction novel. The Lover of Lies—also known as The Doubter or The Cheater—contains the original text of The Sorceror’s Apprentice. Many of Lucian’s works were influential, innovative, and unique, however, the authorship of a handful of the works attributed to him have been called into question.
This collection contains the complete texts in their Loeb Classical Library editions. Each text includes the original Greek and an English translation for easy side-by-side comparison. Logos’ language tools allow you to go deeper into the Greek text and explore Lucian’s elegant language. Use the dictionary lookup tool to examine difficult English words used by the translator, or break down challenging Greek words used by Lucian. Students of literature, history, and ancient cultures will enjoy these works and appreciate their significance.