Euripides, a great Greek tragic poet, was born at Athens, about 480 B.C., and died about 406 B.C. Nineteen of his dramas have come down to our time: “Alcestis,” “Andromache,” “Hecube,” “BacchÆ,” “Helena,” “Electra,” “HeraclidÆ,” “The Mad Hercules,” “The Suppliants,” “Hippolytus,” “Iphigenia at Tauris,” “Ion,” “Iphigenia at Aulis,” “Medea,” “Orestes,” “Rhesus,” “The Trojan Women,” “The PhoenissÆ,” and “Cyclops.”

Hippocrates, a noted Greek philosopher and writer, termed the “Father of Medicine,” was born according to Soranus, in Cos, in the first year of the 80th Olimpiad, i.e., in 460 B.C. The earliest Greek edition of the Hippocratic writings is that which was published by Aldus and Asulanus at Venice in 1526.

Socrates, the renowned Athenian philosopher, was born at Athens, about 470 B.C., and died 399 B.C. He left no writings, but his philosophical method and his teaching are to be found in the works of his contemporaries and disciples.

Aristophanes, the greatest of the Greek writers of comedy, (448-380 B.C.), was born at Athens. Only eleven of his 44 plays have come down to us. They are: “The Knights,” “The Clouds,” “The Wasps,” “The Acharnians,” “The Peace,” “The Lyristrate,” “The Birds,” “The ThesmophoriazusÆ,” “The Frogs,” “The EcclesiazusÆ,” and “Plutus.”

Plato, the renowned Greek philosopher, was born at Athens, about 427 B.C., and died there 347 B.C. Among his famous dialogues are: “Apology,” “Lysis,” “Charmides,” “Laches,” “Protagoras,” “Meno,” “Gorgias,” “Io,” “Euthyphro,” “Crito,” “PhÆdrus,” “The Sophist,” “The Politician,” “Parmenides,” “Symposium,” “PhÆdo,” “The Republic,” “The Laws,” etc.

Xenophon, a famous Greek author, was born at Athens, about 430 B.C., and died in Corinth, about 355 B.C. He is the author of: “Encomium of Agesilaus,” “Horsemanship,” “Hipparchicus,” “Cynegeticus,” “CyropÆdeia,” “LacedÆmonian Polity,” “Hieron,” “Athenian Finance,” “Symposium,” “Apology of Socrates,” “Œconomicus,” and his most celebrated works, the “Hellenics” and “Anabasis.”

Theocritus, the greatest of Greek bucolic poets, lived in the first half of the third century B.C. Thirty-one of his idyls and pastorals and a number of his epigrams have been preserved.

Aristotle, the most renowned of Greek philosophers, was born at Stagira, Macedonia, 384 B.C., and died at Chalcis, Euboea, 322 B.C. He wrote numerous treatises on philosophy.

Demosthenes, a renowned Athenian orator, was born about 384 B.C., and died at Calauria, 322 B.C. Besides his numerous orations, he wrote the “Olynthiacs” and the “Philippics,” and his great speech, “On the Crown.”

Æschines, a great Athenian orator, rival of Demosthenes, lived 389-314 B.C.

Callimachus, a renowned Greek poet, born in Cyrene, flourished in the third century B.C. Besides his tragedies, comedies, elegies and hymns, he wrote the epics, “Hecale” and “Galatea,” a “Hymn to Jupiter,” and an “Epitaph on Heracleitus.”

Titus Maccius Plautus, a celebrated Roman comic poet, was born at Sarsina in Umbria, about 254 B.C., and died at Rome about 184 B.C. His “Captives” has been declared “the best constructed drama in existence.”

Marcus Porcius Cato, the Censor, a famous Roman statesman and pamphleteer (234-149 B.C.) He wrote many tractates on different subjects, but only one of them, “On Farming,” has come down to our times. Of “Beginnings” we have only a few fragments.

Polybius, a celebrated Greek historian, was born at Megalopolis in Arcadia, 204 B.C., and died 122 B.C. His “Histories,” won for him great fame.

Terence, the renowned Latin writer of comedy, was born at Carthage, about 185 B.C., and died about 159 B.C. Among his writings are: “Andria,” “Hecyra,” “Heautontimorumenos,” “Eunuchus,” “Phormio,” and “Adelphi.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero, the prince of Roman orators, a distinguished writer on philosophy, rhetoric, morals, etc., was born at Arpinum, 106 B.C., and died 43 B.C. Among his treatises on the art of oratory are: “The Orator, to Marcus Brutus,” “Of the Orator,” and “Brutus, or of Illustrious Orators.” His philosophical writings include: “The Academics,” “Tusculan Disputations,” “Of Definitions of Good and Evil.” Of discussions of moral questions, we have the practical treatise, “Of Mutual Offices.” Theological questions are examined in the two treatises, “Of Divinations” and “Of the Nature of the Gods”; also the treatises, “Of Old Age,” “Of Friendship,” “Of Consolation.” The letters of Cicero are extant to the number of 864, under the titles: “To Intimate Friends” (16 books), “To Atticus” (also 16 books), “To Quintus,” his brother, (3 books), and “Correspondence with M. Brutus” (in 2 books).

Caius Julius CÆsar, the great Roman general and writer of memoirs, was probably born about 100 B.C.; killed March 15, 44 B.C. Besides his famous “Commentaries,” he wrote a grammatical treatise, “On Analogy,” but it has not come down to our times.

Titus Lucretius Carus, a renowned Roman poet, was born about 98 B.C., and died 55 B.C. His one work, “On Nature,” in six books, is considered one of the greatest of Latin didactic poems.

Caius Valerius Catullus, the greatest of Roman lyric poets, was born at Verona, 84 B.C., and died 54 B.C. A number of his compositions have come down to our time, The most celebrated are those “To Lesbia,” “The Boat,” and “Address to Himself.”

Virgil, the greatest of Roman epic poets, was born at Andes near Mantua, October 5, 70 B.C., and died at Brundisium, September 21, 19 B.C. He wrote the “Georgics,” “Bucolics,” and the epic, “The Æneid,” in 12 books.

Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), the great Latin lyric poet, was born at Venusia, Italy, December 8, 65 B.C., and died at Rome November 27, 8 B.C. He wrote: “Satires,” “Epodes,” “Odes,” and his famous “Epistles.”

Livy, the great Roman historian, was born at Patavium (Padua), 59 B.C., and died there A.D. 17. He wrote the “History of Rome from the Founding of the City,” in 142 “books,” many of which have been lost.

Albius Tibullus, a renowned Roman poet, was born about 54 B.C., and died probably in 19 B.C. Three books of his elegies have come down to us.

Sextus Propertius, the great Roman elegiac poet, was born at Aassisium, about 50 B.C., and died about 15 B.C. His poems consist of four books.

Sallust, a famous Roman historian, was born about 86 B.C., and died at Rome, about 34 B.C. He wrote: “The Conspiracy of Catiline,” and “The History of the War Against Jugurtha.”

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, an illustrious Roman philosopher, was born at Corduba, in Spain, about the year 4 B.C., and died A.D. 65. Many of his writings have come down to our time, among them 124 “Epistles to Lucilius,” containing exhortations to the practice of virtue: “On Providence,” “Anger,” “Of Benefits,” and “Natural History Questions,” also, several tragedies, among them, “PhÆdra,” “Thyestes,” and “Medea.”

Quintus Curtius Rufus a notable Eoman historian, was born about the first century A.D. He is the author of “De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni” (Deeds of Alexander the Great), in ten books, the first two of which are lost.

Pliny the Elder, a celebrated Roman compiler of encyclopÆdic knowledge, was born at Novum Comum, (Como), A.D. 23; and died A.D. 79. He wrote: “A Natural History” in 37 books, compiled from more than 2,000 volumes.

Aulus Persius Flaccus, a famous Latin satiric poet, was born at VolaterrÆ in Etruria, 34 A.D., and died A.D. 62. He wrote six satires, and they are all extant.

Quintilian, the famous Roman rhetorician, was born about A.D. 35, at Calagurris (Calahorra), Spain, and died about A.D. 95 or 96. His great work, “Institutionis OratoriÆ,” is one of the most renowned classical works on rhetoric.

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (Lucan), a celebrated Latin poet, was born at Cordova, Spain, A.D. 39, and died at Rome, A.D. 65. He is best known by his epic poem, “Pharsalia.”

Publius Papinius Statius, a famous Roman poet, was born at Naples, about A.D. 45, and died there, about A.D. 96. His chief work is, “The Thebaid,” an epic poem in twelve books.

Epictetus, a celebrated Greek Stoic philosopher, was born at Hierapolis in Phrygia, about A.D. 50. No works of his have come down to our time, but his maxims were collected and published in the “Encheiridion,” or Handbook, and the “Commentaries” in eight books.

Publius Cornelius Tacitus, a great Latin historian, was born about A.D. 54. He wrote the dialogue “De Oratoribus,” the “Annals,” the “Agricola,” the “Germania,” (“On the Manners of the Germans”), and his “History.”

Juvenal, the renowned Latin poet, was born at Aquinum, about A.D. 60, and died about A.D. 140. Sixteen of his famous satires are extant.

Pliny the Younger, a noted Roman orator, nephew of Pliny the Elder, was born at Comum, A.D. 61, and died about 113. Of his numerous forensic works, only one oration is extant, “The Panegyric,” also his “Letters.”

Plutarch, the celebrated Greek moralist, practical philosopher, and biographer was born at ChÆronea in Boeotia. The year of his birth and death are not known, but he was very old at the death of Trajan, A.D. 117. He wrote: “Parallel Lives,” and many “Moral Treatises,” including “The Education of Children,” “The Right Way of Hearing,” “Precepts About Health,” “Cessation of Oracles,” “The Pythian Responses,” “The Retarded Vengeance of the Deity,” “The DÆmon of Socrates,” “The Virtues of Women,” “On the Fortune of the Romans,” “Political Counsels,” “On Superstition,” “On Isis and Osiris,” “On the Pace of the Moon’s Disk,” “On the Opinions Accepted by the Philosophers.”

Lucian, the celebrated Greek satirist, was born at Samosata, in northern Syria, about 120 A.D., and died about 200 A.D. Among his writings are: “Praise of Demosthenes,” “Dialogues of the Gods,” “Dialogues of the Sea Gods,” “Dialogues of the Dead,” “The True History,” “Lucius; or The Ass,” “Death of Peregrinus,” “The Fisherman,” “The Sea Voyage, or Votive Offerings,” “The Sale of Lives,” “Alexander, or The False Prophet,” “Hermotimus,” etc.

Martial, a famous Latin poet, was born at Bilbilis, Spain, A.D. 50 (?), and died in Spain, 102 (?). His fame rests upon his “Epigrams” in fifteen books.

Suetonius, a famous Latin chronicler, grammarian, and critic, flourished in the early part of the second century of our era. His works include: “Distinguished Orators,” “Illustrious Grammarians,” “Lives of the CÆsars,” etc.

Saint Ambrose, one of the fathers of the Latin Church, born at TrÈves, Gaul, probably A.D. 340, died at Milan, April 4, A.D. 397. His writings include: “Of the Duties of the Clergy,” “HexÆmeron,” hymns, etc. He became bishop of Milan in 374.

Diogenes Laertius, a famous Greek compiler of anecdotes, flourished about A.D. 200-250, a native of LÆrte in Cilicia. He wrote a collection of notes and memoranda (in 10 books), “On the Lives, Teachings, and Sayings of Famous Men.”

St. John Chrysostom, a noted Greek Church father, born in Antioch, Syria, 350 (?), and died at Comana, 407. His works, comprising homilies, commentaries, liturgies, epistles, etc., can be found in 13 volumes, fol. (1718).

BoËthius, a famous Roman didactic poet and statesman, was born between 470 and 475, and died about 525. His celebrated “Consolation of Philosophy” won for him lasting fame.

Omar KhayyÁm, a celebrated Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer, was born at Nishapur, in 1050 (?), and died there in 1123 (?). His fame rests on the “RubÁiyÁt,” or “Quatrains,”—four-line stanzas with the third unrhymed. Fitzgerald’s was the first English translation to make these quatrains widely known.

Pierre AbÉlard, a famous French scholastic philosopher and theologian, was born near Nantes, 1079, and died April 21, 1142. His romantic and tragic love for HÉloÏse is told in his “Story of My Misfortunes.”

Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Bernard, a renowned French theologian, church father, and saint, was born at Fontaines, near Dijon, in 1091, and died at Clairvaux, January 12, 1153. He wrote five books on “Reflection,” and his famous hymn, “Jesu, the Very Thought of Thee,” is popular in the churches of our day.

Bernard of Cluny, a famous French monk and poet, who flourished in the twelfth century, is best known for his noted work, “On Contempts of the World.”

St. Francis d’Assisi, a renowned Italian preacher, and poet, founder of the Franciscan order, was born at Assisi in Umbria, Italy, 1182, and died October 12, 1226. The most famous of his hymns is the “Canticle of the Sun.”

Sadi, one of the greatest of Persian poets, was born at Shiraz, in 1184, and died in 1291 (?). He wrote: “BustÁn,” or “The Fruit Garden,” and “GulistÁn,” or “The Rose Garden,” also his “Divan.”

Saint Bonaventura, an Italian theologian and scholar of great fame, was born at Bagnarea, 1221, and died in 1274. His real name was Giovanni di Fidenza. He wrote: “Life of Saint Francis,” “Progress of the Mind Towards God,” etc.

Thomas Aquinas, a great mediÆval theologian and philosopher, was born at Aquino in the kingdom of Naples, about 1225, and died at Fossa Nuova, March 7, 1274. Among his works are: “Sum of Catholic Belief Against the Heathen,” “Exposition of All the Epistles of St. Paul,” and his most famous work, the “Sum of Theology.”

Dante Alighieri, the greatest of Italian poets, was born in Florence 1265, and died in Ravenna, September 14, 1321. He wrote: the “New Life,” the “Banquet,” and the “Divine Comedy.”

John Wyclif, a renowned scholar, was born near Richmond, England, about 1324, and died December 31, 1384. His great work was the translation of the entire Bible into English.

John Gower, a noted English poet, was born in Kent in 1325 (?), and died in London in August (or September), 1408. Among his works are: “Voice of One Crying” (Vox Clamantis), “Mirror of Meditation” (Speculum Meditantis), and “Lover’s Confession” (Confessio Amantis).

Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry, was born in London (?), 1328 or 1340, and died there October 25, 1400. He wrote: “Troilus and Cressida,” “The Parliament of Fowles,” “Boke of the Duchesse,” “The House of Fame,” “The Legend of Good Women,” and his most famous work, “Canterbury Tales.”

Thomas À Kempis, a renowned German mystic, was born at Kempen, near Cologne in 1380, and died in 1471. He was the author of the “Imitation of Christ,” which is said to be the most popular book in the world, with the exception of the Bible.

Sir Thomas Malory, the British author of the renowned “Morte d’Arthur,” was born about 1430, and died after 1470.

Philippe de Comines, a celebrated French chronicler, was born at Comines, about 1445, and died at the ChÂteau of Argenton, October 17, 1510. His famous “Memoirs” won for him great fame.

FranÇois Villon, a renowned French poet, was born in 1431, and died 1460 (?). He wrote: “The Greater Testament,” and the “Smaller Testament: Its Codicil”; a collection of poems and a volume of “Ballades.”

’Abd-urrahmÁn Jami, the last of Persia’s classic poets, was born in Jam, Khorasan, in 1414, and died in May (?), 1492 or 1493. His best known works are: “The Abode of Spring,” “The Chain of Gold,” “The Loves of Joseph and Zuleika and of Mejnun and Leila.”

Desiderius Erasmus, a renowned Dutch humanist, was born at Rotterdam, 1465 or 1467, and died July 12, 1536. He wrote a noted volume of “Colloquies,” a collection of “Adages,” and a celebrated satire, “The Praise of Folly”; besides numerous works on the ancients—Cicero, Seneca, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, etc.; also a noted treatise on “Free-Will.”

Marguerite d’AngoulÊme, or de Valois, Queen of Navarre, and famous for her stories, poems and letters, was born in 1492, and died in Bigorre in 1549. She is best known in literature by the celebrated “Heptameron,” a collection of tales; “Pearls of the Pearl of Princesses” (poems), and her “Letters,” which were published in 1841-42.

FranÇois Rabelais, the greatest of French satirists, was born at Chinon, Touraine, about 1495, and died in 1553. His fame rests upon the two works, “Gargantua,” and “Pantagruel.”

Sir Thomas Wyatt, a distinguished English poet and diplomatist, was born at Arlington Castle, Kent, in 1503, and died at Sherborne, October 11, 1542. He wrote many poems, chiefly love sonnets after the Italian manner.

Roger Ascham, a famous English scholar and prose writer, was born at Kirby Wiske, near Northallerton, in 1515, and died in London, December 30, 1568. His most noted works are: “Toxophilus,” and “The Schoolmaster.”

Luiz de CamoËns, Portugal’s greatest poet, was born at Lisbon, in 1524 or 1525, and died June 10, 1580. He is best known by “The Lusiads,” which is considered the national epic of Portugal.

Thomas Tusser, a noted English poet was born at Rivenhall, Essex, in 1527, and died in London about 1580. He was the author of “Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, United to as Many of Good Housewifery,” etc.

Bishop John Still, a celebrated English writer of comedy, was born at Grantham, in Lincolnshire, in 1543, and died February 26, 1607. He is reputed to be the author of “A Ryght Pithy Pleasant, and Merrie Comedy, Intytuled Gammer Gurton’s Needle.”

Cervantes, a renowned Spanish romancist, was born at AlcalÀ de Henares in 1547, and died at Madrid, April 23, 1616. Of his many romances and stories, his fame rests entirely on his celebrated work, “Don Quixote.”

Edmund Spenser, the famous English poet, was born about 1552, and died at London, January 13, or 16, 1599. Among his works are: “Amoretti,” “Four Hymns,” “The Shepherd’s Calendar,” “Astrophel,” “Complaints,” “Daphnaida,” “Colin Clout’s Come Home Again,” and “The Faerie Queene,” his most famous work.

Sir Walter Raleigh, the celebrated English admiral, was born at Hayes in Devonshire, in 1552, and was executed, October 29, 1618. His poems were not published until 1814, his “Miscellaneous Writings,” in 1751, and his “Complete Works,” in 1829.

George Peele, a famous English dramatist, was born in 1553 (?), and died in 1597 (?). He wrote: “The Arraignment of Paris,” “The Chronicle History of Edward I,” “The Battle of Alcazar,” “The Old Wives’ Tales,” “David and Bethsabe,” “Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes.”

Richard Hooker, one of the greatest glories of the English Church, was born in Exeter, in 1553, and died in 1600. Among his famous works may be mentioned: “Ecclesiastical Polity,” “The Nature and Majesty of Law,” “Scripture and the Law of Nature,” “Defence of Reason,” etc.

John Lyly, a renowned English dramatist, was born in 1554, and died in London, 1606. He is known principally by his two books, “Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit,” and “Euphues and His England.”

Thomas Carew, a noted English poet, lived about 1598-1639. He wrote numerous poems, mostly songs and odes. He also wrote a masque, “Coelum Britannicum.”

George Chapman, a renowned English dramatist, and translator of Homer, was born in Hitchin, Hertford, 1559, and died at London, May 12, 1634. Among his comedies and tragedies are: “All Fools but the Fool,” “May Day,” “Bussy d’Amboise,” and “The Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron.” His version of Homer is renowned.

Robert Greene, a celebrated English dramatist, was born in Norwich, about 1560, and died in London, September 3, 1592. He wrote: “History of Orlando Furioso,” “Comical History of Alphonsus, King of Aragon,” “Honorable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay,” “The Scottish Historie of James IV,” etc.; also two noted tracts, “Never Too Late,” and “Greene’s Groat’s Worth of Wit Bought with a Million of Repentance.”

Michael Drayton, a noted English poet, was born near Atherstone in Warwickshire, in 1563, and died in 1631. He wrote: “The Shepherd’s Garland,” “Poly Olbion,” his most famous work, “Sir John Oldcastle” a drama, and “Poems Lyrick and Pastorall,” including the famous “Ballad of Agincourt.”

Christopher Marlowe, a renowned English poet and dramatist, was born at Canterbury, about 1564, and was killed at Deptford, June 1, 1593. He wrote: “Tamburlaine,” “The Jew of Malta,” “Life and Death of Dr. Faustus,” and “Edward II,” his most famous work.

Saint Francis de Sales, a famous French ecclesiastic and devotional writer, was born in 1567, and died in 1622. He wrote: “Introduction to the Devout Life,” “A Treatise on the Love of God,” etc. He founded the Order of the Visitation.

Thomas Middleton, a noted English dramatist, was born about 1570, and died in 1627. He produced, “A Game of Chess,” and with William Rowley, “A Fair Quarrel,” “The Changeling,” “The Spanish Gipsy,” etc.

Thomas Dekker, a famous English dramatist, was born in London, about 1570, and died after 1637. Among his plays are: “The Shoemaker’s Holiday,” and “Old Fortunatus.” He also wrote: “The Wonderful Year,” “The Bachelor’s Banquet,” etc.

Sir Robert Ayton, a notable Scottish poet, was born in his father’s castle of Kinaldie in 1570, and died in London in February, 1638. Ayton is supposed to have been the author of “Auld Lang Syne,” which was remodeled by Burns.

Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I’ll not look for wine.

“The Forest: To Celia,”—Ben Jonson.