Banner: Loeb Classical Library

Timeline of Authors

Approximately When They Flourished

Note: Other authors, not named on this chart, are represented in Loeb Classical Library collections such as Greek Lyric; Minor Latin Poets; Select Papyri; Minor Attic Orators; Greek Mathematical Works; and The Apostolic Fathers.

Writers in GreekYears Active (Period)Writers in Latin
Homer,1 Hesiod, Archilochus
Alcman		 700 B.C.
(Archaic)
Sappho, Alcaeus
Stesichorus
Ibycus, Anacreon, Theognis		 600 B.C.
Simonides, Heraclitus
Pindar, Bacchylides, Aeschylus
Herodotus, Hippocrates, Sophocles
Antiphon, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Euripides		 500 B.C.
(Classical Greek)
Andocides
Xenophon, Plato, Lysias, Isocrates, Isaeus
Aeschines, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Aeneas Tacticus
Theophrastus		 400 B.C.
Euclid, Menander
Theocritus, Manetho, Lycophron
Aristarchus, Herodas, Callimachus, Aratus
Apollonius Rhodius		 300 B.C.

Livius Andronicus
Naevius
Corinna
Polybius		 200 B.C.
(Hellenistic)		 Ennius, Plautus
Caecilius, Cato
Accius, Pacuvius, Terence
Lucilius
Bion, Moschus
Parthenius
Diodorus Siculus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus		 100 B.C.
(Classical Latin)		 Lucretius, Catullus, Cicero
Caesar, Varro, Cornelius Nepos, Sallust
Virgil, Tibullus, Vitruvius, Horace, Propertius
Strabo, Demetrius
Philo
Onasander, “Longinus”,2
Plutarch, Josephus, Dio Chrysostom		 0 Augustus, Seneca the Elder, Livy, Ovid
Celsus, Manilius, Velleius Paterculus, Phaedrus
Curtius, Seneca, Petronius, Lucan, Persius
Columella, Pliny, Frontinus, Quintilian, Martial
“Apollodorus”,2 Epictetus, Babrius
Ptolemy, Arrian, Achilles Tatius, Lucian
Aristides, Pausanias, Appian, Oppian, Galen
Marcus Aurelius, Clement		 A.D. 100 Statius, Valerius Flaccus, Silius, Tacitus
Pliny the Younger, Juvenal, Suetonius
Florus, Fronto
Apuleius
Gellius
Aelian, Athenaeus, Alciphron
Sextus Empiricus
Philostratus, Dio Cassius, Herodian
Plotinus, Diogenes Laertius, Longus		 A.D. 200
(Late Imperial)		 Tertullian
Minucius Felix
Eusebius
Pappus, Tryphiodorus
Julian, Libanius, St. Basil
Quintus Smyrnaeus		 A.D. 300 Ausonius
Eunapius
Nonnos, Colluthus		 A.D. 400
(Late Antiquity)		 St. Jerome, Ammianus Marcellinus
Prudentius, Claudian, St. Augustine
Musaeus
Procopius		 A.D. 500 Sidonius
Boethius
  A.D. 600  
A.D. 700 Bede
1. Dates of Homer, Hesiod, and Archilochus, like those of some other authors, are quite uncertain.
2. The Loeb editions of On the Sublime and The Library are attributed, respectively, to Longinus and Apollodorus, but both works now are believed to have been written by authors unknown.

The Loeb Classical Library® is published and distributed by Harvard University Press. It is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.

See books in this collection and sort by title, author, format, publication date, or price »

Back to top

Our Oldest Companions: The Story of the First Dogs, by Pat Shipman, from Harvard University Press

Recent News

Black lives matter. Black voices matter. A statement from HUP »

From Our Blog

logo of the MacArthur Foundation

Nicole Fleetwood and Monica Muñoz Martinez Awarded MacArthur Fellowships

Harvard University Press congratulates its authors Nicole Fleetwood and Monica Muñoz Martinez for being named to the 2021 class of 25 MacArthur Fellows. The prestigious no-strings-attached $625,000 awards are given to individuals “who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.” …