I Of Freedom.
(From the "Discourses." Translated by Thomas Wentworth
Higginson)

II Of Friendship.
(From the "Discourses." Translated by Higginson)

III The Philosopher and the Crowd.
(From the "Discourses." Translated by Higginson)

LUCIAN--(Born about 120 A.D., died about 200.)

I A Descent to the Unknown.
(From "Menippus." Translated by H. W. and F. G. Fowler)

II Among the Philosophers.
(From the "Fisher: A Resurrection Piece." Translated by
H. W. and F. G. Fowler)

III Of Liars and Lying.
(From the "Liar." Translated by H. W. and F. G. Fowler)

* * * * *

GREECE

484 B.C.--200 A.D.

HERODOTUS

Born in Asia Minor, probably in 484 B.C.; died in Italy,
probably in 424; commonly called the "Father of History";
assisted in the expulsion of the tyrant Lygdamis from
Halicarnassus; traveled in Persia, Egypt, and Greece; lived
afterward in Samos and Athens, settling in Thurii, Italy,
about 444 B.C.; his history of the Persian invasion of
Greece, extending to 479 B.C., was first printed in Greek by
Aldus Manutius in 1502, but a Latin version had appeared in
1474.[1]

I

SOLON'S WORDS OF WISDOM TO CROESUS[2]

When all these conquests had been added to the Lydian empire, and the
prosperity of Sardis[3] was now at its height, there came thither, one
after another, all the sages of Greece living at the time, and among
them Solon, the Athenian. He was on his travels, having left Athens to
be absent ten years, under the pretense of wishing to see the world,
but really to avoid being forced to repeal any of the laws which at
the request of the Athenians he had made for them. Without his
sanction the Athenians could not repeal them, as they had bound
themselves under a heavy curse to be governed for ten years by the
laws which should be imposed on them by Solon.

On this account, as well as to see the world, Solon set out upon his
travels, in the course of which he went to Egypt to the court of
Amasis,[4] and also paid a visit to Croesus at Sardis. Croesus
received him as his guest, and lodged him in the royal palace. On the
third or fourth day after, he bade his servants conduct Solon over his
treasuries and show him all their greatness and magnificence. When he
had seen them all,