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De Vita Caesarum ("About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as The Twelve Caesars, is a set of 12 biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. The work was considered highly significant in antiquity and remains a primary source on Roman history. It examines the critical period of the Principate from the end of the Republic to the reign of Domitian.

The ancient Greek poet Hesiod lived around the same time as Homer. He is considered to be an economist and also wrote works on mythology, ancient time-keeping, and farming techniques. The Hesiod Collection includes The Shield of Heracles, Theogony (the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods), and Works and Days (a farmer’s almanac in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in the art of agriculture).

This rather incoherent work by Russian anarchist philosopher Michael Bakunin is described in a way that he described his own life: a fragment. Rife with criticisms on Christianity and the technocracy, Bakunin presses communist values without fear of bordering extremism. Listening to this work is like walking through Bakunin’s disjointed mind; often cutting off and starting mid-sentence, including footnotes several paragraphs long as if his thoughts suddenly start to wander, as well as ending rather abruptly mid-sentence.

Caligula’s father was a beloved military leader, so the Romans were initially glad to see his son take the throne, but Suetonius recounts the less flattering aspects of Caligula’s life and rule that followed his ascension. The narcissistic Caligula believed he was a god, and often replaced the busts of deities with his own. A devoted fan of gladiator fights, he also often had people assassinated, covered up the deed, and then claimed the deceased had committed suicide. Suetonius concludes this biography by detailing the omens that foreshadowed Caligula’s eventual assassination.

The Black Moth, the literary debut of the British author Georgette Heyer, is set around the 1750s. The intricate plot involves the nobility - good and bad - as they indulge in abduction, cheating at card games, duels, highway robbery, and elopement. Fortunately, repentance intervenes and all the threads come together in a happy ending.

In this allegorical short story, Nathaniel Hawthorne parodies John Bunyan’s famous book, The Pilgrim’s Progress. Rather than take the long and arduous road to the Celestial City, Hawthorne’s narrator hops on the express train to paradise. As he gets closer to his destination, however, he realizes that the clever-talking Mr. Smooth-It-Away may not be who he claims. While a caricature of Bunyan’s original tale, “The Celestial Railroad” ultimately drives home a similar point: there is no easy road to Heaven, so tough it out on the straight and narrow.

John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), Archbishop of Constantinople, was an early Church Father. This series of eight instructions concerning baptism were given by him, most likely at Antioch around the year 390. Their interest derives from Chrysostom's activities for the baptismal candidates and as their instructor in Christian doctrine and morality.

Lysistrata is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, which was originally performed in Athens in 411 BC. It is a comic account of a woman's extraordinary quest to terminate the Peloponnesian War between Greek city states, by advocating that the women deny all the men of the land any sex. At a meeting, Lysistrata persuades the women of the warring cities to withhold sexual privileges from their men. She has also persuaded the older women of Athens to seize the Acropolis.

In 387 AD, Emperor Theodosius I imposed new taxes. In Antioch, the protests against the tax degenerated into a riot in which the statues of the imperial family were thrown down. Roman emperors viewed the crime of lèse-majesté in a serious light, and the Antiochenes dreaded that Theodosius would destroy the city in retaliation. It was in the aftermath of the Riot of the Statues that Chrysostom delivered a series of lenten sermons which have come to be known as The Homilies on the Statues.

As a foremost historian of his time, Samuel Rawson Gardiner’s evaluation of Oliver Cromwell has generally been perceived as a work of great significance. Gardiner applies his highly credited critical eye to one of England’s great military and political leaders. Cromwell rose to power during a time of turbulence and civil distress during which he was admired for certain attributes, yet distrusted for others, including his loyalties to Puritanism.

Calm the Mind and the Body Will Follow is your trusted, uplifting guide toward fully embracing calmness and clarity! With patience, compassion, and commitment, you’ll soon find yourself making sounder decisions and developing more genuine relationships with others.

Sappho ( c. 630-c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. In ancient times, Sappho was widely considered one of the greatest lyric poets and was given titles such as the "Tenth Muse" and "The Poetess". Her estimated date of birth places her sometime after the composition of the works of the Homeric poets, which are preserved in the epics known as the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is claimed that her work filled nine papyrus rolls in the famous library of Alexandria some 500 years after her death.

The Phaedrus by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato's protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus, an interlocutor in several dialogues. It was probably written around 370 BC, at about the same time as Plato's Republic and Symposium. Ostensibly about love, the discussion in the dialogue focuses on the art of rhetoric and how it ought to be practiced. The dialogue appears in the direct words of Socrates and Phaedrus, without an introduction.

Alcibiades was brilliant beyond his time and ambitious beyond his own safety. Was he traitor or true patriot? Even his own historian was not sure.

Peer Gynt, the five-act romantic play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, is one of the most widely performed Norwegian plays. Based on a Norwegian folk hero, the title character is a rogue who will be destroyed unless the love of a woman saves him. At a wedding he meets Solveig, who falls in love with him, but Peer ruins the wedding by abducting, then abandoning the bride. Then Peer goes global, misbehaving in a trail of adventures around the world. When he finally returns to Norway, old and embittered, Solveig welcomes him home, and he's redeemed by her love.

The classic children's tale The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum follows the adventures of young Dorothy, who lives in Kansas with her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em. As many fans know from the beloved film adaptation of the book, a terrible swirling cyclone sweeps through the prairie area where Dorothy and her family are living, and in an attempt to get to safety, Dorothy's dog Toto buries himself under a bed. The house is picked up by the extreme winds, and when Dorothy awakens after the event, she is no longer in the town she calls home.

The Roman statesman Sulla had the nickname “Felix” - meaning “lucky.” Yet his accomplishments were more a matter of brute force than good fortune. He put an end to a civil war, declared himself dictator, and used his power to bring Rome back to its former value system, purging thousands of Roman enemies along the way. Plutarch’s biography of Sulla shows how one man’s use of force to obtain political power influenced many who came after him, most notably Julius Caesar.

This moving treatise was composed when St. Chrysostom was in exile, probably shortly before his death. It was sent with a letter to his friend the deaconess Olympias in Constantinople. A portion of this treatise reflects the thoughts of Plato in the 10th book of The Republic to prove the immortality of the soul.

Ninth-century Welsh monk Nennius has traditionally been linked to this purported history of the indigenous Britons. Written around 828, this history has been notable for its mention of certain historical figures and even saints. Most notable, however, is the very first mention of the historical King Arthur as a military leader.

The Hairy Ape (1922) is an expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill. The protagonist, Yank, yearns for a sense of belonging in a world he perceives as being controlled by the rich. Initially, Yank enjoys his job stoking the engines of an ocean liner. Then the wealthy daughter of a steel magnate refers to him as a "filthy beast", and Yank starts experiencing an identity crisis. He leaves the ship, and while walking around Manhattan, comes to the conclusion that he does not belong anywhere; not with the rich on Fifth Avenue nor with the labor unions on the waterfront.