The Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 03

Lucian of Samosata was ancient Rome's most vicious satirist, a Syrian Greek who skewered the pretensions of philosophers, politicians, and poets with equal glee. This volume centers on the Dialogue of Demonax, a portrait of Lucian's real-life philosopher friend who rejected wealth and status to live by his own principles. Demonax walks through Athens dispensing wisdom with wit, refusing to take himself seriously while taking everything else seriously enough to mock it. The volume also contains "A True Story," Lucian's playful fantasy of a journey to the moon, which arguably invented science fiction two millennia before anyone thought to try. Here too are shorter pieces: the satirical "The Fly" (a mock encomium), "Slander," and "My Native Land." These are not dusty artifacts but live wires, still crackling with the joy of a writer who understood that truth-telling is funniest when it hurts.