I asked, some months previous, in a thread quite similar to this for people to note and recommend Classical Literature to one another, and speak on behalf of that which they favoured most.
However, that was posted most unfortunately beneath a thread in which mature men garishly commented on the figure of female statues, erected long before the time of Belisario.
So here I hope it will receive a broader audience.
And I ask not only for the most obvious Classics to be brought unto this light, but those that are quite unheard of - for the former I have most likely read.
I shall give a list, and a brief description.
Would someone also be capable of advising me where, in Australia, I could find such literature printed? I would love to have these memoirs stored on shelves and not hard-drives.
---
Caius Iulius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic, Civil, Alexandrian, African and Iberian Wars.
I mention these memoirs wherever possible, the first Classic I ever read.
As I have said elsewhere, Caius Caesar - not the general of folk-lore - but the small, lean man of the Republic, is the closest I have come to hero worship.
These memoirs are quite constantly telling of the valour and discipline that would later be held as such a high and brilliant standard for the legions under Tiberius.
If one would read these, and honour the memory of Caesar as respectfully as I, then I would also recommend to them those biographies in Plutarchus' Parallel Lives which relate to the Civil Wars, from the life of Cornelius Sulla to that of Marcus Antonius.
Shakespeare needed little fiction or addition to create a tragic story from that of Caesar and Pompeius.
Xenophon's Hipparchus and On the Art of Horsemanship
The basis of the modern Haute Ecole de La Cavalerie, and both representatives of the modest and sympathetic way in which the horse was treated by the noble Hellenic people.
Certainly it has brought me to admire the helpful and many faculties which availed and advised the public on almost every matter, much in the same manner of the augurs.
I am currently reading the Anabasis , and Xenophon's comments on the Symposion of Callias deserves and entire description of it's own.
Titus Livius' Ab Urbe Condita
Currently being read, and perhaps the most detailed work I have seen yet, next to Cornelius Tacitus' Annals.
There are many doubts about the truth of this work, and how mythical it's beginnings are - yet it is very worthy of audience.
Many incredible and doubtful miracles occurred in the times of Antiquity, and although we cannot give credit to all the portents and signs that are related, and not always to the results of battles and hardships - yet we must not dismiss all reports either.
Xenophon and Platon's Apology of Socrates
A tragic recording of the humble and self-made derelict, Socrates, whom I admire for his nobility and wisdom though there are several reports elsewhere that he was self-gratifying and haughty.
If one should read the Symposion before reading of Socrates' execution, one would find it a greater shock and tragedy.
Socrates had an individual religion rather similar to mine.
A divine, 'thing'.
Xenophon's Symposion
So marvellous, and so noble in the telling of this famous drinking party!
It is the story of Callias, who, to congratulate a young athlete on his success gave a Symposion in his honour.
He asked that Socrates and those who accompanied him away from the event would join him.
These men consented, and a long evening of philosophy and great intrigue began.
This - I recommend second to Caesar's memoirs, for I am so fond of it's humour, general advice, and the attitude of the Hellenic nobleman, that I have never laughed so hard or heartily enjoyed any little pamphlet so greatly.
A favourite quote of mine, when the relation between Socrates and his wife was questioned;
"Just as the horseman, who, in the belief that if he can tame the wildest horse, he can befriend any, then rides the wildest, I have married Xanthippe, in the belief that if I can live with her for the rest of my life, I can withstand any ugliness!"
---
These five I think are some of my most favoured, another being Plutarchus' Parallel Lives, yet I will detail these later in my own thoughts if interest is shown.
Please, I do wish to know the Literal interests of others.
