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Lost Works You Would Like To Read

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by RainbowFfolly (U3345048) on Friday, 4th August 2006

  Hi all,
  
  I've just found out the names of some of the Roman historian Suetonius' works that have been lost, and feel sick to my stomach that I'll never be able to read them. Does anybody else have any lost ancient texts that they would like to see be rediscovered?
  
  The Suetonius works I wish were still extant are:
  1) Lives of Famous Whores
  2) Greek Terms of Abuse
  3) The Physical Defects of Mankind
  
  Cheers,
  
  RF

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• Message 2

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  Posted by RainbowFfolly (U3345048) on Friday, 4th August 2006

  I'd also love to read "On The Ocean" by Pytheas of Massalia - probably the first written account of the British Isles from about 325-310 BCE.
  
  Any other suggestions?
  
  RF

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• Message 3

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  Posted by DrkKtn6851746 (U2746042) on Friday, 4th August 2006

  Whatever were the original sources for the 'Historia Brittonum' generally attributed to 'Nennius'.

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• Message 4

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  Posted by generallobus (U1869191) on Friday, 4th August 2006

  rainbowffolly
  
  Who knows, maybe some of those texts are already with us in the Oxyrhynchus papyri?
  
  Fingers crossed.

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• Message 5

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  Posted by fascinating (U1944795) on Saturday, 5th August 2006

  rainbowfolly, by the titles of those works that you list, I am glad that they are lost.
  
  The emperor Hadrian wrote an autobiography. It would be fascinating reading about the view from the very top of the empire at its height.
  
  Augustus left a kind of domesday book (according to Suetonius) listing all of the empire's assets, and finding that would settle a few arguements.

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• Message 6

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  Posted by Nik (U1777139) on Saturday, 5th August 2006

  Based on our discussion in the "Atlantis thread" It would be intruiging having the possibility to read what Solon was able to read (and translate, aided by the priests) in Sais, in Egypt in the 6th century. Were priests correct, and were their archives so old as to reach the era right after the cataclysm? (around 10,000 B.C.)? Would the prototype in Egyptian have a more elaborate presentation of the story (I think it would). Now that is a book to read. The other book I would love to read would be those sources that Nonnos (Hellenistic Egyptian writer of the 6th A.D. century who wrote about one guy/hero/leader/god Dionysus who fought in Egypt against Ethiopian tribes, then moved to Greece, Athens and from the port of Faliro (cos at those times... 4000 B.C. Faliro was the port and not Pireus!!!!... as the myth says!!!) he left with an army in order to campaign to ... India!!! Could it be also that Alexander the Great along with his beloved Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔric Iliad had also read myths about Dionysus' campaign to India?
  
  After that there are 100s of 1000s of books and texts that I would love to read. I would like to read the texts that Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔr copied (I insist that though these wzere largely orally transmitted poems, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔr had the chance to find them in written text also). I would like to find texts of Myceneans other than lists of products and simple references to goods (Athena, Zeus etc.).
  
  In general, the older the text the more interested I would be.

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• Message 7

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  Posted by Richie (U1238064) on Sunday, 6th August 2006

  being greedy I would have to say that I would like to see the libray at Alexandria intact so that I could rummage to my hearts content

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• Message 8

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  Posted by Thjodolf (U1900675) on Sunday, 6th August 2006

  The lost account of Hannibal's march on Rome and his Italian campaign written by Silenus.

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• Message 9

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  Posted by RainbowFfolly (U3345048) on Monday, 7th August 2006

  Hi Thjdolf,
  
  I've only read Livy's account, and great though it is, it would be incredible to hear the story from Hannibal's perspective.
  
  Yup, that's definitely a book I'd want to read!
  
  RF
  
  
  

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• Message 10

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  Posted by RainbowFfolly (U3345048) on Monday, 7th August 2006

  Fascinating wrote
  <<>>
  
  Although I'd love to read the smut and scandal in "Lives of Famous Whores", I'm not sure that I'd trade any of those books in my first message for anything that is extant. Having said that I'd be sorely tempted to exchange more than a few for Pytheas! Important though it would be, I think the Augustus Domesday book would be hard work to read in the bath or on the bus - more scholarly than entertaining - but Hadrian's autobiography sounds like such a loss.
  
  
  Generallobus wrote
  <<>>
  
  I know, and that's what makes the waiting for them all to be translated so hard. Have you seen the Oxyrhynchus website at www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk ? There's one page where you can reassemble papyri from fragments in your web browser using your mouse - like the worst jigsaw puzzle you can imagine!
  
  
  Ritchie said
  <<>>
  
  Same here, but I don't think I'd leave the place - apart from cigarette breaks. I'm pretty certain they wouldn't be too keen on my smoking inside the library...
  
  
  RF

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• Message 11

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  Posted by HIDEKAZU (U5237581) on Monday, 7th August 2006

  The Atlantic River
  I get a image when I sow the map around the greece. In ancient times, if there was a river from the Black Sea, and it was running trough the are of now the Aegean Sea, there shoud be a land fertile in fruit and grain crops around the river. I would like to call it The Atlantic River. Because the plain land is like a Atlantis.
  
  

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• Message 12

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  Posted by RainbowFfolly (U3345048) on Monday, 7th August 2006

  Hi E_Nikolaos_E,
  
  I'd love to read what Solon was able to read too. Can you imagine if it was announced that something had been discovered what it would do to the nerves of so many authors who have built their careers on conflicting Atlantean theories? My guess is there would be more than a couple of books in the bargain bucket at your local bookshop...
  
  Never heard of Nonnos before, but I'm a big fan of Dionysus - top god and he could throw a party too. I'd still be a bit wary of accepting an invite which said "Admit Pentheus + 1"...
  
  I think Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔr's sources are almost certainly lost, but it would be incredible to see even a handful of them. were the stories widespread across the eastern Mediterranean before Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔr wrote them, or was it Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔr's writings that spread the tales far and wide?
  
  RF

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• Message 13

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  Posted by arnaldalmaric (U1756653) on Tuesday, 8th August 2006

  I don't know if it is lost,
  
  However the Egyptian "Book of the Dead" is sometimes mentioned in my ignorance. Any ideas about this one?
  
  a) Is it actually lost?
  b) If it isn't, is there a translation available. My Egyptian isn't up to it.
  
  Cheers AA.

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• Message 14

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  Posted by RainbowFfolly (U3345048) on Wednesday, 9th August 2006

  Yup it's available Arnald. I remember seeing a good few copies in Unsworth's (a great book shop on Euston Road in London). Was pretty cheap too - only about Β£3.95.
  
  RF

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• Message 15

  , in reply to message 6.

  Posted by lolbeeble (U1662865) on Wednesday, 9th August 2006

  In simple terms Nick, no, Alexander merely conquered the known parts of Asia as reported in Herodotus. As for Plato's account in the Criteus and Timeus, heck, even Aristoltle thought he'd made it up. Chuffin' Ignatius Donnelly. Just a question but why do the texts deserve more reverence the older they are whereas the authorities of our own time are constantly put down? You're not suggesting that they weres omehow closer to the source of the mystical knowledge of the prediluvial civilisation by any chance, you know the one that the Templars are supposed to have stumbled across?
  
  Personally I'd like to see the lost sections of Aristotle's Poetics where he discusses comedy. That and the pre Herodotus Historians.

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• Message 16

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  Posted by Nik (U1777139) on Wednesday, 9th August 2006

  Rainbf, this guy, Nonnos is an intruiging egyptian hellenist writer - actually the last of the hellenistic writers, having lived in the times of Justinianus (early 6th century A.D.) had written a lot of texts and poems where he achieved largely a synchritism (mixing) of old religions (mainly Greek and Egyptian) with the recently spread christian beliefs, himself rather on the paganist side (though in the end he might had been an agnostiscist like all educated high class people of his times).
  
  In one of his poems he writes the epics of Dionysus, a hero (the same or other with the greek-thraecian god?) who fought in Egypt protecting the kingdom from the raiding Ethiopian tribes which he defeated but allowed to establish themselves on the border area. After these wars he went to Athens from where he commenced a campaign against India... all that in... 5000 B.C.times!!! An exaggeration we may say but then the writer naturally describes how Dionysus' fleet gathered in the port of Athens, that was Faliro in those old times (Pireus port was constructed in much later times).
  
  Of course Nonnos based such poems of his in older texts... I wonder where all that derived from.

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• Message 17

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  Posted by lolbeeble (U1662865) on Wednesday, 9th August 2006

  I know this, I even know what synchretic means and that Pireus with its famous long walls attached to Athens only came into use after the Peisistratid tyranny. In fact it seems that you have answered your own query about where Nonnos got his inspiration from, what with the rationalisation of the Dionysian myth based on the suggestion that all Gods were originally living individuals elevated to such status by their descendents first written down by Ehemerus of Messene in around 300BC, although in all honesty he was more cocerned about the Zues succession myth placing his hidden knowledge in India. All the same it doesn't answer my question about why you suggest the older the text the more you value its content? I dunno, shades of the Lucian's Adversus Indoctum I suspect.

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  Posted by Anaxilas (U5276289) on Saturday, 12th August 2006

  I personally would love to have more texts from the Archaic period in Greece, particularly the poets such as Sappho, Archilochus and Alcaeus. There's woefully little that survives from this period (about 700-500 BC), and these poets can tell us so much about many aspects of life in the Archaic city-states, and not only details of everyday life such as marriage and religion, but also about political/military aspects of the period. This time is such a crucial one in the development of Ancient Greek civilisation (and therefore also Western civilisation), plus of course it was the dominant genre of literature at the time, well worth preserving for its own sake. Other than the lyric poets, I'd love to get my hands on the complete set of Aristotle's Constitutions. Of the 159 written we only have one left, that of Athens, and this has been a contributory factor in the problem of 'Atheno-centrism' which dominates the study of Greek history. If the other 158 'Constitutions' survived, we would know far, far more about the history and institutions of all the major states of Greece, plus many smaller ones too, and this would be a gigantic contribution to our knowledge of the era, almost too big to comprehend in fact.

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• Message 19

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  Posted by jonsparta (U3871420) on Monday, 14th August 2006

  i have to admit, i would like to read the first copy of the bible, or really the many different versions there was. see with books got thrown out and forgotten...i know the vatian keeps some of the oldest books, i would love to know what else they have in their vaults!???

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  Posted by Alaric the Goth (U1826823) on Tuesday, 15th August 2006

  I would like to read Anglo-Saxon poems that were probably* written to commemorate victories, like the surviving 'Battle of Brunanburh' poem for the West Saxon victory in 937. But what I'd want most were the poems for Oswald's 7th cent. victory at Hefenfeld (nr. Hexham) over the men of Gwynedd, or his brother Oswy's later (654?) victory at Winwaed (prob. near Leeds) over the Mercians (Mierce). And of course Alfred's victory over Guthrum's Danes.
  
  It would also be good to have the Anglo-Saxon poetic viewpoint over the 'Gododdin' battle at Catraeth (Catterick) when Mynyddaug's army from Din Eidyn was deferated by the Northumbrians.
  
  Oh, and the (presumably) Norse poem lamenting Eirik Bloodaxe's death on Stainmore in c.954.
  
  * We have no way of knowing if any of these poems were ever actually composed, let alone written down, but it would be strange if the royal 'scop' of a king like Oswy or Alfred did not make a 'song' of his patron's deeds.

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• Message 21

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  Posted by Richie (U1238064) on Friday, 18th August 2006

  thought of another one as well
  
  the histories of Claudius including the (supposedly) highly critical analysis of Augustus' rise to power and the wars post Julius Caesar's death

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