The purpose of this research is to debunk christian apologist excuses concerning the fact that nobody from the 1st and 2nd century wrote about jesus. I have heard these claims, hundreds of times:
1. “Nothing survives from the 1st century.”
2. “The world was a completely different place 2000 years ago. Hardly anyone could read. Even fewer could write. I’m amazed any books and artifacts have survived from 2000 years ago. It should not be a selling point in an argument that nothing survives from his time period.”
3. “Even if someone had written something about jesus when he was alive, it’s very unlikely to have survived.”
~Sumerian Cuneiform script is the oldest discovered form of coherent writing (5000 years old), from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BCE.
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sumerian.htm
http://www.penn.museum/games/cuneiform.shtml
http://www.ancientscripts.com/sumerian.html
4. One desperate person (in debate) claimed that writing instruments and paper were not readily available to common people.
~I guess he never saw cave paintings from 40,800 years ago:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/06/120614-neanderthal-cave-paintings-spain-science-pike/
Note, it took 200-300 years after jesus supposedly died, before the first “European” propaganda paintings of him starting being forged.
Let us debunk these lies and see a list of famous and very literate 1st and 2nd century non-church influenced writers along with sources to see their original work that exists to this day. These people would have noticed one of the biggest “claimed” stories of their time, if it actually happened, but they never wrote a single word about it. One reason why these writers’ works don’t contain passages about jesus is because christian scribes weren’t able to get their hands on their work, in order to add their lies, like they did many times to other writers. The following writers are additionally lucky that church led christian mobs were not able to burn all their works, like they did to millions of others. Church controlled Christian mobs loved burning down entire libraries to destroy the evidence that exposed their religion.
Factors which increase the expectation that Jesus would be mentioned in a work, include :
• A large work (i.e. one which has large index of names)
• A work on an issue somehow related to Jesus or the Gospel events
• A work whose genre tends to frequently mention or allude to many subjects and people
Of course, one writer who didn’t mention jesus means nothing. But, when DOZENS UPON DOZENS of writers from the period in question, fail to mention anything about jesus (or the gospel events or actors), this argues against historicity.
The argument is sometimes made that these writers could not possibly have mentioned Jesus - because they claim he was a minor figure and unrelated to the issues at hand. This assumes that no such writer ever mentions a minor figure in passing; that they never mention other events or figures that are not specially related to the subject they are writing about. Of course, this is not true, as the evidence below shows that many of the writers mentioned, make many references to many other minor figures and events.
Refuting John Meier’s “Minor Figure jesus” claims and excuses, attempting to explain away the fact that nobody in Early Antiquity, mentioned jesus.
The bible claims that fictional jesus was one of the Most Famous people of the 1st century, with tens of thousands of followers – The New Testament is the ONLY Source for jesus.
If jesus were as famous as the bible “claims,” then there would have been hundreds of contemporary people writing about him during the “claimed” three years of his jewish ministry. We would have had enough books to fill a small library; instead, we have enough books from that time that do not mention him to fill a small library.
Some apologists claim that almost everyone was illiterate; some say that they were 90% illiterate while some try to claim 97%. The key word here is “almost”. Even if it were true that 93% of say 10,000 followers were illiterate, this still means that 700+ people never wrote about the most amazing, life changing and important thing that they have ever seen.
Another problem with the apologist claim concerning literacy in 1st century Palestine is that the comparative anthropological study of illiteracy began relatively only recently, and therefore it is no wonder that most of its research is devoted to contemporary societies. Only a few studies are related to literacy in Antiquity from which we obviously do not possess such data as we have from Europe in recent centuries. The problem that historians of Late Antiquity face is the lack of contemporary data in this field. Also, the bible claims that the “news” about jesus went much further than Palestine; reaching wealthy societies where literacy would have been much greater.
The following research includes and expands most of John E. Remsberg’s list of 42 and Kapyong/Iasion, as well as many others.
At the end of this research, I will show how a top christian apologist, has tried to dismiss the entire original lists. Then I will include counter-research to refute the dishonest apologist questions and challenges concerning anyone who didn’t mention the jesus character.
“The Christ Myth - A Critical Review And Analysis Of The Evidence Of His Existence”
http://www.amazon.com/Christ-Myth-Critical-Analysis-Existence/dp/1595479333/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370398758&sr=1-2
Many Christian apologists, try dismiss most of these writers by saying that they wouldn’t write about a religious leader but if jesus and the New Testament claims were factual, very few writers and historians would have refused to report on the greatest event/story in the history of mankind. If jesus were really historical, hundreds of people would have written entire books about him – we would have thousands of 1st century books about jesus.
~Let’s meet these famous historians and writers:
1. PHILO
Philo Judaeus, also called Philo of Alexandria (born 15–10 bc, Alexandria—died ad 45–50, Alexandria), Greek-speaking Jewish philosopher, the most important representative of Hellenistic Judaism. His writings provide the clearest view of this development of Judaism in the Diaspora. As the first to attempt to synthesize revealed faith and philosophic reason, he occupies a unique position in the history of philosophy. He is also regarded by Christians as a forerunner of Christian theology.
Additional points:
Philo was contemporary with Jesus and Paul.
He was a Hellenistic Jewish Biblical philosopher born in Alexandria.
He wrote many books about Jewish religion and history, in the 30s and 40s.
Philo visited Jerusalem and had family there.
He developed the concept of the Logos and the holy spirit.
He was considered a Christian by some later Christians.
He wrote a great deal about people and history of his time.
Essential research and reading: http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/philo.html
Philo was also in the right place to give testimony of a messianic contender. A Jewish aristocrat and leader of the large Jewish community of Alexandria, we know that Philo spent time in Jerusalem (On Providence) where he had intimate connections with the royal house of Judaea. His brother, Alexander the “alabarch” (chief tax official), was one of the richest men in the east, in charge of collecting levies on imports into Roman Egypt. Alexander’s great wealth financed the silver and gold sheathing which adorned the doors of the Temple (Josephus, War 5.205). Alexander also loaned a fortune to Herod Agrippa I (Antiquities 18).
One of Alexander’s sons, and Philo’s nephews, Marcus, was married to Berenice, daughter of Herod Agrippa, tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, 39-40. After the exile of Herod Antipas – villain of the Jesus saga – he ruled as King of the Jews, 41-44 AD. Another nephew was the “apostate” Julius Alexander Tiberius, Prefect of Egypt and also Procurator of Judaea itself (46-48 AD).
Much as Josephus would, a half century later, Philo wrote extensive apologetics on the Jewish religion and commentaries on contemporary politics. About thirty manuscripts and at least 850,000 words are extant. Philo offers commentary on all the major characters of the Pentateuch and, as we might expect, mentions Moses more than a thousand times.
Yet Philo says not a word about Jesus, Christianity nor any of the events described in the New Testament. In all this work, Philo makes not a single reference to his alleged contemporary “Jesus Christ”, the godman who supposedly was perambulating up and down the Levant, exorcising demons, raising the dead and causing earthquake and darkness at his death.
With Philo’s close connection to the house of Herod, one might reasonably expect that the miraculous escape from a royal prison of a gang of apostles (Acts 5.18,40), or the second, angel-assisted, flight of Peter, even though chained between soldiers and guarded by four squads of troops (Acts 12.2,7) might have occasioned the odd footnote. But not a murmur. Nothing of Agrippa “vexing certain of the church” or killing “James brother of John” with the sword (Acts 12.1,2).
Strange, but only if we believe Jesus and his merry men existed and that they established the church; If we recognize that the Christian fable was still at an early stage of development when Philo was pondering the relationship of god and man, there is nothing strange here at all.
What is very significant, however, is that Philo’s theological speculations helped the Christians fabricate their own notions of a godman.
Freethoughtpedia: The first major candidate from Jewish sources is Philo of Alexandria. Philo was a Jewish philosopher who lived from around the third decade BCE to around the fifty decade CE. This makes him a full contemporary of Jesus, who probably lived from c.6BCE to c.30CE. We find in Philo’s philosophy Jewish ideas mixed with Greek thought. It was Philo who introduced the concept of Logos, which he called the Son of God, the Paraclete, the mediator between God and man. All these were later shamelessly plagiarized by Christians to refer to Jesus. Furthermore, Philo maintained an active interest in the welfare of Israel. If there was a Jew who thought of himself as the Son of God and the Logos (as the gospel of John tells us Jesus did) and miraculously rose from the dead, it is highly improbable that Philo would not have heard of him. Yet in more than fifty works of Philo known to us today, there is not a single allusion to Jesus or to his followers.
It simply makes no sense that Philo would not have recorded something about Jesus, vis-a-vis the Jesus described in the book of Mark. Those who argue that Philo would have merely ignored a crowd drawing, miracle working godman because he could not have conceived of the ‘logos’ in human form merely beg the question that Philo’s position would never change, even in the face of negating evidence!
Philo never reports ever seeing the god-man represented in the Gospels. His silence is glaring. And Philo may well have even provided us with a positive rule out for a real Jesus Christ:
“And even if there be not as yet anyone who is worthy to be called a son of God, nevertheless let him labour earnestly to be adorned according to his first-born word, the eldest of his angels, as the great archangel of many names; for he is called, the authority, and the name of God, and the Word, and man according to God’s image, and he who sees Israel."
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Evidence_for_the_historical_existence_of_Jesus_Christ
TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA
http://jesuspuzzle.humanists.net/supp05.htm
Richard Carrier takes the Christ out of Christmas
"Historians have no evidence of a historic Jesus dating from the early first century, even though many contemporary writers documented the era in great detail. Philo of Alexandria, for example, wrote in depth about early first-century Palestine, naming other self-proclaimed messiahs, yet never once mentioning a man named Jesus. Many other contemporary writers covered that era, yet there is not a single mention of any existence, deeds, or words of a man named Jesus.” ~Avijit Roy
http://mukto-mona.com/wordpress/?p=57
For further research and information:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/456612/Philo-Judaeus
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/456612/Philo-Judaeus/5689/Additional-Reading
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/456612/Philo-Judaeus/5687/Works
The Works of Philo Judaeus - The contemporary of Josephus, translated from the Greek - By Charles Duke Yonge
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/yonge/
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/philo-ascetics.asp
2. JUSTUS
Justus of Tiberias was a Jewish author and historian living in the second half of the 1st century AD. Little is known about his life, except as told by his political and literary enemy Josephus Flavius.
Justus was born in Tiberias, a highly Hellenistic Galilean city and was a man of learning. He was close to the Tetrarch Agrippa II and became a leading citizens of his hometown.
During the First Jewish-Roman War (66-73), he ran into conflict with Josephus, a Jewish leader in Galilee. When the Romans had reconquered Galilee, Justus sought sanctuary with the Tetrach Agrippa. Vespasian, who led the Roman troops, demanded that Justus be put to death, but Agrippa spared him and merely imprisoned him. The tetrarch even appointed Justus as his secretary, but later dismissed him as unreliable.
Justus wrote a history of the war in which he blamed Josephus for the troubles of Galilee. He also portrayed his former master Agrippa in an unfavourable light, but did not publish the work until after Agrippa’s death. Justus also wrote a chronicle of the Jewish people from Moses to Agrippa II. Both his works only survive in fragments.
Flavius Josephus, Justus’ rival, criticized the Tiberian’s account of the war and defended his own conduct in the Autobiography, from whose polemical passages we derive most of what we know about Justus’ life.
Justus of Tiberias wrote a History of Jewish Kings in Galilee in late 1st century.
Photius read Justus in the 8th century and noted that he did not mention anything: “He (Justus of Tiberias) makes not one mention of Jesus, of what happened to him, or of the wonderful works that he did.”
It is surprising that a contemporary writer from the very region of Jesus’ alleged acts did not mention him.
Jesusneverexisted: Justus was also a historian, a rival to Josephus, and from the same region. Perhaps his work was not as easily doctored – his histories did not make it through the Christian Dark Age and are – as they say – “lost to us”!
“ I have read the chronology of Justus of Tiberias … and being under the Jewish prejudices, as indeed he was himself also a Jew by birth, he makes not one mention of Jesus, of what happened to him, or of the wonderful works that he did.” – Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, 9th Century
Photius (St. Photios the Great to the Greek Orthodox) was a powerful Patriarch in Constantinople during the 9th century, defending the eastern church from papal ambitions. His value to historians, however, rests on his avid love of books. He set himself the task of summarizing or reviewing the 279 works in his own library. The resulting Bibliotheca thus preserves something of many ancient volumes now lost.
The comment from Photius that another Jewish historian, Justus of Tiberias, failed to say a word about Jesus in his history of the Jews from Moses to Agrippa II, is powerful testimony against an historical Jesus.
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/josephus-etal.html
Rejectionofpascalswager: Born in Galilee about the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. Justus therefore grew up and lived among men who, presumably, were still freshly imbued with Jesus and his disciples preaching. It is therefore extremely surprising that in his two great works, a history of the war of independence and a chronicle of events from Moses to Agrippa II (d. 100 CE), not a single reference was made to Jesus. Photius, the ninth century Byzantine theologian, who knew both books, commented on this fact with astonishment.
http://www.rejectionofpascalswager.net/sources.html
Christisnotrisen: Justus of Tiberias produced a biography of King Herod and never mentioned Jesus. He composed a history book for Palestine that covered the days of Moses until after the death of Jesus (page 136, The Jesus Mysteries). His book is now lost but Photius of Constantinople read it roughly 900 years later and remarked on the conspicuous absence of anything on Jesus. Jesus was not even alluded to.
http://www.christisnotrisen.com/extrabiblicalnonwitness.html
For further research and information:
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9100-justus-of-tiberias
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10505.html
3. PLUTARCH
Plutarch or Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia.He was born to a prominent family in Chaeronea,Boeotia, a town about twenty miles east of Delphi.
Plutarch of Chaeronea wrote many works on history and philosophy in Rome and Boetia in about 90-120 CE.
Plutarch wrote about influential Roman figures, including some contemporary to Jesus,
Plutarch wrote on Oracles (prophesies),
Plutarch wrote on moral issues,
Plutarch wrote on spiritual and religious issues.
If Plutarch knew of Jesus or the Gospel events, it is highly likely he would have mentioned them.
American historian and bible scholar, Richard Carrier writes:
One could say that Jesus was an insignificant, illiterate, itinerant preacher with a tiny following, who went wholly unnoticed by any literate person in Judaea. However, this would not bode well for anyone who wished to maintain he was God, or did any of the more amazing things attributed to him. It is very implausible, for instance, that a biography would be written for the obscure itinerant philosopher Demonax in his own lifetime (by Lucian), yet God Incarnate, or a Great Miracle Worker who riled up all Judaea with talk, should inspire nothing like it until decades after his death. And though several historians wrote on Judaean affairs in the early 1st century (not just Josephus and Tacitus, but several others no longer extant), none apparently mentioned Jesus (see the Secular Web library on Historicity). Certainly, had anyone done so, the passages would probably have been lovingly preserved by 2nd century Christians, or else inspired angry rebuttals.
For instance, the attacks of Celsus, Hierocles, and Porphyry, though destroyed by Christians and thus no longer extant (another example of the peculiar problem of Christian history discussed above), nevertheless remain attested in the defenses written by Origen, Eusebius, and Macerius Magnes. But no earlier attacks are attested. There is no mention of Christians in Plutarch’s attack On Superstition, nor a rebuttal to any attack on Christianity in Seneca’s lost work On Superstition (which ruthlessly attacked pagans and Jews, as attested in book 10 of Augustine’s City of God), so it seems evident Christians got no mention even there, in a text against alien cults, by a man who would have witnessed the Neronian persecution of 64 CE (alternatively, the fact that this is the only work of Seneca’s not to be preserved, despite the fact that Christians must surely have been keen to preserve an anti-pagan text by a renowned pagan, might mean it contained some damning anti-Christian material and was suppressed, though Augustine clearly had access to the work and says nothing about such content). All of this suggests a troubling dichotomy for believers: either Jesus was a nobody (and therefore not even special, much less the Son of God) or he did not exist.
“On Superstition” by Plutarch as published in Vol. II of the Loeb Classical Library edition.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/De_superstitione*.html
Egyptorigins.org: As a further important source I use the Moralia, Volume 5 of Plutarch, written circa 100 AD, published in the Loeb Library series of Harvard University, 1936, with many reprints, and translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. The first edition of the Moralia was by Stephanus in 1572. It comprised fifteen volumes, and is published in that traditional order by Harvard Press.
Plutarch gave us a dissertation on Isis and Osiris in which he presents the Osiris myth, containing more information than we can deduce from the formal Egyptian funerary statements — which are often mere allusions. While the myth may be a fanciful story, it offers additional insight to give us a better idea of how the Egyptians understood the role of Osiris.
I shall offer details from the above sources to support these remarks.
As Budge wrote in his section on The Legend of Osiris:
We find that the doctrine of eternal life and of the resurrection of a glorified or transformed body, based upon the ancient story of the resurrection of Osiris after a cruel death and horrible mutilation, inflicted by the powers of evil, was the same in all periods, and that the legends of the most ancient times were accepted without material alteration or addition in the texts of the later dynasties.
The story of Osiris is nowhere found in a connected form in Egyptian literature, but everywhere, and in texts of all periods, the life, sufferings, death and resurrection of Osiris are accepted as facts universally admitted.
While many recent scholars look with disdain on the work of Budge this statement accurately reflects the Egyptian sources.
We should note the manner of address in the Pyramid Texts, and the Papyrus of Ani. Always does the human person (King) who makes an appeal for eternal life assume the status of Osiris. As Budge wrote:
Osiris was the god through whose sufferings and death the Egyptian hoped that his body might rise again in some transformed or glorified shape, and to him who had conquered death and had become the king of the other world the Egyptian appealed in prayer for eternal life through his victory and power. In every funeral inscription known to us, from the pyramid texts down to the roughly written prayers upon coffins of the Roman period, what is done for Osiris is done also for the deceased, the state and condition of Osiris are the state and condition of the deceased; in a word, the deceased is identified with Osiris. If Osiris lives forever, the deceased will live for ever; if Osiris dies, then will the deceased perish.
Thus in the following quotes from the Pyramid Texts the reader should note how the the Egyptian appeals were made on the behalf of the King, who was the human personification of Osiris.
The Plutarch Material - http://www.egyptorigins.org/osirisandjesus.htm
http://www.egyptorigins.org/excerptsfromplutarch.htm
“Romulus”
This was written about by Titus Livius (who died in 17 CE) in his book The Early History of Rome and by Plutarch in Numa Pompilius (written circa 75 CE)
Numa Pompilius By Plutarch http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/numa_pom.html
Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 1 Rev. Canon Roberts, Ed.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0026&redirect=true
Romulus and Jesus Compared By John W. Loftus
http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2012/01/romulus-and-jesus-compared.html
Romulus parallels:
Romulus is born of a vestal virgin, which was a priestess of the hearth god Vesta sworn to celibacy (Early History of Rome, 1.3-1.4). His mother claims that the divine impregnated her, yet this is not believed by the King (there is a certain irony to this since Romulus is later hailed as “God and a Son of God”, meaning that his mother’s seemingly far-fetched tale was true after all). Romulus and his twin brother, Remus, are tossed in the river and left for dead (A “slaughter of the innocents” tale which parallels that of Matthew 2:13-16).
Romulus is hailed as the son of god. He is “snatched away to heaven” by a whirlwind (It is assumed that the gods took him), and he makes post mortem appearances (See The Early History of Rome 1.16). In his work Numa Pompilius, Plutarch records that there was a darkness covering the earth before his death (Just as there was during Jesus’ death according to Mark 15:33). He also states that Romulus is to be known afterwards as ‘Quirinus’; A god which belonged to the Archiac Triad (a “triple deity” similar to the concept of the Trinity). This information may be found in the second paragraph of the translation of Numa Pompilius.
Romulus differences:
Although Jesus and Romulus are both known as kings, Jesus makes it clear that his kingdom is not an earthly one as is that of Romulus (John 18:36). Furthermore, the life of Romulus is mainly composed of military conquests and other such things which do not bear the slightest parallel to the life of Jesus as told by Paul and the gospel writers.
http://www.dbskeptic.com/2009/09/13/pagan-parallels-to-jesus-the-forgotten-sons-of-god/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_and_Remus
Plutarch, The Parallel Lives p91 The Life of Romulus
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Romulus*.html
http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/romulus.html
For further research and information:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plutarch/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/465201/Plutarch
http://www.livius.org/pi-pm/plutarch/plutarch.htm
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/plutarch/p/Plutarch.htm
http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Plutarch.html
http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/caesar.html
http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/alexandr.html
Plutarch’s writings also include a fascinating piece known as the “Vision of Aridaeus”, a spiritual journey, or out of body experience, or religious fantasy
http://qdj.50megs.com/PlutarchVision.html
http://www.gnosis.org/library/grs-mead/grsm_aridaeus.htm
4. PLINY THE ELDER
Pliny the Elder, Gaius Plinius Secundus (23-79 AD), Roman savant and author of the celebrated Natural History, an encyclopaedic work of uneven accuracy that was an authority on scientific matters up to the Middle Ages.
Gaius Plinius Secundus wrote a large Natural History in Rome c.80CE.
Pliny wrote a great deal - his Natural History mentions HUNDREDS of people, major & minor - writers, leaders, poets, artists - often with as much reason as mentioning Jesus. (Like many other Roman writers, he writes about astronomy but never mentions the Star of Bethlehem or the darkness.) Yet nowhere in his works is any mention of the Jesus phenomena described in Mark. The typical apologist response is that Pliny would not have taken interest in a backwater preacher, but given the claims given in the Gospels concerning the purported life of Jesus, it is glaringly obvious that Pliny would have either seen, heard of, or at least investigated events as incredible as those reported in the book of Mark; yet not a word of these putative events is alluded to in his work.
Pliny also provides us with a direct refutation of the Gospel claims of earthquakes and eclipses (i.e. such as those found in Matthew). Pliny collected data on all manner of natural and astronomical phenomena, even those which were legendary - which he himself did not necessarily regard as factual, yet he records no prodigies associated with the beliefs of Christians, such as an earthquake or darkening of the skies at a crucifixion, or any star of Bethlehem.
For further research and information:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/464822/Pliny-the-Elder
http://www.livius.org/pi-pm/pliny/pliny_e.html
http://www.livius.org/pi-pm/pliny/pliny_e2.html
http://www.livius.org/pi-pm/pliny/pliny_e3.html
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/thayer/e/roman/texts/pliny_the_elder/home.html
http://suite101.com/article/gaius-plinius-secundus-aka-pliny-the-elder-a384074
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.+Nat.+toc
5. Seneca the Elder
Lucius or Marcus Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca the Elder (54 BCE - 39 CE) was a Roman rhetorician and writer. He was father to the more famous Seneca the Younger who had the identical name, Lucius Annaeus Seneca.
Seneca was the author of a lost historical work, containing the history of Rome from the beginning of the civil wars almost down to his own death. While the work is lost to us, it was published by his son. The latest references in his writings are to the period immediately after the death of Tiberius, probably around the time of his own death in 39 AD.
At an advanced age, he wrote a collection of Debates and Pleadings composed of eighty-one subjects on criminal, civil and social themes based on hypothetical laws and situations. He arranged in ten books of Controversiae (imaginary legal cases).
He never mentioned jesus or his famous trial and execution.
His other book is called Suasoriae (first century b.c.e. or first century c.e.; Declamations, 1974) ad provides topics for students who are practicing speeches intended to persuade listeners to support a proposed action.
He had great interest in speeches but never mentioned one of the “claimed” greatest speakers (jesus) of his time.
He also preserved various accounts, such as Livy’s, of the death of Cicero. The romantic topics of many of the Suasoriae (“Exhortations”) became part of the collection of tales known as the Gesta Romanorum (Deeds of the Romans).
But he didn’t write any accounts of jesus.
For further research and information:
http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item1117758/?site_locale=en_GB
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/results-list.php?author=3788
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/seneca.contr1.html
6. Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca; ca. 4 BC – AD 65) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was the tutor and later, an advisor to emperor Nero. While he was later forced to commit suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, the last of the Julio-Claudian emperors, he may have been innocent. His father was Seneca the Elder and his elder brother was Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus.
Seneca and the Stoics
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/seneca.html
Letters of Pontius Pilate HOAX
There is an Internet myth that Pontius Pilate wrote letters to Seneca in Rome that mention Jesus and his reported miracles.
This myth originates in the 1928 book Letters of Pontius Pilate: Written During His Governorship of Judea to His Friend Seneca in Rome by W. P. Crozier, an Oxford-educated Guardian journalist (and later the paper’s editor) with an interest in Greek, Latin, the Bible and Zionism. It was written in the style of scholarship, but was in fact Crozier’s first novel, with no pretenses to being anything other than fiction.
How this became an Internet meme that such letters existed — despite the lack of any such letters or mentions of Jesus in Seneca’s surviving writings — is not known. The letters themselves are quoted as if genuine, with various spurious sources given, rather than as parts of the work of fiction they came from.
Some Christian apologists have tried using this HOAX as evidence, in the past but since it has been proven false by both sides, most apologists have since abandoned its attempted use.
Letters of Pontius Pilate by http://www.nobeliefs.com/exist.htm
This would appear hilarious if not for the tragic results that can occur from believing in fiction: many faithful (especially on the internet) have a strong belief that Pontius Pilate actually wrote letters to Seneca in Rome where he mentions Jesus and his reported healing miracles.
Considering the lack of investigational temper of the religious mind, it might prove interesting to the critical reader that the main source for the letters of Pilate come from W. P. Crozier’s 1928 book titled, “Letters of Pontius Pilate: Written During His Governorship of Judea to His Friend Seneca in Rome.” http://www.amazon.com/dp/1589639480?tag=freethinkers&link_code=as3&creativeASIN=1589639480&creative=373489&camp=211189
The book cites Crozier as the editor as if he represented a scholar who edited Pilate’s letters. Well, from the title, it certainly seems to indicate that Pilate wrote some letters doesn’t it? However, unbeknownst or ignored by the uncritical faithful, this book represents Crozier’s first novel, a fictionalized account of what he thought Pilate would have written.
During the first publication, no one believed this novel represented fact and reviews of the day reveal it as a work of fiction.
Crozier, a newspaper editor, went to Oxford University and retained an interest in Latin, Greek and the Bible. He wrote this novel as if it represented the actual letters of Pilate. Of course no scholar would cite this as evidence because no letters exist of Pilate to Seneca, and Seneca never mentions Jesus in any of his writings.
The belief in Pilate’s letters represents one of the more amusing fad beliefs in evidential Jesus, however, it also reveals just how myths, fakes, and fictions can leak into religious thought. Hundreds of years from now, Crozier’s fictionalized account may very well end up just as 'reliable’ as the gospels.
The Epistle to Seneca the Younger HOAX
Seneca’s lack of mention was sufficiently troublesome to some early Christians that they forged correspondence between Seneca and Paul of Tarsus. Jerome, in de Viris Illustribus 12, and Augustine, in Epistle 153.4 ad Macedonium, both refer to the forged communication.
The Epistle to Seneca the Younger is a collection of correspondence claiming to be from Paul of Tarsus to Seneca the Younger. There are 8 epistles allegedly from Seneca, and 6 replies allegedly from Paul. However, it is widely held to be forged, even in early times, in particular as the styles of writing match neither Paul’s other epistles, nor Seneca’s other works.
Seneca is said to have been concerned about the allegorical style of Paul’s epistles and to have coached him on the appropriate manner of writing. Such an appeal to as great a writer as Seneca is clearly an attempt to lend the theological content of the epistles, which was that the Pauline Epistles are allegory encoding secret teachings, some weight. Jerome mentioned them in his De Viris Illustribus (chap. 12).
http://wesley.nnu.edu/index.php?id=2220
http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/seneca/
On 6 different pages, The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference admits that The Epistle to Seneca the Younger, is a Pseudo-Correspondence:
Just like the Letters of Pontius Pilate HOAX, some Christian apologists have tried using this HOAX as evidence, in the past but since it has been proven false by both sides, most apologists have since abandoned its attempted use.
American historian and bible scholar, Richard Carrier writes:
“There is no mention of Christians in Plutarch’s attack On Superstition, nor a rebuttal to any attack on Christianity in Seneca’s lost work On Superstition (which ruthlessly attacked pagans and Jews, as attested in book 10 of Augustine’s City of God), so it seems evident Christians got no mention even there, in a text against alien cults, by a man who would have witnessed the Neronian persecution of 64 CE (alternatively, the fact that this is the only work of Seneca’s not to be preserved, despite the fact that Christians must surely have been keen to preserve an anti-pagan text by a renowned pagan, might mean it contained some damning anti-Christian material and was suppressed, though Augustine clearly had access to the work and says nothing about such content). All of this suggests a troubling dichotomy for believers: either Jesus was a nobody (and therefore not even special, much less the Son of God) or he did not exist.”
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.iv.VI.10.html
For further research and information:
http://www.philosophers.co.uk/seneca-the-younger.html
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/seneca/
http://www.egs.edu/library/lucius-annaeus-seneca/biography/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/534392/Lucius-Annaeus-Seneca
http://www.senecatheyounger.org/
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/seneca/g/052109Seneca.htm
http://www.columbia.edu/dlc/garland/deweever/S/senec.htm
7. Damis
Damis of Nineveh, the biographer of Apollonius of Tyana, a Pythagorean philosopher and teacher.
Damis wrote most of what we know about Apollonius of Tyana. He was a philospher and mystic exactly contemporary with Jesus and who was rather similar to Jesus - enough for some authors to argue they were one and the same person. He could have easily have been mentioned as a competitor. A story in which Apollonius bested Jesus in debate would not be un-expected.
The memoirs of Damis of Nineveh, the Scraps from the manger, are the pièce de résistance of Apollonius scholarship. Apollonius’ biographer Philostratus claims to have had access to the memoirs of one of Apollonius’ followers when he wrote his Life of Apollonius (LoA). The empress Julia Domna had brought this booklet to his notice, and Philostratus’ states that his aim was just 'to recast and edit Damis’ essays, paying attention to the style and diction of them’.
For further research and information:
http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/apollonius/apollonius06.html
http://www.gnosis.org/library/grs-mead/apollonius/apollonius_mead_06.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damis
8. Apollonius of Tyana
(3 BCE to 97 CE) The charismatic teacher and miracle worker Apollonius lived in the first century AD. He was born in Tyana and may have belonged to a branch of ancient philosophy called neo-Pythagoreanism. He received divine honors in the third century. Although the Athenian sophist (professional orator) Philostratus wrote a lengthy Life of Apollonius, hardly anything about the sage is certain. However, there are several bits and pieces of information that may help us reconstruct something of the life of this man, who was and is frequently compared to the Jewish sage and miracle worker Jesus of Nazareth.
There exists a large collection of Letters of Apollonius: it contains more than hundred pieces, most of them said to be written by the Tyanean, some by others, often short, sometimes long.
Apollonius, Jesus and Paul: Men or Myths? By bible scholar, Acharya S/D.M. Murdock
http://www.truthbeknown.com/apollonius.html
Apollonius of Tyana Similarities to Jesus March 4, 2012 By Shelly Barclay
Apollonius of Tyana is said to have been a neo-Pythagorean philosopher, miracle worker, teacher and traveler. Some compare him to Jesus Christ. Others say he was the inspiration for the story of Jesus Christ. Others still say that Apollonius of Tyana was dropped in favor of Jesus Christ when the Christians decided who to believe was the true son of God. Like Jesus Christ, the story of Apollonius of Tyana’s life is in question. The story is real enough and quite old, but what about the man and his miracles?
The precise birth date of Apollonius of Tyana is unknown. The birth date of Jesus Christ is also unknown, but sometimes asserted and speculated upon. However, it is generally thought that the two lived around the same time. The most common estimates for his birth put it around 15 CE and his death around 100 CE, though some quote his lifespan as “more than 100 years,” which would make those dates inaccurate. Another kink in the estimate is that some say he was older than Jesus Christ. The above dates would make him slightly younger than the commonly cited date of Jesus Christ’s birth. Since there are no contemporary sources for either of their births, there is no way of knowing which, if any, of these estimates are correct. We can say that if Apollonius of Tyana lived, he did so in the first century. If Jesus also lived, he did so in the same century as Apollonius of Tyana.
Apollonius of Tyana similarities to Jesus Christ is undeniable. They both are said to have ascended to Heaven. There are stories of both performing miracles. They were both spiritual teachers. However, they did not have identical beliefs. Jesus taught his followers that God answers prayers. Apollonius of Tyana believed in a god who was pure intellect and taught his followers that the only way to converse with God was through intellect. He taught that prayers and sacrifice were useless and that God really did not want to converse with men. In this way, they would have been in competition with each other if they preached in the same areas. Some say that they were and that they did.
Apollonius of Tyana’s name stems from where he was born — Tyana in Cappadocia. That is in modern-day Turkey. It is said that he also traveled to Greece and Syria. Jesus did travel in the Middle East. There are also claims that he went to India during the years of his life for which the Bible does not account. Therefore, there is a chance that the two did cross paths and compete with one another for followers. However, the similarities could also be explained by crossover stories. Furthermore, there is absolutely no mention of Apollonius of Tyana in the stories of Jesus and there is no mention of Jesus in the stories of Apollonius. Apart from speculation, there is no reason to believe the two ever met, if they existed.
When it comes to the miracles of Apollonius of Tyana, the veracity of those claims falls to personal beliefs. It is said that he saw a vision of the death of Emperor Domitian as it occurred. He reportedly cleansed a boy of demons or a demon. Some stories of his demise, which is also quite a mystery, say that he disappeared while on trial for “magic” and ascended into Heaven. These stories cannot be proven. If Apollonius were found to have not existed, it would be easy to say these miracles did not happen. Otherwise, it is a personal choice to believe them or not to believe them.
The most pressing question, which is that of his existence, is actually the least complicated mystery concerning Apollonius of Tyana. The most extensive and earliest lengthy biography on the man is a work by Philostratus written in 225 CE. That does nothing to prove his existence. There is no way to say whether the sources Philostratus cites truly existed or whether he was making it up. He certainly never met the man. Nonetheless, there are numerous letters and pieces of work by Apollonius of Tyana that exist to this day. In this way, Apollonius is more provable than Jesus Christ. Many of the proposed documents are likely to be frauds. However, at least one in particular — an excerpt of his “On Sacrifices” — is regarded as genuine, as in a piece written by Apollonius of Tyana himself. It is by no means absolutely certain that Apollonius lived. Nonetheless, it is easier to entertain than stories of other miracle workers that appeared hundreds of years after their deaths and who left behind no contemporary writings.
http://historicmysteries.com/apollonius-of-tyana-similarities-to-jesus/
The Secret Bible - Rivals of Jesus - National Geographic Society
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/rivals-of-jesus/
Reason #77: Apollonius of Tyana and other early messiahs
http://100reasonstodoubt.tumblr.com/post/4529029319/77
Sources:
Lendering, John, Apollonius of Tyana, retrieved 3/3/12, www.livius.org/ap-ark/Apollonius
Ancient Miracle Stories, retrieved 3/3/12, www.darkwing.uoregon.edu/ndfalk/courses/jesus/miracles.htm
For further research and information:
http://www.gnosis.org/library/grs-mead/apollonius/apollonius_mead_01.htm (8 pages)
http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/apollonius/apollonius01.html
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/cv/wscs/wscs38.htm
Apollonius of Tyana - by Flavius Philostratus - Chrestos Publishing (2007)
http://www.mountainman.com.au/Apollonius%20of%20Tyana%20chrestos.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonius_of_Tyana
9. Lucius Flavius Philostratus
Lucius Flavius Philostratus (c.170-c.247): one of the leading sophists or orators of his day, spent some years at the Roman imperial court, author of a Lives of the sophists and an intriguing Life of Apollonius of Tyana.
In the Life of Apollonius, the Athenian author Philostratus, a sophist who lived from c.170 to c.247, tells the story of Apollonius of Tyana, a charismatic teacher and miracle worker from the first century CE who belonged to the school of Pythagoras. (A summary can be found here.) It is an apologetic work, in which Philostratus tries to show that Philostratus was a man with divine powers, but not a magician. He also pays attention to Apollonius’ behavior as a sophist.
Although the hero is known from several other sources, Philostratus’ vie romancée is our most important source. Scholars studying the life of the Tyanaean sage -whose miraculous acts have often been compared to the miracles of Jesus of Nazareth- have tried to establish the sources of Philostratus’ books (e.g., letters and Damis)
For further research and information:
http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/apollonius/life/va_00.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/456876/Flavius-Philostratus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philostratus#Philostratus_II
10. JUVENAL
Decimus Junius Juvenalis (born 55–60? ce, Aquinum, Italy—died probably in or after 127), was the most powerful of all Roman satiric poets. Many of his phrases and epigrams have entered common parlance—for example, “bread and circuses” and “who will guard the guards themselves?”. His verse established a model for the satire of indignation, in contrast to the less harsh satire of ridicule of Horace. Little is known about his life except that during much of it he was desperately poor. A tradition tells that as a youth he was banished from court for satirizing an imperial favorite; later his work reveals a deep hatred for the Emperor Domitian. He is known chiefly for his 16 satires, which contain a vivid representation of life in Rome under the empire. They were probably written in the years between A.D. 100 and A.D. 128. The biting tone of his diatribes has seldom been equaled. From the stern point of view of the older Roman standards he powerfully denounces the lax and luxurious society, the brutal tyranny, the affectations and immorality of women, and the criminal excesses of Romans as he saw them, especially in his earlier years. The rhetorical form of his verse is finished, exact, and epigrammatic, furnishing many sayings that have become familiar through quotation.
Lucian the Roman satirist DID ridicule Christians (as gullible, easily lead fools) in mid 2nd century. By the later time of Lucian, Christianity obviously was known to the wider Roman community. Whereas Juvenal wrote at a time when Christianity had only just started to rate a few tiny mentions.
For further research and information:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/308974/Juvenal
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/juvenal/a/Juvenal.htm
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/juvenal_satires_01.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juvenal
11. MARTIAL
Martial, Latin in full Marcus Valerius Martialis (born Mar. 1, ad 38–41, Bilbilis, Hispania [Spain]—died c. 103), Roman poet who brought the Latin epigram to perfection and provided in it a picture of Roman society during the early empire that is remarkable both for its completeness and for its accurate portrayal of human foibles.
Martial wrote a large body of poems about all sorts of things. He mentions many people, places, stories and issues - major and minor, within and without Rome, such as :
Stoic suffering of discomfort and death
Virgin’s blood
Roman funerary practices
the way accused men look in court
Roman soldiers mocking their leaders
Anointing the body with oil
Molorchus the good shepherd
Tutilius a minor rhetorician, Nestor the wise
the (ugly) Temple of Jupiter
This shows Martial mentions or alludes to many and varied people and issues.
For further research and information:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/poetsplaywrightswriters/p/Martial.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/366836/Martial
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial
12. PETRONIUS
Gaius Petronius Arbiter, original name Titus Petronius Niger (died ad 66), reputed author of the Satyricon, a literary portrait of Roman society of the 1st century ad.
Petronius mentions all sorts of people and events in this large work, including :
* a CRUCIFIXION !
* a scene where guards are posted to stop a corpse being stolen,
* a tomb scene of someone mistaking a person for a supernatural vision,
gods such as Bacchus and Ceres,
writers such as Sophocles and Euripides and Epicurus,
books such as the Iliad,
Romans such as Cato and Pompey,
people such as Hannibal, and the Governor of Ephesus,
female charioteers, slaves, merchants, Arabs, lawyers
baths, shipwrecks, meals…
This large work, cover MANY topics, including a CRUCIFIXION, and it was written just as Peter and Paul had come to Rome, allegedly. It could easily have mentioned Jesus.
For further research and information:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/b/2005/05/17/petronius-arbiter.htm
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/poetsplaywrightswriters/g/Petronius.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/454501/Gaius-Petronius-Arbiter
13. PAUSANIAS
Pausanias was a Greek traveler, geographer, author, and writer of a Description of Greece in the 2nd century AD. He lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece, a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical literature and modern archaeology.
No text has had more influence on the development of the study of classical archaeology than the Description of Greece by Pausanias. He was probably born c.125 in Lydia and wrote his travel guide between 155 and 180. The author takes us on a tour trough the mainland of Greece, and describes all buildings of some importance. He must have been a rich man, who had access to a large library and had sufficient leisure to travel. We are fortunate that he did so after the building boom at the beginning of the second century and before the economic crisis of the third century.
Before visiting Greece, he had been to Antioch, Joppa and Jerusalem, and to the banks of the River Jordan. In Egypt, he had seen the Pyramids, while at the temple of Ammon, he had been shown the hymn once sent to that shrine by Pindar. In Macedonia, he appears to have seen the alleged tomb of Orpheus in Libethra. Crossing over to Italy, he had seen something of the cities of Campania and of the wonders of Rome. He was one of the first to write of seeing the ruins of Troy, Alexandria Troas, and Mycenae.
Pausanias has a serious interest in the cults of the Greek countryside, which were in his age in the process of being slowly replaced by oriental religions. His often melancholic Description of Greece is therefore not only a treasury for classical archaeologists, but also for students of ancient religion.
Works of art are his major concern: inspired by the ancient glories of Greece, Pausanias is most at home in describing the religious art and architecture of Olympia and Delphi.
Pausanias’ work is vast and the index covers over 70 pages of small print, I estimate a couple of THOUSAND names are mentioned. He mentions a large number of minor figures from within and without Greece.
He even mentions a Jewish prophetess - a figure so minor she is essentially unknown: “Then later than Demo there was a prophetic woman reared among the Jews beyond Palestine; her name was Sabbe.” Phokis, Book X, 12,
Pausanias also mentions the Jewish rebellion under Hadrian.
For further research and information:
http://www.livius.org/pan-paz/pausanias/periegete.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/447243/Pausanias
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pausanias_(geographer)
14. EPICTETUS
Epictetus was born ad 55, probably at Hierapolis, Phrygia [now Pamukkale, Turkey]—died c. 135, Nicopolis, Epirus [Greece]). He was a Greek philosopher associated with the Stoics, remembered for the religious tone of his teachings, which commended him to numerous early Christian thinkers.
Epictetus is known for several books of Stoic religious and philosophic discourses in the early 2nd century. One of his disciples was Arrian, and thanks to him much of Epictetus’ works are extant.
Epictetus DID apparently mention “the Galileans”, which could be a reference to :
The early Christians
The revolt under Judas the Galilean in early 1st century.
For further research and information:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epictetus/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/189728/Epictetus
http://www.iep.utm.edu/epictetu/
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa010400a.htm
http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.html
15. AELIUS ARISTIDES
Aelius Aristides (AD 117 - 181) the Greek Orator spoke and wrote a History of Rome and other subjects - he seems to refer to the Christians as “impious men from Palestine” (Orations 46.2)
If he could mention people from Palestine, he could easily have mentioned Jesus.
The extant works of Aristides include 55 orations and declamations (including those discovered by Morelli and Mai), and two treatises on rhetorical subjects. Some of his orations are eulogies on the power of certain divinities, others are panegyrics on towns, such as Smyrna, Cyzicus, Rome; one among them is a Panathenaicus, and an imitation of that of Isocrates.
For further research and information:
http://www.nndb.com/people/761/000096473/
http://www.h-net.org/~fisher/hst205/readings/RomanOration.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aelius_Aristides
http://www.livius.org/phi-php/philostratus/aristides.htm
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/7822649
16. FRONTO
Marcus Cornelius Fronto, (born c. ad 95 , Cirta, Numidia [now Constantine, Alg.]—died c. 166, Rome?), prominent Roman orator, rhetorician, and grammarian whose high reputation—equal in ancient times to those of Cato, Cicero, and Quintilian—was based chiefly on his orations, all of which are lost. His most famous lost speech is Against the Christians, which was answered in Minucius Felix’s Octavius.
Fronto was educated at Carthage and in Rome, where, under the emperor Hadrian, he rapidly gained considerable fame as an advocate. Emperor Antoninus Pius appointed him tutor to Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus; with the former he remained on terms of affectionate friendship.
He wrote several letters in mid 2nd century.
According to Minucius Felix, he scandalized rites practiced by Roman Christians - so he could easily have mentioned Jesus.
For further research and information:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/220867/Marcus-Cornelius-Fronto
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Cornelius_Fronto
17. PERSIUS
Persius, in full Aulus Persius Flaccus (Volterra, 34–62), was a Roman poet and satirist of Etruscan origin. In his works, poems and satires, he shows a stoic wisdom and a strong criticism for the abuses of his contemporaries. His works, which became very popular in the Middle Ages, were published after his death by his friend and mentor the stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Cornutus.
Persius was a Roman knight who came from Volterra, an Etruscan city. He studied grammar and rhetoric from Remmius Palaemon and Verginius Flavus, and then learned about Stoic philosophy from his friend Annaeus Cornutus.
He wrote six fairly long satires in Rome in the mid1st century, of a rather philosophic nature.
Persius wrote a reasonably large body of work that mentions many people and issues.
For further research and information:
http://www.nndb.com/people/722/000097431/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persius
http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Satires_of_Aulus_Persius_Flaccus.html?id=h4s7XVRG6bcC
18. DIO CHRYSOSTOM
Dion Chrysostom, Greek Dion Chrysostomos (“Golden-Mouthed”), Latin Dio Chrysostomus, also called Dio Prusaeus, Dio of Prusa, or Dio Cocceianus (born c. ad 40, Prusa, Bithynia—died c. 120), Greek rhetorician and philosopher who won fame in Rome and throughout the empire for his writings and speeches.
Dion was banished in ad 82 for political reasons from both Bithynia and Italy. He wandered for 14 years through the lands near the Black Sea, adopting the life of poverty advocated by the Cynics. With the death of the emperor Domitian his exile ended, and he made a new career as a public speaker and philosopher.
A collection of 80 “orations” with fragments of others survives, but some are dialogues or moral essays, and two are spurious. Four are speeches addressed to Trajan. In Olympicus the sculptor Phidias explains the principles he followed in his famous statue of Zeus, one passage being supposed by some to have suggested the German dramatist Gotthold Lessing’s Laocoon. In On Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, Dion compares the treatment of the story of Philoctetes by each tragedian. Best known is the Euboicus, depicting country life on the island of Euboea, an important document for social and economic history. A patriotic Greek who accepted Roman rule, Dion typifies the revival of Greek self-confidence under the Roman Empire that marks the beginning of the New or Second Sophistic movement in the 2nd century ad. Dion was committed to defending the ethical values of the Greek cultural tradition. This commitment was reflected in his style, which was relatively sober and favoured ideas over formal elegance.
For further research and information:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/164193/Dion-Chrysostom
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dio_Chrysostom/home.html
http://www.livius.org/di-dn/dio/dio_chrysostom.html
19. AULUS GELLIUS
Aulus Gellius (ca. 125 – after 180 AD) was a Latin author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome, where he held a judicial office. He is famous for his Attic Nights, a commonplace book, or compilation of notes on grammar, philosophy, history, antiquarianism and other subjects, preserving fragments of many authors and works who otherwise might be unknown today.
Attic Nights (Nights in Athens), covered a large compendium of many topics, mentioning lots of people.
For further research and information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aulus_Gellius
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Gellius/1*.html
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/1969254
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199264827.001.0001/acprof-9780199264827
20. Lucius Apuleius
Lucius Apuleius, (born c. 124, Madauros, Numidia [near modern Mdaourouch, Alg.]—died probably after 170), Platonic philosopher, rhetorician, and author remembered for The Golden Ass, a prose narrative that proved influential long after his death. The work, called Metamorphoses by its author, narrates the adventures of a young man changed by magic into an ass.
Apuleius, who was educated at Carthage and Athens, traveled in the Mediterranean region and became interested in contemporary religious initiation rites, among them the ceremonies associated with worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis. Intellectually versatile and acquainted with works of both Latin and Greek writers, he taught rhetoric in Rome before returning to Africa to marry a rich widow, Aemilia Pudentilla. To meet her family’s charge that he had practiced magic to win her affection, he wrote the Apologia (“Defense”), the major source for his biography.
His other works are:
Apologia (A Discourse on Magic). Apuleius’ courtroom defense. The work is a stylish defence against his opponents, with little reference to magic.
Florida. A compilation of twenty-three extracts from his various speeches and lectures.
On Plato and his Doctrine. An outline in two books of Plato’s physics and ethics, preceded by a life of Plato
De Deo Socratis (On the God of Socrates). A work on the existence and nature of daemons, the intermediaries between gods and humans. This treatise was roughly attacked by Augustine. It contains a passage comparing gods and kings which is the first recorded occurrence of the proverb “familiarity breeds contempt”
On the Universe. This Latin translation of the work De Mundo is probably by Apuleius.
Apuleius wrote many other works which have not survived. He wrote works of poetry and fiction, as well as technical treatises on politics, dendrology, agriculture, medicine, natural history, astronomy, music, and arithmetic, and he translated Plato’s Phaedo.
For further research and information:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/30917/Lucius-Apuleius
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/apuleius/g/Apuleius.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apuleius
21. MARCUS AURELIUS
The philosophy of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius can be found in a collection of personal writings known as the Meditations. These reflect the influence of Stoicism and, in particular, the philosophy of Epictetus, the Stoic. The Meditations may be read as a series of practical philosophical exercises, following Epictetus’ three topics of study, designed to digest and put into practice philosophical theory. Central to these exercises is a concern with the analysis of one’s judgments and a desire to cultivate a “cosmic perspective.”
In the Stoic Meditations, he refers once to the Christians in XI, 3.
For further research and information:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/364331/Marcus-Aurelius
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcus-aurelius/
http://www.livius.org/di-dn/divi_fratres/marcus.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/marcuaurelius1.asp
http://www.iep.utm.edu/marcus/
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Marcus_Aurelius/1*.html
22. MUSONIUS RUFUS
On Musonius Rufus: A Brief Essay (1999) by Richard Carrier
Since this man deserves far more publicity than he has ever gotten in the modern age, I have written this short essay. He exemplifies the sort of man who should have been venerated and made the founder of a world religion, but was not, yet he was the moral superior in my opinion to Jesus–not perfect, but admirable within the context of his own day.
Bio:
Gaius Musonius Rufus was a Roman knight of Italian (Etruscan) birth, but dedicated his life to Stoicism and to preaching moral lectures in Greek and teaching all over the Empire, as well as involving himself in moral causes even at peril of his life. He lived between 30 and 100 A.D. and his fame in antiquity was far greater than modern ignorance of him suggests. He is now most famous for being the tutor of the slave-philosopher Epictetus, who in turn was much admired by Marcus Aurelius. He was banished to an island by Nero and later Vespasian for, among other things, declaring that it was right and proper to disobey an immoral command from a superior (e.g. Discourse 16). Ironically, when Vespasian earlier banished all philosophers from Rome, he made a special exception for Musonius because he was held in such high esteem. Musonius was also renowned for risking death in trying to stop the civil war of 69 A.D. by preaching peace to the armies that were about to meet on the battlefield. But in antiquity he was most famous as a courageous moral reformer with a sense of humor and an unshakable spirit. According to the Christian scholar Origen, popular sentiment held that the very best men in history were two in number: Socrates and Musonius. This was indeed a common sentiment, and his fame and reputation were astonishing. There are uncertain tales of his endurance of jail and torture. But what makes him so admirably human is his sense of humor, a classic case of which, an example that in my opinion sets him above Jesus as a more human and interesting teacher, I will produce here:
“Musonius,” Herodes said, “ordered a thousand sesterces [silver coins] to be given to a beggar of the sort who was pretending to be a philosopher, and when several people told him that the rascal was a bad and vicious fellow, deserving of nothing good, Musonius, they say, answered with a smile, 'Well then he deserves money’.” (Fragment 50)
Teachings:
Only sayings and lectures survive, published posthumusly by his students, and numerous anecdotes by many other authors [4]. At least one major collection of his sayings existed that is now lost, along with at least one biography, and there are hints that he may have written books, but no titles survive. Lutz summarizes his doctrine best: “The primary concern of philosophy is the care of the soul in order that the qualities of prudence, temperence, justice, and courage may be perfected in it. This education should begin in infancy and continue throughout life, for every member of human society” (p. 27). His program included logic and debating skills, for the purpose of building the ability to reason through ethical decisions competently. Although many of his views are remarkably progressive for his time, being for example a strong advocate for the education and extension of equal rights to women (Discourses 3 and 4), he regarded homosexuality as unnatural and monstrous, and all forms of recreational sex of any kind as immoral (Discourse 12), and opposed abortion (Discourse 15). He was also not secular, but preached a divine rational order, and occasionally appealed to the wishes of God (principally Zeus the Savior, but other gods as well) in support of his arguments. It is notable, for instance, that his attitude toward homosexuality was based on his belief in God. But his religion was liberal and humanistic, and his arguments were always based on reason and open debate, not revelation or authority. Indeed, in contrast with Jesus who called even those who think of adultery to cut out their eyes (Matthew 5:27-30, Mark 9:43-9), Musonius said “freedom of speech means not suppressing whatever one chances to think” (Discourse 9).
To read the rest of this great article, go to the page: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/musonius.html
For further research and information:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/romansm/g/121510-Musonius-Rufus.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Musonius-Rufus-Lectures-Cynthia-King/dp/145645966X
23. MAXIMUS of TYRE
Cassius Maximus Tyrius ( 2nd century AD) was a Greek rhetorician and philosopher who flourished in the time of the Antonines and Commodus. His writings contain many allusions to the history of Greece, while there is little reference to Rome; hence it is inferred that he lived longer in Greece, perhaps as a professor at Athens. Although nominally a Platonist, he is really an Eclectic and one of the precursors of Neoplatonism.
Writings
There exist forty-one essays or discourses on theological, ethical, and other philosophical subjects. The central theme is God is the supreme being, one and indivisible though called by many names, accessible to reason alone:
In such a mighty contest, sedition and discord, you will see one according law and assertion in all the earth, that there is one god, the king and father of all things, and many gods, sons of god, ruling together with him.
As animals form the intermediate stage between plants and human beings, so there exist intermediaries between God and man, viz. daemons, who dwell on the confines of heaven and earth. The soul in many ways bears a great resemblance to the divinity; it is partly mortal, partly immortal, and, when freed from the fetters of the body, becomes a daemon. Life is the sleep of the soul, from which it awakes at death. The style of Maximus is superior to that of the ordinary sophistical rhetorician, but scholars differ widely as to the merits of the essays themselves.
For further research and information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximus_of_Tyre
http://books.google.com/books?id=YcYfAAAAMAAJ
http://www.amazon.com/Maximus-Tyre-The-Philosophical-Orations/dp/0198149891
24. ARRIAN
Arrian of Nicomedia (c.87 - after 145): Greek historian and senator of the Roman empire, author of several historical studies. His best-known work is the Anabasis, which deals with Alexander the Great.
His work mentioned HUNDREDS of people; some not from Alexander’s time.
Writings
In spite of his dazzling career in the Roman government, Arrian found time to write many books, which are generally modeled on the publications of the Athenian author Xenophon (c.430-c.354). A catalogue shows his philosophic, topographic-ethnographic, historical, and military interests, which culminate in his books on Alexander.
eight books of Diatribes, containing the teachings of Epictetus (four books survive);
twelve books containing Epictetus’ conversations (lost);
a Manual of Epictetus’ philosophy, also known as Encheiridion (probably the most popular work of ancient philosophy through the ages);
a Meteorology - the study of the skies were considered part of the usual philosophical curriculum (lost, although a handful of fragments survive);
a History of Bithynia until the annexation by the Romans in eight books (lost; excerpt);
a History of the Parthian wars in seventeen books, of which ten were devoted to the war conducted by Trajan in 115-117 (lost; an excerpt survives);
the Periplus, a description of the Black Sea in twenty-five books, written before 132 (parts survive, which contain the oldest reference in Greek to “we Romans”; a fragment is here);
an Order of battle against the Alans, a military handbook on the best tactics in a war against nomads (partly surviving);
another work on the Alans (lost);
a book on military tactics, written in 136/137 as a present to Hadrian, who was celebrating his twentieth anniversary as emperor (the part on cavalry survives);
biographies of Dion of Syracuse, Timoleon of Corinth and a Bithynian bandit named Tilliborus (all lost);
a book on hunting called Cynegeticus;
the seven books of the Anabasis: the history of Alexander’s march into Asia (excerpt);
the Indikê (one book), telling about the marvels of India and the voyage home of Alexander’s admiral Nearchus (this work is far more romantic than the sober description of the Black Sea);
the ten books Events after Alexander, known from a Byzantine summary.
His writings earned him the nickname 'Second Xenophon’ and he modestly called himself 'the Alexander among writers’. As a historian, his aim was to present his readers with the truth and to praise deserving people in a worthy style. Being a philosopher, however, he often takes the opportunity to comment upon or criticize his subjects.
For further research and information:
http://www.livius.org/arl-arz/arrian/arrian.html
http://books.google.com/books/about/Arrian_of_Nicomedia.html?id=JTztRQAACAAJ
25. APPIAN
Appian of Alexandria - AD 95 – ca. AD 165) was a Roman historian of Greek ethnicity who flourished during the reigns of Emperors of Rome Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius.
Appian began writing around the middle of the second century AD. Only sections from half of the original 24 books survive today. The most important remnants of Appian’s work are the five books on the Civil Wars—books 13-17 of the Roman History. These five books stand out because they are the only comprehensive, meticulous source available on an extremely significant historical period, during which Roman politics were in turmoil because of factional strife.
Especially notable is this work’s ethnographic structure. Appian most likely used this structure to facilitate his readers’ orientation through the sequence of events, which occur in different places and are united only by their relationship to Rome. A literary example of this can be found from Appian’s Civil Wars (part 5 of 17). It states, “And now civil discord broke out again worse than ever and increased enormously….so in the course of events in the Roman empire was partitioned….by these three men: Antony, Lepidus, and the one who was first called Octavius….shortly after this division they fell to quarrelling among themselves…Octavius…first deprived Lepidus of Africa…and afterward, as the result of the battle of Actium, took from Antony all the provinces lying between Syria and the Adriatic gulf.“
His work covered nine centuries of history and mentioned HUNDREDS of people.
For further research and information:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/30586/Appian-of-Alexandria
http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian.html
http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_0.html
26. THEON of SMYRNA
Born: about 70 in Smyrna (now Izmir), Turkey and Died: about 135.
Theon of Smyrna wrote on astronomy/philosophy in early 2nd century.
Theon wrote about philosophy. If Jesus and his teachings were known, it is entirely plausible that he could have mentioned them.
Theon also wrote about astronomy.
If he had heard about the Star of Bethlehem or the Darkness (as an event, or from the Gospels) he could easily have mentioned it.
Apologists frequently cite Phlegon and Thallus who were astronomers and claimed they mentioned eclipses (but NOT Jesus or the Gospel events, that is merely later Christian wishful thinking) as evidence for Jesus.
An astronomer could easily be expected to mention those incidents, especially when apologists claim other astronomers of the period did exactly that.
The silence of early astronomers about the Star of Bethlehem or the crucifixion darkness argues againt the validity of those "events”.
For further research and information:
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Theon_of_Smyrna.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theon_of_Smyrna
27. QUINTILIAN
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (c. 35 – c. 100) was a Roman rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing.
Works
The only extant work of Quintilian is a twelve-volume textbook on rhetoric entitled Institutio Oratoria (generally referred to in English as the Institutes of Oratory), published around AD 95. This work deals not only with the theory and practice of rhetoric, but also with the foundational education and development of the orator himself, providing advice that ran from the cradle to the grave. An earlier text, De Causis Corruptae Eloquentiae (“On the Causes of Corrupted Eloquence”) has been lost, but is believed to have been “a preliminary exposition of some of the views later set forth in [Institutio Oratoria]” (Kennedy, 24).
In addition, there are two sets of declamations, Declamationes Majores and Declamationes Minores, which have been attributed to Quintilian. However, there is some dispute over the real writer of these texts; “Some modern scholars believe that the declamations circulated in his name represent the lecture notes of a scholar either using Quintilian’s system or actually trained by him” (Murphy, XVII-XVIII).
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, wrote the “Education of an Orator” in Rome in late 1st century.
One of the things Jesus was allegedly noted for was his PUBLIC SPEECHES - e.g. the Sermon on the Mount, which supposedly drew and influenced large crowds.
He could have mentioned the allegedly famous speeches of Jesus.
For further research and information:
http://www.nndb.com/people/898/000087637/
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/quintilian-education.asp
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/romans/p/mquintilian.htm
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/thayer/e/roman/texts/quintilian/institutio_oratoria/home.html
28. LUCIUS ANNAEUS FLORUS
Lucius Annaeus Florus wrote an Epitome of Roman History.
Although not directly on subject, Florus wrote a large work which mentions many names. He could have mentioned Jesus if he had known of him.
For further research and information:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Florus/Epitome/1A*.html
29. LUCAN
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (November 3, 39 AD – April 30, 65 AD).
Surviving work:
Bellum Civile (Civil War), on the wars between Julius Caesar and Pompey Magnus
Laus Pisonis (Praise of Piso), a panegyric of a member of the Piso family
Marcus wrote the Pharsalia (Civil War) in Rome in mid 1st century.
The Pharsalia (also known as De Bello Civili “On the Civil War” or also simply Bellum Civile “The Civil War”) is a Roman epic poem by the poet Lucan, telling of the civil war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the Roman Senate led by Pompey the Great. The poem’s title is a reference to the Battle of Pharsalus, which occurred in 48 BC, near Pharsalus, Thessaly, in northern Greece. Caesar decisively defeated Pompey in this battle, which occupies all of the epic’s seventh book. Though probably incomplete, the poem is widely considered the best epic poem of the Silver Age of Latin literature.
In his large poem, the Pharsalia, he mentions some events from later times, and he covers many different issues and people in passing.
He:
mentions an event from 56CE,
refers to places as far afield as Sicily and Kent,
refered to Stoic religious beliefs about the end of the world,
refers to many books and myths and persons and events not part of the main story.
For further research and information:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_lucan.htm
http://www.poemhunter.com/marcus-annaeus-lucanus/
30. STATIUS
Publius Papinius Statius (c. 45, Naples – c. 96 AD, Naples) was a Roman poet of the 1st century CE (Silver Age of Latin literature). Besides his poetry in Latin, which include an epic poem, the Thebaid, a collection of occasional poetry, the Silvae, and the unfinished epic, the Achilleid, he is best known for his appearance as a major character in the Purgatory section of Dante’s epic poem The Divine Comedy. Statius wrote many works on several subjects, he could have mentioned Jesus.
For further research and information:
http://www.theoi.com/Text/StatiusAchilleid1A.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statius
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Publius_Papinius_Statius
31. HERO of ALEXANDRIA
Hero (Heron) of Alexandria (AD 10-75)
A Greek mathematician, scientist, writer and inventor who is mostly renowned for his works in mechanics, mathematics and physics.
Hero(n) of Alexandria wrote many technical works, including astronomy.
For further research and information:
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Heron.html
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1038.htm
http://www.nndb.com/people/898/000103589/
32. GEMINUS
Born: about 10 BC ad Died: about 60 AD.
Geminus of Rhodes, was a Greek astronomer and mathematician, who flourished in the 1st century BC. An astronomy work of his, the Introduction to the Phenomena, still survives; it was intended as an introductory astronomy book for students. He also wrote a work on mathematics.
For further research and information:
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Geminus.html
33. ALBINUS
Albinus was a Platonist philosopher (flourished 2nd century ad), who lived at Smyrna, and was teacher of Galen. Albinus integrated the ideas of various schools of philosophy in order to shed light on the Platonic system of thought. One of his major works, the Epitome, is an analysis of Plato’s philosophy, using Stoic and Peripatetic doctrines as tools to understand Plato better. The work was presented in three parts: logical, theoretical, and practical. When he wrote the theoretical section, he used Aristotle’s system of dividing knowledge into three branches: mathematics, physics, and metaphysics. The practical section comprised ethics, economics, and politics. Albinus helped pave the way for the Neoplatonist movement.
For further research and information:
http://www.platonic-philosophy.org/files/Albinus%20-%20On%20the%20Dialogues%20of%20Plato.pdf
http://peenef2.republika.pl/angielski/hasla/a/albinusofsmyrna.html
34. ARISTOCLES
Aristocles of Messene in Sicily, a Peripatetic philosopher, who lived in the 1st century AD.
Works:
Πότερον σπουδαιότερος Ὅμηρος ἢ Πλάτων - Whether Homer or Plato is more Serious.
Τέχναι ῥητορικαί - Arts of Rhetoric.
A work on the god Serapis.
A work on Ethics, in nine books.
A work on Philosophy, in ten books.
The last of these works appears to have been a history of philosophy, in which he wrote about the philosophers, their schools, and doctrines.
For further research and information:
http://www.amazon.com/Aristocles-Messene-Testimonia-Testimones-Monographs/dp/0199241546
35. APOLLODORUS
APOLLODORUS or (pseudo-Apollodorus) is the name traditionally given to the author of a Greek work known as The Library (or Bibliotheca), a compendium of myth sourced from old Greek epic and the plays of the Tragedians. The work was traditionally ascribed to Apollodorus of Alexandria, a Greek scholar who flourished in the C2nd B.C., but his authorship is now dismissed. The work is generally believed to be a C2nd A.D. compilation.
In three books, provides a comprehensive summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends, “the most valuable mythographical work that has come down from ancient times,” Aubrey Diller observed, whose “stultifying purpose” was neatly expressed in the epigram noted by Patriarch Photius I of Constantinople:
For further research and information:
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_(Pseudo-Apollodorus)
http://www.amazon.com/Library-Mythology-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0199536325
36. HEPHAESTION
Hephaestion was a grammarian of Alexandria who flourished in the age of the Antonines of the 2nd century. He was the author of a manual (abridged from a larger work in 48 books) of Greek metres, which is most valuable as the only complete treatise on the subject that has been preserved.
37. SEXTUS EMPIRICUS
Sextus Empiricus (ca. 160–210 CE), exponent of skepticism and critic of the Dogmatists, was a Greek physician and philosopher-historian, pupil and successor of the medical skeptic Herodotus (not the historian) of Tarsus.
He probably lived for years in Rome and possibly also in Alexandria and Athens. His three surviving works are ’Outlines of Pyrrhonism’ (three books on the practical and ethical skepticism of Pyrrho of Elis, ca. 360–275 BCE, as developed later, presenting also a case against the Dogmatists); ‘Against the Dogmatists’ (five books dealing with the Logicians, the Physicists, and the Ethicists); and ’Against the Professors’ (six books: Grammarians, Rhetors, Geometers, Arithmeticians, Astrologers, and Musicians). These two latter works might be called a general criticism of professors of all arts and sciences. Sextus’s work is a valuable source for the history of thought especially because of his development and formulation of former skeptic doctrines.
For further research and information:
http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/sextus_empiricus02.htm
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/skepticism-ancient/
38. Quintus Asconius Pedianus
(c. 9 BC - c. AD 76), Roman grammarian and historian.
During the reigns of Claudius and Nero he compiled for his sons, from various sources – e.g. the Gazette (Aetablica), shorthand reports or skeletons (commentarii) of Cicero’s unpublished speeches, Tiro’s life of Cicero, speeches and letters of Cicero’s contemporaries, various historical writers, e.g. Varro, Atticus, Antias, Tuditanus and Fenestella (a contemporary of Livy whom he often criticizes) – historical commentaries on Cicero’s speeches, of which only five, viz, in Pisonem, pro Scauro, pro Milone, pro Cornelio and in toga candida, in a very mutilated edition, are preserved, under the modern title Q. Asconii Pediani Orationvm Ciceronis qvinqve enarratio.
For further research and information:
http://www.amazon.com/Quintus-Asconius-Pedianus/e/B001HD0WKM
39. Marcus Velleius Paterculus
(c. 19 BC – c. 31 AD) was a Roman historian, also known simply as Velleius. Although his praenomen is given as Marcus by Priscian, some modern scholars identify him with Gaius Velleius Paterculus, whose name occurs in an inscription on a north African milestone (C.I.L. VIII.10, 311).
The Roman History
In 1515, the manuscript of Velleius Paterculus’ Roman History was discovered in the abbey of Murbach in the Alsace by a humanist scholar who called himself Beatus Rhenanus but whose real name was Bilde von Rheinau (1485-1547). Five years later, he published the text.
For further research and information:
http://www.livius.org/va-vh/velleius/paterculus2.html
http://www.livius.org/va-vh/velleius/paterculus.html
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/thayer/e/roman/texts/velleius_paterculus/home.html
40. Claudius Ptolemy
(AD 85 – c. AD 165), was a Greek-Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology.
For further research and information:
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Ptolemy.html
http://www2.stetson.edu/~efriedma/periodictable/html/Pm.html
http://www.hellenisticastrology.com/astrologers/claudius-ptolemy/
41. Babrius
Babrius was the author of a collection of fables written in Greek. He collected many of the fables that are known to us today simply as Aesop’s fables (see Aesop’s fables).
In 1842 the Greek Minoides Mynas came upon a manuscript of Babrius in the convent of St Laura on Mount Athos, now in the British Museum. This manuscript contained 123 fables out of the supposed original number, 160.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babrius
42. Cleomedes
Born: 1st century AD in possibly Lysimachia, Hellespont, Greece and Died: 1st century AD. He is known only through his book On the Circular Motions of the Celestial Bodies
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Cleomedes.html
43. Pedanius Dioscorides
(40—90 AD) was a Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist, the author of De Materia Medica – a 5-volume encyclopedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances (a pharmacopeia), that was widely read for more than 1,500 years.
In the medieval age, De Materia Medica was circulated in Latin, Greek, and Arabic.
For further research and information:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/aconite/materiamedica.html
http://www.cancerlynx.com/dioscorides.html
He would have been interested in a real life healer like jesus.
44. Favorinus
Favorinus of Arelate (ca. 80–160 AD) was a Roman sophist and Skeptical philosopher and rhetorician who flourished during the reign of Hadrian and was highly esteemed for his learning and eloquence.
He was a congenital eunuch and is known to have lived in Rome, Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus. He was the teacher of Herodes Atticus, Gellius, and Fronto and was a friend of Plutarch. While in Rome, he held high office under Emperor Hadrian but, later, falling into disfavour, was exiled to Chios until the end of Hadrian’s reign, at which time he returned to Rome and recovered his status.
Favorinus wrote philosophical discourses, declamations, a Miscellaneous History, and memoirs. As a philosopher, Favorinus belonged to the sceptical school; his most important work in this connexion appears to have been Hvppwvetot rpoiroc (the Pyrrhonean Tropes) in ten books, in which he endeavours to show that the methods of Pyrrho were useful to those who intended to practise in the law courts.
For further research and information:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/202901/Favorinus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favorinus
45. Hermogenes of Tarsus
Hermogenes was a Greek rhetorician, surnamed the polisher. He flourished in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-180).
During his early years, however, he had composed a series of rhetorical treatises, which became popular text-books, and the subject of subsequent commentaries. We still possess some sections:
on legal issues (staseis)
on the invention of arguments
on various kinds of style
on the method of speaking effectively
on rhetorical exercises (progymnasmata).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermogenes_of_Tarsus
46. Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella
(AD 4 – ca. AD 70) is the most important writer on agriculture and kindred subjects of the Roman empire.
Previously known only in fragments, the complete works of Columella were among those discovered in monastery libraries in Switzerland and France by Poggio Bracciolini and his assistant Bartolomeo di Montepulciano during the Council of Constance, between 1414 and 1418.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columella
47. Menelaus of Alexandria
Menelaus of Alexandria (c. 70–140 CE) was a Greek mathematician and astronomer.
The titles of a few books by Menelaus have been preserved:
On the calculation of the chords in a circle, composed of six books
Elements of geometry, composed of three books, later edited by Thabit ibn Qurra
On the knowledge of the weights and distributions of different bodies
He may also have written a star catalogue.
For further research and information:
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Menelaus.html
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Menelaus_of_Alexandria.aspx
48. Menodotus of Nicomedia
Menodotus Of Nicomedia, (flourished ad 120), philosopher of the Skeptical school of empirical medicine, credited with elaborating the first scientific method of observation. Like many other physicians of the period, he considered medicine an art; this left him free to perfect his art while remaining a Skeptic. He also wrote against Asclepiades, who espoused Atomism and a theory of imbalance of corpuscles as the cause of illness. Some scholars think the voluminous writings of Menodotus, frequently mentioned by Galen, suggest two contemporary physicians of the same name.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/375182/Menodotus-Of-Nicomedia
49. Nicomachus of Gerasa
Born: about 60 in Gerasa, Roman Syria (now Jarash, Jordan) and Died: about 120.
Nicomachus of Gerasa, Neo-Pythagorean philosopher and mathematician who wrote Arithmētikē eisagōgē (Introduction to Arithmetic), an influential treatise on number theory. Considered a standard authority for 1,000 years, the book sets out the elementary theory and properties of numbers and contains the earliest-known Greek multiplication table.
For further research and information:
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Nicomachus.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/414433/Nicomachus-of-Gerasa
http://www.mountainman.com.au/essenes/author_Nicomachus%20of%20Gerasa%20.htm
50. Pomponius Mela
Pomponius Mela, (born ad 43), author of the only ancient treatise on geography in classical Latin, De situ orbis (“A Description of the World”), also known as De chorographia (“Concerning Chorography”). Written about ad 43 or 44, it remained influential until the beginning of the age of exploration, 13 centuries later. Though probably intended for the general reader, Mela’s geography was cited by Pliny the Elder in his encyclopaedia of natural science as an important authority.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/373603/Pomponius-Mela
51. Quintus Curtus Rufus
Quintus Curtius Rufus was a Roman historian, writing probably during the reign of the Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD) or Vespasian (69-79 AD). His only surviving work, Historiae Alexandri Magni, is a biography of Alexander the Great in Latin in ten books, of which the first two are lost, and the remaining eight are incomplete.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintus_Curtius_Rufus
52. Silius Italicus
Silius Italicus, in full Tiberius Catius Asconius Silius Italicus (born c. ad 26, Patavium [now Padua, Italy]—died 102), Latin epic poet whose 17-book, 12,000-line Punica on the Second Punic War (218–201 bc) is the longest poem in Latin literature.
Silius was a distinguished advocate in his earlier years. He later took to public service and was a consul in 68, the year of Nero’s death. His association with the emperor Nero was a stain on his reputation that he later expunged through his successful governorship of Asia. He then retired from public life.
For further research and information:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/544446/Silius-Italicus
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/silver/frame.cgi?silius,poemsummary
53. Sextus Julius Frontinus
Sextus Julius Frontinus (ca. 35–103 AD) was one of the most distinguished Roman aristocrats of the late 1st century AD: he was grandson of Aulus Julius Frontinus and Cornelia Africana, the only child of Publius Cornelius Scipio. He is best known to the post-Classical world as an author of technical treatises, especially one dealing with the aqueducts of Rome.
He was a Roman soldier, governor of Britain, and author of De aquis urbis Romae (“Concerning the Waters of the City of Rome”), a history and description of the water supply of Rome, including the laws relating to its use and maintenance and other matters of importance in the history of architecture.
For further research and information:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/220864/Sextus-Julius-Frontinus
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Frontinus/Strategemata/home.html
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Frontinus/Strategemata/1*.html
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Frontinus/MKDahm**/body.html
54. Tiberius Claudius Herodes Atticus
TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS ATTICUS HERODES (c. A.D. 101-177), Greek rhetorician, was born at Marathon in Attica. He belonged to a wealthy and distinguished family, and received a careful education under the most distinguished masters of the time, especially in rhetoric and philosophy. His talents gained him the favourable notice of Hadrian, who appointed him praefect of the free towns in the province of Asia. On his return to Athens, he attained great celebrity as an orator and teacher of rhetoric, and was elected to the office of archon.
For further research and information:
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Tiberius_Claudius_Atticus_Herodes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodes_Atticus#Legacy
55. Valerius Flaccus
Gaius Valerius Flaccus (Setinus Balbus) (died c. AD 90) was a Roman poet who flourished in the late C1st AD during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian. His only surviving work is an unfinished epic poem entitled the Argonautica, describing the voyage of the Argonauts in their quest for the golden fleece. The work differs in many respects from the like-themed Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius, composed four centuries earlier in Greek.
Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica. Translated by Mozley, J H. Loeb Classical Library Volume 286. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928.
For further research and information:
http://www.theoi.com/Text/ValeriusFlaccus1.html
http://www.theoi.com/Text/ValeriusFlaccus2.html
http://www.amazon.com/Valerius-Flaccus-Argonautica-Classical-Library/dp/0674993160
56. Valerius Maximus
Valerius Maximus, (flourished ad 30), Roman historian and moralist who wrote an important book of historical anecdotes for the use of rhetoricians. He worked during the reign of Tiberius (14 AD to 37 AD).
Born into a poor family, Valerius Maximus owed everything to Sextus Pompeius (consul ad 14 and proconsul of Asia), his friend and patron, whom he accompanied to the East about ad 24/25. His book, Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri ix (c. ad 31; “Nine Books of Memorable Deeds and Sayings”), was intended for use in the schools of rhetoric and written to exemplify human virtues and vices. The book’s anecdotes, drawn chiefly from Roman history, include extracts from the annals of other peoples, principally the Greeks. The arrangement is loose and irregular and the style turgid, artificial, and showy, but Valerius sometimes managed an effective and well-placed pointed expression, an ingenious transition, or a clever piece of fancy. Despite its contradictions and errors, his collection proved very popular, especially in the Middle Ages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerius_Maximus
57. Strabo
(64/63 BC – ca. 24 AD), was a Greek geographer, philosopher and historian.
Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus (modern Amasya, Turkey),a city that he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea. Pontus had recently fallen to the Roman Republic, and although politically he was a proponent of Roman imperialism, Strabo belonged on his mother’s side to a prominent family whose members had held important positions under the resisting regime of King Mithridates VI of Pontus.
Strabo’s life was characterized by extensive travels. He journeyed to Egypt and Kush, as far west as coastal Tuscany and as far south as Ethiopia in addition to his travels in Asia Minor and time spent in Rome. Travel throughout the Mediterranean and Near East, especially for scholarly purposes, was popular during this era and was facilitated by the relative peace enjoyed throughout the reign of Augustus (27 BC – AD 14). He moved to Rome in 44 BC, and stayed there, studying and writing, until at least 31 BC. In 29 BC, on his way to Corinth (where Augustus was at the time), he visited the island of Gyaros in the Aegean Sea. Around 25 BC, he sailed up the Nile until reaching Philae, after which point there is little record of his proceedings until AD 17.
It is not known precisely when Strabo’s Geography was written, though comments within the work itself place the finished version within the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Some place its first drafts around 7 AD, others around 18 AD. The latest passage to which a date can be assigned is his reference to the death in AD 23 of Juba II, king of Maurousia (Mauretania), who is said to have died “just recently”. He probably worked on the Geography for many years and revised it steadily, not always consistently. On the presumption that “recently” means within a year, Strabo stopped writing that year or the next (24 AD), when he died.
The first of Strabo’s major works, Historical Sketches (Historica hypomnemata), written while he was in Rome (ca. 20 BC), is nearly completely lost. Meant to cover the history of the known world from the conquest of Greece by the Romans, Strabo quotes it himself and other classical authors mention that it existed, although the only surviving document is a fragment of papyrus now in possession of the University of Milan (renumbered [Papyrus] 46).
http://www.nndb.com/people/156/000097862/
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/smen/g/063009Strabo.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strabo
#58-66
The last 9 sources come from the fraudulent christian apologist list of non-contempory “secular sources,” claimed to be jesus “evidence.”
Josephus (Jewish historian)
Tacitus (Roman historian)
Pliny the Younger (Roman politician)
Phlegon (freed slave who wrote histories)
Lucian (Greek satirist)
Celsus (Roman philosopher)
Mara Bar Serapion (prisoner awaiting execution)
Suetonius
Thallus
Debunking the Fraudulent christian Apologist List of Extra-biblical but non-contemporary, claimed “sources” used as jesus “evidence.” (Jewish, “Pagan,” Non-christian, “Secular”)
Refuting John Meier’s “Minor Figure jesus” claims and excuses, attempting to explain away the fact that nobody in Early Antiquity, mentioned jesus.
The bible claims that fictional jesus was one of the Most Famous people of the 1st century, with tens of thousands of followers – The New Testament is the ONLY Source for jesus.
The Official jesus Challenge: http://tmblr.co/ZkpfQtlwRJgf
The jesus Birther Movement (jBM) Research Database Directory
Research Articles, Evidence and Videos that Prove a Historical jesus, NEVER Existed
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