Which of lost works do you miss most?

[theilian]

I've read over the internet that we only have 5% of writings that might be found in ancient Rome. (I don't know how accurate this is, since the same article says that 3/4 of surviving works are of Cicero, but that's only for his period and not the entire ancient Rome, right?)

 

That leads me to this poll: which of all those ancient works would you like to have preserved most? And by the same token, if you could bring back those works, which extant works would you most like to give up? (Not just a rhetorical question since parchment was precious and in some cases certain works were destroyed to make way for different works.)

 

As for me, I'm not that familar as to what kinds of books were lost, but I'd like to see Caesar's lost works. I am curious why Octavian suppressed them. Also I'd like even more of Cicero - particularly lost letters with Caesar, Octavian, etc and maybe that secret memoir.

[Horatius]

Sulla's memoirs.

[phil25]

The missing books of Tacitus.

 

I'd love to know what Livineius Regulus had done to get him banished from Rome. He's the Senator who turned up in Pompeii in 59 and helped foment the riot in the arena, an event that fascinates me.

 

Of course the missing books would tell us much more too.

 

Phil

[Caesar CXXXVII]

A good question . Livy's books 11 to 20 - The end of the 3rd Samnite war , the "3rd secession of the Plebs" , the Dictatorship of Hortensius , "New" evidance for the "Phyrhic war" , a chronology for the invasions of the Boii and Sennones , an information about Dentatus , Luscinus and Gurges , about the revolts of the Sabines , Volci and Volsinii , a "new" interpretation fot the breaking of the first and second punic wars (the "Ebro treaty" , the Sardinian affair etc') , an information about the major reform of the Comitia Centoriata and Tributa , about elections in the 3rd century and on ...

 

Is there any chance in the world that they will find a hidden copy ? 100,000 $ for one

Edited November 14, 2006 by Caesar CXXXVII

[Ludovicus]

I would like to see more Roman writing that preserved conversations a la Petronius's "Satyricon." I'm very interested in how Romans spoke when they weren't orating. What did neighbors shout to each other across the alleys of Subura? I know that writing served a different purpose in the days when parchment was scarce. Nonetheless, if Petronius was able to record a dinner party conversation, other writers must have, too. What would I trade? Maybe one of those imperial ass kissing panegyrics you find from the late empire.

[DecimusCaesar]

Many of the lost works of the Later Roman Empire. Ammianus Marcellinus is our chief historian for the period and there is a lack of good readable texts (of the quality of Tacitus,Suetonius etc) to be found for this era, but that doesn't mean that they didn't exist.

 

Like Phil, I would also like to see the missing books of Tacitus, I for one would like to have seen his views on Caligula for instance. It would also be good to see some texts from the early republic or monarchy seeing as it is the sketchiest area of our knowledge (according to some, the texts were burnt by the Gauls in 390 BC).

 

Personal letters and other such documents would be great to get hold of as one thing that makes Roman history all the poorer is the lack of these written documents. Some writers like Suetonius quotes Augustus' letters and we do have the letters written by Cicero but overall we have very little first hand personal accounts. I think letters, diaries etc of the various figures would make us re-evaluate our knowledge of countless historical personages.

 

Outside of Roman history I would have liked to see the Royal diaries kept by Alexander, that is mentioned and sometimes quoted by Arrian (although they weren't actually written by Alexander). I would have also liked to have gotten hold of the account of Alexander's life written by his general, Ptolomy.

 

I read that one group of scientists had re-discovered the missing works of Archimedes, which had been scratched off the pages of a treatise to be re-written as a prayer book by a Medieval monk. Using scanner technology, they could make the outline of the original text and therefore save this older piece of work.

Hopefully they will come across more missing texts.

[WotWotius]

Tacitus' writings on Augustus. In his Annals, he mentioned that he would eventually document the events surrounding Augustus' reign at a later date. However, this is only a slight indication for the existence of Tacitus

[Primus Pilus]

We should probably set up an actual poll.

 

Since other's have already mentioned Tacitus...

 

I'd like to read Cato the Elder's "Origines" on the early history of Rome and Italy.

 

As I find his "Natural Histories" endlessly interesting I'd also like to have seen Pliny the Elder's "Germanic Wars" and "History of his times".

 

I also greatly enjoy Cassius Dio, and though we are fortunate enough to have most of his history, there are several lost or fragmented books. Only 35 of Livy's enormous 142 book history survive... imagine if they still existed.

 

Claudius' work on the Etruscans could prove invaluable to linguists.

 

And just for fun, how about Suetonius "Lives of Famous Whores"

 

Just so many...

[Virgil61]

Having all of Livy and Polybius works instead of the few books we have would be fantastic. Hannibal's bio from the point of view of a Greek that accompanied him (can't recall the name offhand), now that'd be a keeper. Claudius' writings--already mentioned, Hadrian's autobiography, Q. Fabius Pictor's early history of Rome to name a few.

 

J.Caesar's 'Anti-Cato' would be a great find if only to stir up UNRV!

[Pantagathus]

Only lost books from the Roman world?

[Caesar CXXXVII]

Tacitus' writings on Augustus. In his Annals, he mentioned that he would eventually document the events surrounding Augustus' reign at a later date. However, this is only a slight indication for the existence of Tacitus

Edited November 14, 2006 by Caesar CXXXVII

[Pertinax]

From Rome itself , the works of Galen lost in the fire of the Temple of Peace in 191. Anyone who can vivisect barbary apes with sang froid is not going to mince his words.Seriously, though Ibn Sinna did his best to keep Dioscorides and Galen "alive" in the Early Islamic world (and it was a most praiseworthy effort by a great scholar) how more potent would that collation and commentary have been with more of the precious work to hand.

[theilian]

From Rome itself , the works of Galen lost in the fire of the Temple of Peace in 191. Anyone who can vivisect barbary apes with sang froid is not going to mince his words.Seriously, though Ibn Sinna did his best to keep Dioscorides and Galen "alive" in the Early Islamic world (and it was a most praiseworthy effort by a great scholar) how more potent would that collation and commentary have been with more of the precious work to hand.

According to the article that I linked above, Galen wrote in Greek and left no less than 2 million words (20% of extant Greek writings). That sounds rather dubious, but just mentioning.

[Pertinax]

He did indeed leave a great deal, he was a tremendous writer and (like Pliny) just wouldnt shut up! However AD will probably be able to tell us if the figure you have found is accurate. My post was , I have to admit, rather selfish and a "niche" interest .

[WotWotius]

Pytheas of Massilia's lost journal. Many scholars of antiquity have dismissed his work as poppycock: therefore, it would be nice to see just how farfetched it was, and if it could actually be assigned to the geography of the British Isles.