Lucian of Samosata

• Lucian of Samosata (c.125-180 CE), also known as Lucian, was a Roman Rhetorician and Satirist who wrote in Greek, and lived in Syria.

Biography

• After being educated in Athens, he travelled around Gaul and Italy earning a living by giving Public Discourses.
• Around the age of 40, he returned to Samosata in Syria and became a writer, satirising Greek Mythology and Philosophy.

Works

• ‘A True History’ or ‘A True Story’.
  • It is considered to be an early science fiction novel, where the characters undertake a journey during which they are taken up by a whirlwind and deposited on the Moon, where a war is taking place between armies from the other Planets.
  • It is also thought to be a satire on Greek authors such as Homer and Herodotus.
• The Passing of Peregrinus.
• Symposium.
• Macrobii.
• Kataplous.