Collection: Adult Non-Fiction

Written by a Greek traveller in the second century for a principally Roman audience, "Pausanias' Guide to Greece" is a comprehensive guidebook concentrating on buildings, tombs and statues. It describes the myths, religious beliefs and historical background behind the monuments considered. This, ...

Written in the second century AD by a Greek traveller, this study of the buildings, traditions and myths of ancient Greece describes the glory of the classical country shortly before its decline in the third century.

Written around 1245 by an unknown author, this is a tale of conflicting kinships and passionate love. Featuring themes of murder, sacrifice, romance and regret, it also offers an insight into an era of radical change, as the Christian faith was beginning to make an impact upon the Viking world.

The chronicles of Froissart are one of the greatest contemporary records of 14th-century England and France. Depicting the great age of Anglo-French rivalry from the deposition of Edwards II to the downfall of Richard II, Froissart portrays the deeds of knights in battle at Sluys, Crecy, Calais a...

Completed in 1136, this is the story of the realm from its supposed foundation by Brutus to the Saxons some 2000 years later. Vividly portraying legendary and semi-legendary figures such as Lear, Cymbeline, Merlin and King Arthur it is as much myth as it is history but it captured the imagination...

The master of ancient Greek comic drama, Aristophanes combined slapstick, humour and cheerful vulgarity with acute political observations. This text contains the plays 'The Frogs', 'The Wasps' and 'The Poet and the Women'.

Livy chronicles the events of the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage, until the Battle of Zama in 202 BC. He vividly recreates the immense armies of Hannibal, complete with elephants, crossing the Alps, the panic as they approached the gates of Rome, and the decimation of the Roman army a...

A prominent lawyer and administrator, Pliny was also a prolific letter-writer, who numbered among his correspondents such eminent figures as Tacitus, Suetonius and the Emperor Trajan, as well as a wide circle of friends and family. His lively and very personal letters address a wide range of topics.