Lucian was born in Samosata, the capital of the Roman province of Commagene in northern Syria. A native Syriac speaker who mastered Attic Greek, he abandoned an early apprenticeship in sculpting to become a traveling lecturer and professional rhetorician throughout the Roman Empire. His career peaked during the Second Sophistic, a second-century CE revival of classical Greek culture. Late in life he held an administrative post in Roman Egypt.
His approximately 80 surviving prose works blend satire, dialogue, and parody. Major titles include the parody of travel tales True History; the satirical Dialogues of the Dead and Dialogues of the Gods; The Sale of Lives, which auctions off philosophical schools; and polemical exposes like Alexander the False Prophet.
Lucian is a central figure of the Second Sophistic, renowned for his Attic style and satirical critique of contemporary intellectual, religious, and social conventions. His inventive dialogues profoundly influenced later European literature, from Erasmus and Shakespeare to the development of satirical and science-fiction narratives.
Available Works
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