The name "Oppian Lives" refers not to an author but to a biographical tradition concerning two distinct didactic poets of the Roman imperial period. The first is Oppian of Cilicia, author of the Halieutica, who flourished under the emperor Marcus Aurelius. The second is Oppian of Apamea, author of the Cynegetica, who lived under the emperor Caracalla. The transmitted prose biographies, or Lives, contributed to the historical conflation of these two figures into a single poet.

No literary works are attributed to an author named "Oppian Lives." The relevant texts are the poems subject to this biographical tradition: the Halieutica, a five-book poem on fishing by Oppian of Cilicia, and the Cynegetica, a four-book poem on hunting by Oppian of Apamea. The Lives themselves are prose biographies transmitted alongside these poems in medieval manuscripts.

The biographical tradition surrounding the two Oppians is significant for the history of textual transmission and scholarship. The Lives fostered the long-standing confusion between the poets while simultaneously aiding the preservation of their works from antiquity through the Byzantine era. The poems were highly valued for their technical content and literary style, with the Halieutica receiving particular praise from later authors such as Aelian.