The Library of Celsus at Ephesus

It is worth noting that the first fiction is not from this era. It can be traced back to the origins of literature, the epic, with its roots in The Odyssey and The Iliad of Homer. Yet, it was not until the second century that the literature intended for the individual to read in the privacy of their own abode for the pure reasons of entertainment was born. This new creation took many forms, mostly dealing with either important people or love. These narratives were always fiction, but occasionally had a real person as the main character. It should be noted that even if story is composed about a real person, the story very rarely remains true to the actual events in the person's life.

This newfound interest in fictional literature took many forms, some of which I've gone into here. The novel, just as it is today, was a story written to entertain. The most popular type of novel then was the romance novel, which combined action and love into a storyline that was then repeated over and over by other authors with minor nuances to the plot. Authors began to express their stories in the form of love letters, which, although fictional, were read as if they were intended for the reader.

Furthermore, biographies were constructed of famous people both of the current age and from the Greek past. These biographies idealize the subject and report what the author thought the subject should have said and glossed over the mistakes the subject made. These stories were, at best, only marginally true to the original life of the subject.

Histories are another interesting genre that exploded during this time. It is important to note that these accounts were written for a specific audience with specific political gains in mind. Many of the histories are only as true to history as the author felt was necessary.

The drama of the time was nothing of which to speak. The main trend was to replay the older plays that had been created some years before.

I have chosen not to comment on poetry in this site because many of the scholars of this period feel that nothing worth spending their time on was created. As one author pointedly put it, "On the whole the age of great poetry is clearly past. In the Roman period, Greek poetry is no longer alive - it merely survives. I shall have nothing further to say of it" (de Romilly, 192).

Homer