The moralist Seneca (4 B. C.-65 A. D.) is famous for the many long essays or books which he wrote, from the severe Stoic point of view, on every aspect of virtue and vice. He wrote in the time of Nero, and thus he reminds us that the corruption of that Emperor and his circle did not extend to all Rome. A little later was Epictetus, a Greek of the Roman Empire, whose very austere Stoic sentiments were collected by his pupils and published as his _Encheiridion_ or _Manual_. Marcus Aurelius (121-180 A. D.), the most virtuous of the Stoic Emperors, compiled a little volume of moral _Meditations_, very austere in sentiment, which is still much read, though it was rather casually written. Another famous Stoic of the time (died 117 A. D.) was the Greek orator Dion Chrysostom (“Golden-mouthed”), whose eighty extant orations, mainly delivered in Rome, are fine literary expressions of the highest ideals of the time. There was a very considerable output of this severe moral literature at Rome. More brilliant from the literary point of view were the satirists Juvenal (60-140 A. D.), and Martial (40-104). Juvenal’s _Satires_ (five books) are famous in literature, but as pictures of Roman morals they are not now trusted. He wrote, not only as a poor man flaying the rich, but he told of the wealthy Romans of the generation before his own time. Martial has left us fourteen books of _Epigrams_: sprightly verses, of two or three lines each, hitting off the characters and manners of his age. He was a wealthy as well as a witty man, and his mild satires are valuable. Pliny is the name of two Roman writers who rank as classics. The older Pliny (23 A. D.-79 A. D.) gives us a summary of the slender scientific knowledge of the Romans in his _Natural History_. The younger Pliny, his nephew, was the governor of a province, and his _Letters_ (ten books) are good literature and valuable documents. Lucian, of the second century, is rarely read today, but his witty and pungent _Dialogues_ and his stories and essays put him in the rank of great writers. Apuleius was another witty story-writer. His _Golden Ass_ has always been deemed a classic, though modern authorities would not permit a literal translation of it. The hero imagines himself turned into an ass by the blunder of a sorcerer and having a series of most picturesque adventures. After the middle of the second century Rome was exhausted by war and literature ceased. There were several writers of some distinction in the fourth century, but their works are not classics. The great days of pagan literature were over. The pen passed to the hands of the new Christian writers. §3. EARLY CHRISTIAN CLASSICS