Lucian

Lucian (circa 120-after 180), Greek writer and rhetorician, famed for his development of the satiric dialogue. He was born in Samosata (now Samsat, Turkey) and early devoted himself to the study of rhetoric and philosophy. He traveled throughout the Roman Empire as a lecturer and orator and then settled in Athens, turning to the writing of dialogues. His satire is directed chiefly at superstitious beliefs and false philosophical doctrines. Among the best known of his dialogues are Dialogues of the Gods, Dialogues of the Dead, and The Sale of Lives. His fantastic tale, True History, is a parody of the fictions put forward as facts by early poets and historians. This work contains a journey to the moon and adventures within the belly of a huge sea monster; it is thus the precursor of such works as Pantagruel by the 16th-century French satirist François Rabelais and Gulliver's Travels by the 18th-century English satirist Jonathan Swift. Lucian wrote in an easy, fluent Greek prose.