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Topics across the shelf

The same subjects come up in books written a thousand years apart. Each topic has a page with the passages that treat it, oldest first, so you can read how Hesiod and Ovid and St John each tell the beginning of the world, side by side.

Chosen by hand, not counted: a passage is here when it is plainly about the topic, and the list is not every mention. Each is shown in the order the books were written, and each links to the section it is in.

The making of the world10 books · 10 passages The golden age and the ages of man6 books · 7 passages The flood5 books · 5 passages Fate, providence and free will8 books · 8 passages Fortune6 books · 6 passages Time and eternity7 books · 7 passages The soul after death9 books · 9 passages Going down to the dead6 books · 6 passages Plague7 books · 7 passages Storm and shipwreck at sea8 books · 8 passages The fall of Troy7 books · 7 passages The founding of Rome5 books · 5 passages The tyrant7 books · 7 passages The best kind of state7 books · 7 passages Exile7 books · 7 passages Strangers and hospitality8 books · 8 passages Friendship7 books · 7 passages Old age6 books · 6 passages Anger8 books · 8 passages Conversion6 books · 6 passages

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