This fascicle, presenting fragmentary biographical texts of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. is the first in a series of eight which will deal with all surviving fragments of ancient Greek biographical writing.
Before Greek biography emerged as a literary genre of its own at the beginning of the Hellenistic period, biographical interest already found expression in various other forms of literature. The testimonia and fragmenta edited, translated and commented in this fascicle illustrate the roots of the biographical genre.
In view of the themes which became prominent in later biographical writing, the fragments have been arranged thematically: traditions on the 'Seven Wise Men', on lives of philosophers, poets and politicians.