Avli Gellii Noctes Atticae

The Noctes Atticae is a collection of essays compiled by Gellius (ca. ad 130-180?) for the amusement of his children. They cover a variety of topics, e.g., philosophy, history, language, and literature, preserve thousands of intriguing passages from works now lost, and include a number of interesting stories, among them Androclus and the Lion. Gellius's Attic Nights is a text written during the long nights of a winter spent in Attica. It is the author's commonplace book in which he recorded everything of unusual interest that he read or heard, from grammatical notes to observations on science and medicine.