Year two of Books of All Time takes us from c. 400 BCE to about 50 CE. We’ll go on a whirlwind tour of Ancient Greek drama and philosophy, explore Indian epic poetry in the Ramayana and the Mahabarata, engage with more of the Hebrew Bible, and get acquainted both the Tao Te Ching and The Art of War. In early 2026, Rome enters the chat. We’ll end year two with some comedies and histories of the second century BCE.
As usual, dating may not be perfect: sometimes we go from scholars’ best guesses about when a work was composed, sometimes from the earliest-known written manuscripts.
Episodes publish every other Sunday. Unless noted, each work gets two episodes: a summary of the main plot or ideas, and then a meta episode that looks at the backstory of the work, an aspect of its origin culture, or its legacy.
Want to see last year’s list? Click here.
- March/April 2025: Herodotus, The Histories (Greece, c. 460 BCE – Three Episodes!)
- April/May 2025: Sun Tzu, The Art of War (China, first referred to by outside sources in “5th Century BCE”, so we’re putting it here)
- May 2025: Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (Greece, 429 BCE)
- June/July 2025: Euripides, Trojan Women (Greece, 415 BCE)
- August 2025: Aristophanes, Frogs (Greece, 405 BCE)
- August/September 2025: Plato, Republic, (Greece, c. 375 BCE)
- September/October 2025: Vyasa, Mahabharata (India, c. 350 BCE)
- October/November 2025: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (Greece, c. 335 BCE)
- November/December 2025: Unknown, Book of Job (Israel, c. 330 BCE)
- December 2025/January 2026: Laozi, Tao Te Ching (China, earliest manuscripts c. 300 BCE)
- January/February 2026: Valmiki, The Ramayana (India, c. 300 BCE)
- February/March 2026: Terence, The Girl from Andros (Rome, 160 BCE)
- March 2026: Polybius, The Histories, (Rome, c. 130 BCE)
Scripts/transcripts for each show will be published the day they air. Once each show airs, we’ll link the title of each work to its related tag so you can read all the posts about it.
If you love one of the works on the list and know a fun fact about the history of it, an interesting adaptation you’d like to share, or know a historical figure who was weirdly obsessed with it, etc., please comment below. We’d love to give you credit in an upcoming show!
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