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The Greek Anthology, Vol. 5 (Loeb Classic, 86)

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The contents of this book is only a small portion of what is called the Greek Anthology which consists in about 4000 Greek epigrams (short poems) from the period approximately 600 BC - 600 AC. They are collected for the first time in a manuscript of the 13th century.This work is divided in sixteen books each with a different subject.You don't have to read all 4000 epigrams, you just chose a book with a subject you like. The most popular are book V about love, book VII about death and funeral, book XI about Bacchus and satires and book XIV with problems, riddles and oracles.

You can learn a great deal about daily life in Antiquity just by reading these short poems (some of them no more than two lines). We read about prostitutes and courtisanes, sailors and fishermen and-for example-about three girls, shy and giggling, offering flowers to the statue of Aphrodite, goddess of Love. If you don't like the rigid books like 'Daily life in Ancient Rome', buy a book with poems of the Greek Anthology.