Satirist, philosopher, poet and biographer (120-180) from Samosata (now in SE Turkey). He began his career as a rhetorician, before turning to philosophy and eventually to literature. Although Greek was not his mother tongue, he was one of the finest Atticists of the Second Sophistic. His writing displays a mastery of Attic Greek, vivid description, humour, and a penchant for satire and parody. He wrote treatises, rhetorical essays, letters, even a novel, but is best known for his satirical and philosophical dialogues, including the Dialogues of the Gods, Dialogues of the Dead, and Dialogues of the Courtesans. One of his favorite themes is man’s inability to grasp the transience of wealth.