In a few words, the translator has chosen some 350 epigrams from the original 4150 of the early Greek Anthology, those which seem more apposite to contemporary life. In order to retain their simplicity, and wit, he has chosen an equivalent form--that developed by Elizabethan and Restoration poets, avoiding however all obsolescent diction. The selections have been made of those epigrams which will serve best to illumine not only an earlier civilization but also human experience. These several intentions seem admirably fulfilled.