The Milesian Tales

The "Milesian tales" were originally a collection of brief, erotic, or picaresque stories of romantic adventure written in Greek by Aristides of Miletus in the 2nd century BC. Aristides' original work is lost, with only fragments surviving in a Latin translation. These tales were popular and were seen as a sign of Roman decadence by the Parthians after their victory at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. The term "Milesian tales" eventually became a general descriptor for similar literary works. Their influence can be seen in later works such as Petronius Arbiter's Satyricon, Lucius Apuleius's The Golden Ass, and even in collections like Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron and Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.1