Chariton

Evidence of fragments of the text on papyri suggests that the novel may have been written in the mid-1st century AD, making it the oldest surviving complete ancient prose romance and the only one to make use of apparent historiographical features for background verisimilitude and structure, in conjunction with elements of Greek mythology, as Callirhoe is frequently compared to Aphrodite and Ariadne and Chaereas to numerous heroes, both implicitly and explicitly.

There is a dismissive reference, however, to a work called Callirhoe in the Satires of Persius,[6] who died in AD 62; if this is Chariton's novel, then a relatively early date would be indicated.

She is the daughter of Hermocrates, a hero of the Peloponnesian War and the most important political figure of Syracuse, thus setting the narrative in time and social milieu.

[9] They are married, but when her many disappointed suitors successfully conspire to trick Chaereas into thinking she is unfaithful, he kicks her so hard that she falls over as if dead.

[10] There is a funeral, and she is shut up in a tomb, but then it turns out she was only in a coma, and wakes up in time to scare the pirates who have opened the tomb to rob it; they recover quickly and take her[11] to sell as a slave in Miletus, where her new master, Dionysius, falls in love with her and marries her, she being afraid to mention that she is already married (and pregnant by Chaereas).