Medium, magician, and psychic healer Count Cagliostro enjoyed a number of years as a sensation in the fashionable circles of eighteenth-century Europe until his wife denounced him to the Inquisition.

Roman general, statesman, member of the First Triumvirate, and eventually sole dictator, assassinated on the Ides of March.

First Roman Emperor following the demise of the republic that had been destroyed by the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, Augustus's great-uncle and adoptive father. Considered as one of the greatest Roman Emperors, Augustus's reign was characterized by relative peace and prosperity. Hence, Latin literature flourished during the Augustan Age, with writers inspired by the peace they enjoyed as well as their ruler who secured it.

Character in Samuel Richardson's History of Sir Charles Grandison (1754).

A phenomenally popular author also known for his flamboyant and scandalous personal life, Lord Byron produced so much noteworthy work that a complete list is impossible in a short note. Highlights include English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers (1809), Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-19), The Giaour (1813), The Bride of Abydos (1813), The Corsair (1814), Lara (1814), Hebrew Melodies (1815), The Prisoner of Chillon, and Other Poems (1816), Manfred (1817), Beppo (1818), and Don Juan (1819-24).

Poet, shorthand innovator and instructor, and contributor to Joseph Addison's Spectator.

Poet and satirist, Butler is best remembered for Hudibras (1663-4), a political satire of Puritan fanaticism and hypocrisy.

Irish noblewoman, known as one of the "Ladies of Llangollen". With Sarah Ponsonby, the subject of William Wordsworth's sonnet "To the Lady E.B. and the Hon. Miss P.". She and Ponsonby left conventional marriages to move to Llangollen in Wales and cohabitate, fascinating and scandalizing contemporaries by wearing men's clothing. Though many observers believed that the two were a sexual couple, diary evidence suggests that may not have been the case.

British politician and tutor to King George III.

Born in London in 1779 as Mary Margaret Blair, this author, translator, and journalist was educated by her mother, with possible assistance from masters. In addition to history, composition, and a seemingly unusual understanding of the sciences, she developed proficiency in French, Italian, Latin, Dutch, German, and Spanish. Her father was a successful non-conformist businessman with an inclination to gamble, connected with many of the leading intellectuals of the day, and Mary Margaret was exposed to their conversation, another probable informal source of education.