This is the first volume in the ten volume collection of the world's most famous orations, as compiled by William Jennings Bryant and Francis Whiting Halsey. The first volume concerns ancient Greece, and contains such famous persons as Achilles, Pericles, and Socrates, with their most famous (legendary or traditional) orations and speeches.

Francis Whiting Halsey (October 15, 1851 – November 24, 1919) was an American journalist, editor and historian, born in Unadilla, New York. He was the son of Dr. Gaius Leonard Halsey, a Civil War surgeon, and Juliet (Cartington) Halsey. He was the grandson of Dr. Gaius and Mary (Church) Halsey of Kortright, New York, and a descendant of Thomas Halsey, who emigrated from England before 1640 and helped to found the settlement of Southampton, Long Island, one of the earliest English settlements in New York.