Callirhoe

Chariton's Callirhoe may be the earliest of the extant Greek romances. It's a work of historical fiction drawing upon fictionalized figures from the history of Sicily, the Persian Empire, and all the conventions and cliches of the romance in the early centuries of the Roman Empire. Like most of the other five romances, Callirhoe and Chaereas are in love but are separated due to intrigue, jealousy, and fate. Eventually, after undergoing a number of ordeals and adventures around the Mediterranean, Ionia, and the Middle East, they return to Syracuse and celebrate their martial reunion. Constant references to Homer, earlier Greek literary precedents, and the intervention of Aphrodite and Eros proliferate throughout the text.

Like Heliodorus's more exciting Aethiopica, the Persian Empire makes an appearance and provides some exotic flavor since part of the narrative takes place in Babylon. Persian and non-Greek "barbarian" customs and autocratic rule are contrasted with Greek nobility and chastity. Invocations of the Peloponnesian War and the Battle of Thermopylae clearly inspired parts of the narrative's war sequences. For example, Chaereas leads 300 Greeks in the army of the Egyptian rebel king to take Tyre from the Persians. Like his father-in-law, Hermocrates of Syracuse, he leads the Egyptian naval forces against the Persian forces just as Hermocrates defeated the Athenians at sea. There's also a fair amount of battles, tomb-robbing, imperial court trials, crucifixions, tortures, and amorous intrigues to entertain and provide a model of sorts for later Greek romances. Nearly every male who sees Callirhoe wants her, including the Great King, an arbiter of justice, lusting for a married woman. 

However, in Callirhoe, it is primarily the woman rather than the male who occupies more of the narrative. For much of tale, Chaereas is bemoaning the loss of Callirhoe and attempting suicide before his friend Polycharmus prevents it. Callirhoe, on the other hand, beseeches Aphrodite and manages to save her child and (most) of her chastity while various men vie for her affection. Callirhoe is, despite her passivity in some cases, is the more active of the pair until the final book, when Chaereas leads the Egyptians to victory in a naval battle against the Persian king. But perhaps the exotic and trying adventures of Callirhoe is better used to provide a backdrop to the barbarian/Greek dichotomy. Barbarians are woman-mad, autocratic, and lacking in the virtues of Greeks. While individual 'barbarians' could be noble or chaste, the experience of Callirhoe with the Persians illustrates otherwise. So, like Heliodorus's tale, the idea of difference animates much of the novel, though Chareas and Callirhoe long to return to their Greek world rather than escape it.