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This article presents a list of the historical events and History of literature
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publications of literature during ancient times. by era
The history of literature begins with the invention of Bronze Age
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Ancient Egyptian · Akkadian · Sumerian
About Wikipedia writing, in Bronze Age Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt .
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Writing developed out of proto-literate sign systems in the
Recent changes Avestan · Chinese · Greek · Hebrew · Latin ·
30th century BC, although the oldest known literary texts
Pali · Prakrit · Sanskrit · Syriac · Tamil
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date from the 27th or 26th century BC.
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have been preserved in a manuscript tradition (as opposed to
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Georgian · Japanese · Kannada ·
texts that have been recovered by archaeologists), including
Middle Persian · Turkish
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the Indian Vedas (see Vedic period ), the earliest literature
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from Ancient India, parts of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Old Bulgarian · Old English · Middle English ·
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Arabic · Persian · Armenian · Byzantine ·
(see date of Zoroaster ).
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· Bengali · Indian · Old Irish · Italian · Korean ·
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Classical Antiquity is generally considered to begin with
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Homer in the 8th century BC, and it continues until the
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decline of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. Early Modern
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literature. As well as the Western canon , there is also a
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Sangam literature in India, Chinese classics in China, and in

Languages
Late Antiquity the beginning of classical Syriac and Middle
Persian literature.
Башҡортса
Български The following is a chronological list of literary works up until the 5th century AD. Literature of the 6th to 9th
Bosanski centuries is covered in Early medieval literature .
Català
Čeština For a list of the earliest testimony in each language, see list of languages by first written accounts.
Español
Contents
Esperanto
Français 1 List of ancient texts
Հայերեն 1.1 Bronze Age
Hrvatski 1.2 Iron Age

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Қазақша 1.3 Classical Antiquity

Latviešu 1.4 Late Antiquity
Lietuvių
2 See also
Magyar
3 References
Македонски
Română
Русский
Slovenčina
List of ancient texts [edit]
Slovenščina
Српски / srpski
Bronze Age [edit]
Srpskohrvatski / See also: Sumerian literature, Akkadian literature, Ancient Egyptian literature, Hittite texts, Vedic
српскохрватски
Sanskrit
Suomi
Svenska Early Bronze Age: 3rd millennium BC (approximate dates shown). The earliest written literature dates from
Українська about 2600 BC (classical Sumerian ).[1] The earliest literary author known by name is Enheduanna , dating to
中文 ca. the 24th century BC. Certain literary texts are difficult to date, such as the Egyptian Book of the Dead,
Edit links
which was recorded in the Papyrus of Ani around 1240 BC, but other versions of the book probably date from
about the 18th century BC.

2600 Sumerian texts from Abu Salabikh , including the Instructions of Shuruppak and the Kesh temple
hymn
2400 Egyptian Pyramid Texts, including the Cannibal Hymn
2400 Sumerian Code of Urukagina[2]
2400 Egyptian Palermo stone
2350 Egyptian The Maxims of Ptahhotep
2270 Sumerian Enheduanna's Hymns
2250-2000 Sumerian Earliest stories in the Epic of Gilgamesh[3][4]
2100 Sumerian Curse of Agade
2100 Sumerian Debate between Bird and Fish
2050 Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammu
2000 Egyptian Coffin Texts
2000 Sumerian Lament for Ur
2000 Sumerian Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta

Middle Bronze Age: ca. 2000 to 1600 BC (approximate dates shown)

1950 Akkadian Laws of Eshnunna

1900 Akkadian Legend of Etana[5]
1900 Sumerian Code of Lipit-Ishtar
1900 Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh
1850 Akkadian Kultepe texts
1800 Egyptian Story of Sinuhe (in Hieratic )
1800 Sumerian Eridu Genesis
1800 Akkadian Enûma Eliš
1800 Akkadian Atra-Hasis epic
1780 Akkadian Code of Hammurabi stele
1780 Akkadian Mari letters , including the Epic of Zimri-Lim
1750 Hittite Anitta text
1700 Egyptian Westcar Papyrus
1650 Egyptian Ipuwer Papyrus

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Late Bronze Age: ca. 1600 to 1200 BC (approximate dates shown)

1700-1100 Vedic Sanskrit: approximate date of the composition of the Rigveda . Many of these were not set
to writing until later.[6]
1600 Hittite Code of the Nesilim
1500 Akkadian Poor Man of Nippur[7]
1500 Hittite military oath
1550 Egyptian Book of the Dead
1500 Akkadian Dynasty of Dunnum[8]
1400 Akkadian Marriage of Nergal and Ereshkigal
1400 Akkadian Autobiography of Kurigalzu
1400 Akkadian Amarna letters
1330 Egyptian Great Hymn to the Aten
1240 Egyptian Papyrus of Ani, Book of the Dead
1200-900 Akkadian version and younger stories in the Epic of Gilgamesh[3]
1200 Akkadian Tukulti-Ninurta Epic
1200 Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers[9]

Iron Age [edit]

See also Sanskrit literature, Chinese literature

Iron Age texts predating Classical Antiquity: 12th to 8th centuries BC

1200-1100 BC approximate date of books RV 1 and RV 10 in the Rigveda

1200-800 BC approximate date of the Vedic Sanskrit Yajurveda , Atharvaveda , Samaveda
1100-800 BC date of the redaction of the extant text of the Rigveda
1050 BC Egyptian Story of Wenamun
1050 BC Akkadian Sakikkū (SA.GIG) “Diagnostic Omens” by Esagil-kin-apli .[10]
1050 BC The Babylonian Theodicy of Šaggil-kīnam-ubbib.[10]
1000-600 BC Chinese Classic of Poetry (Shījīng), Classic of Documents (Shūjīng) (authentic portions),
Classic of Changes (I Ching)
950 BC date of the Jahwist portions of the Torah according to the documentary hypothesis
900 BC Akkadian Epic of Erra
850 BC date of the Elohist portions of the Torah according to the documentary hypothesis

Classical Antiquity [edit]

See also Ancient Greek literature, Syriac literature, Latin literature, Indian literature, Hebrew
literature, Avesta
See also: centuries in poetry: 7th, 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st

8th century BC

Greek Trojan War cycle , including the Iliad and the Odyssey
800-500 BC: Vedic Sanskrit Brahmanas
Oldest non-Pentateuchal books of the Hebrew Bible (the Book of Nahum, Book of Hosea , Book of Amos ,
Book of Isaiah ) see Carbon dating the Dead Sea Scrolls

7th century BC

Vedic Sanskrit

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Aranyakas
Greek:
Hesiod : The Theogony and Works and Days
Archilochus
Alcman
Semonides of Amorgos
Solon
Mimnermus
Stesichorus

6th century BC

Hebrew Bible: Psalms [citation needed] (according to late dating) Book of Ezekiel , Book of Daniel
(according to conservative or early dating)
Chinese: Sun Tzu : The Art of War (Sūnzǐ Bīngfǎ)
Vedic Sanskrit:
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
Chandogya Upanishad
Greek:
Sappho
Ibycus
Alcaeus of Mytilene
Aesop's Fables

5th century BC

Vedic Sanskrit:
Aitareya Upanishad
Taittiriya Upanishad
Kenopanishad
Avestan: Yasht
Chinese:
Spring and Autumn Annals (Chūnqiū) (722–481 BC, chronicles of the state of Lu)
Confucius : Analects (Lúnyǔ)
Classic of Rites (Lǐjì)
Commentaries of Zuo (Zuǒzhuàn)
Greek:
Pindar : Odes
Herodotus : The Histories of Herodotus
Thucydides : History of the Peloponnesian War
Aeschylus : The Suppliants , The Persians , Seven Against Thebes, Oresteia
Sophocles : Oedipus Rex , Oedipus at Colonus , Antigone , Electra and other plays
Euripides : Alcestis , Medea , Heracleidae , Hippolytus , Andromache , Hecuba , The Suppliants ,
Electra , Heracles , Trojan Women , Iphigeneia in Tauris , Ion, Helen , Phoenician Women, Orestes ,
Bacchae , Iphigeneia at Aulis , Cyclops , Rhesus
Aristophanes : The Acharnians , The Knights , The Clouds , The Wasps , Peace , The Birds , Lysistrata ,
Thesmophoriazusae , The Frogs , Ecclesiazousae , Plutus

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Hebrew: date of the extant text of the Torah

4th century BC

Sanskrit
Ishopanishad
Katha Upanishad
Prashnopanishad
Mundaka Upanishad
Māṇḍūkya Upanishad
Hebrew: Book of Job , beginning of Hebrew wisdom literature
Hebrew Torah, also called the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses[11][12][13][14][15] with a final redaction
between 900-450 BC.[16][17] Some give an alternate date of 1320-1280. [18]

Chinese:
Laozi (or Lao Tzu): Tao Te Ching
Zhuangzi : Zhuangzi (book)
Mencius : Mencius
Greek:
Xenophon : Anabasis, Cyropaedia
Aristotle : Nicomachean Ethics, Metaphysics
Plato : Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Theaetetus, Parmenides, Symposium, Phaedrus, Protagoras,
Gorgias, Meno, Menexenus, Republic, Timaeus
Euclid : Elements
Menander : Dyskolos
Theophrastus : Enquiry into Plants

3rd century BC

Avestan: Avesta
Etruscan: Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis (Linen Book of Zagreb)
Sanskrit:
Epics : Mahabharata and Ramayana (3rd century BC to 4th century AD)
Khaḍgaviṣāna Sūkta (Buddhist)
Aṣṭaka Varga (Buddhist)
Pārāyana Varga (Buddhist)
Tamil:
3rd century BC to 3rd century AD: Sangam poems
Tolkāppiyam (grammar book)
Hebrew: Ecclesiastes
Greek:
Apollonius of Rhodes : Argonautica
Callimachus (310/305-240 B.C.), lyric poet
Manetho : Aegyptiaca
Theocritus , lyric poet
Latin:
Lucius Livius Andronicus (c. 280/260 BC — c. 200 BC), translator, founder of Roman drama
Gnaeus Naevius (ca. 264 — 201 BC), dramatist, epic poet

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Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254 — 184 BC), dramatist, composer of comedies: Poenulus , Miles
Gloriosus, and other plays
Quintus Fabius Pictor (3rd century BC), historian
Lucius Cincius Alimentus (3rd century BC), military historian and antiquarian

2nd century BC

Avestan: Vendidad
Chinese: Sima Qian : Records of the Grand Historian (Shǐjì)
Aramaic: Book of Daniel
Hebrew: Sirach
Greek
Polybius : The Histories
Book of Wisdom
Septuagint
Latin:
Terence (195/185 BC — 159 BC), comic dramatist: The Brothers, The Girl from Andros,
Eunuchus, The Self-Tormentor
Quintus Ennius (239 BC — c. 169 BC), poet
Marcus Pacuvius (ca. 220 BC — 130 BC), tragic dramatist, poet
Statius Caecilius (220 BC — 168/166 BC), comic dramatist
Marcius Porcius Cato (234 BC — 149 BC), generalist, topical writer
Gaius Acilius (2nd century BC), historian
Lucius Accius (170 BC — c. 86 BC), tragic dramatist, philologist
Gaius Lucilius (c. 160's BC — 103/2 BC), satirist
Quintus Lutatius Catulus (2nd century BC), public officer, epigrammatist
Aulus Furius Antias (2nd century BC), poet
Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus (130 BC — 87 BC), public officer, tragic dramatist
Lucius Pomponius Bononiensis (2nd century BC), comic dramatist, satirist
Lucius Cassius Hemina (2nd century BC), historian
Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi (2nd century BC), historian
Manius Manilius (2nd century BC), public officer, jurist
Lucius Coelius Antipater (2nd century BC), jurist, historian
Publius Sempronius Asellio (158 BC — after 91 BC), military officer, historian
Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus (2nd century BC), jurist
Lucius Afranius (2nd & 1st centuries BC), comic dramatist
Titus Albucius (2nd & 1st centuries BC), orator
Publius Rutilius Rufus (158 BC — after 78 BC), jurist
Quintus Lutatius Catulus (2nd & 1st centuries BC), public officer, poet
Lucius Aelius Stilo Praeconinus (154 BC — 74 BC), philologist
Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius (2nd & 1st centuries BC), historian
Valerius Antias (2nd & 1st centuries BC), historian
Lucius Cornelius Sisenna (121 BC — 67 BC), soldier, historian
Quintus Cornificius (2nd & 1st centuries BC), rhetorician

1st century BC

Pali: Tipitaka

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Latin:
Cicero : Catiline Orations, Pro Caelio, Dream of Scipio
Julius Caesar : Gallic Wars
Virgil: Eclogues, Georgics and Aeneid
Lucretius : On the Nature of Things
Livy: Ab Urbe Condita (History of Rome)
See also: Pahlavi literature, centuries in poetry: 1st , 2nd and 3rd
1st century AD

Chinese: Ban Gu : Book of Han (Hànshū)

Greek:
Plutarch : Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
Josephus : The Jewish War, Antiquities of the Jews, Against Apion
The books of the New Testament
Latin: see Classical Latin
Tacitus : Germania
Ovid: Metamorphoses
Pliny the Elder : Natural History
Petronius : Satyricon
Seneca the Younger : Phaedra, Dialogues
2nd century

Sanskrit: Aśvaghoṣa: Buddhacharita (Acts of the Buddha)

Pahlavi:
Yadegar-e Zariran (Memorial of Zarēr)
Visperad
Drakht-i Asurig (The Babylonian Tree)
Greek:
Arrian: Anabasis Alexandri
Marcus Aurelius : Meditations
Epictetus and Arrian: Enchiridion
Ptolemy : Almagest
Athenaeus : The Banquet of the Learned
Pausanias : Description of Greece
Longus : Daphnis and Chloe
Lucian : True History
Latin: see Classical Latin
Apuleius : The Golden Ass
Lucius Ampelius: Liber Memorialis
Suetonius : Lives of the Twelve Caesars
3rd century

Avestan: Khordeh Avesta (Zoroastrian prayer book)

Pahlavi: Mani: Shabuhragan (Manichaean holy book)
Chinese: Chen Shou : Records of Three Kingdoms (Sānguó Zhì)
Greek: Plotinus : Enneads

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Latin: see Late Latin

Distichs of Cato
Hebrew: Mishnah

Late Antiquity [edit]

See also: 4th century in poetry, 5th century in poetry

4th century

Latin: see Late Latin

Augustine of Hippo : Confessions, On Christian Doctrine
Apicius (De re coquinaria, "On the Subject of Cooking")
Pervigilium Veneris ("Vigil of Venus")
Syriac: Aphrahat , Ephrem the Syrian
Hebrew: Gemara
5th century

Chinese:
Bao Zhao : Fu on the Ruined City (蕪城賦, Wú chéng fù )
Fan Ye : Book of the Later Han (後漢書, Hòuhànshū)
Sanskrit: Kālidāsa (speculated): Abhijñānaśākuntalam ( , "The
Recognition of Shakuntala"), Meghadūta ( , "Cloud Messenger"), Vikramōrvaśīyam
( , "Urvashi Won by Valour", play)
Pahlavi:
Matigan-i Hazar Datistan (The Thousand Laws of the Magistan)
Frahang-i Oim-evak (Pahlavi-Avestan dictionary)
Latin: see Late Latin
Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus : De Re Militari
Augustine of Hippo : The City of God
Paulus Orosius : Seven Books of History Against the Pagans
Jerome : Vulgate
Prudentius : Psychomachia
Consentius 's grammar
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite : De Coelesti Hierarchia (Περὶ τῆς Οὐρανίας Ἱεραρχίας, "On the
Celestial Hierarchy"), Mystical Theology
Socrates of Constantinople : Historia Ecclesiastica
6th century

Latin: Boethius , De consolatione philosophiae ("The Consolation of Philosophy", 524 AD), widely
considered to be the last work of classical philosophy[19][20]

See also [edit]

Early Medieval literature

Literature portal
List of languages by first written accounts
List of years in literature

References [edit]

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1. ^ Grimbly, Shona (2000). Encyclopedia of the Ancient World . Taylor & Francis. p. 216. ISBN 978-1-
57958-281-4. "The earliest written literature dates from about 2600 BC, when the Sumerians started to
write down their long epic poems."
2. ^ Jones, Mark (2006). Criminals of the Bible: Twenty-Five Case Studies of Biblical Crimes and
Outlaws . FaithWalk Publishing. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-932902-64-8. "The Sumerian code of Urukagina
was written around 2400 BC."
3. ^ a b Stephanie Dalley (ed.). Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others.
Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-953836-2.
4. ^ Eccles, Sir John Carew (1989). Evolution of the Brain: Creation of the Self . Routledge. p. 115.
ISBN 978-0-415-03224-7. "The Epic of Gilgamesh, written in Sumer about 2200 BC."
5. ^ Dalley, Stephanie, ed. (2000). "Etana (pp. 189ff.)" . Myths from Mesopotamia. Creation, The Flood,
Gilgamesh, and Others . Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199538360; ISBN 9780199538362.
6. ^ Oberlies (1998:155) gives an estimate of 1100 BC for the youngest hymns in book 10. Estimates for
a terminus post quem of the earliest hymns are far more uncertain. Oberlies (p. 158) based on
'cumulative evidence' sets wide range of 1700–1100
7. ^ Noonan, John T. (1987). Bribes . University of California Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-520-06154-5.
"The Poor Man of Nippur dates from about 1500 BC."
8. ^ Thorkild Jacobsen (1978). The treasures of darkness: a history of Mesopotamian religion. Yale
University Press. pp. 167–168, 231. “Perhaps it was brought east with the Amorites of the First
Dynasty of Babylon.”
9. ^ Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol.2, 1980, p.203
10. ^ a b Alan Lenzi (2008). "The Uruk List of Kings and Sages and Late Mesopotamian Scholarship".
Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions. 8 (2): 137–169. doi:10.1163/156921208786611764 .
11. ^ according to ancient Jewish and Christian tradition, and some modern scholars; see above inline
citations.
12. ^ Talmud, Bava Bathra 146
13. ^ Mishnah, Pirqe Avoth 1:1
14. ^ Josephus, Flavius (1926). "11:8". The Life. Against Apion. (Loeb Classical Library). Loeb Classical
Library. p. 448. ISBN 978-0-674-99205-4. "For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among
us, disagreeing from and contradicting one another (as the Greeks have) but only 22 books, which are
justly believed to be divine; and of them, five belong to Moses, which contain his laws, and the
traditions of the origin of mankind till his death."
15. ^ Stuart, Douglas K (2006). New American Commentary Vol. II: Exodus. Holman Reference. p. 826.
ISBN 978-0-8054-0102-8.
16. ^ "Introduction to the Pentateuch. Introduction to Genesis.". ESV Study Bible (1st ed.). Crossway.
2008. p. XLII, 29–30. ISBN 978-1-4335-0241-5.
17. ^ RA Torrey, ed. (1994). "I-XI". The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth (11th ed.). Baker
Academic. ISBN 978-0-8010-1264-8.
18. ^ Hoffmeier, James K (1999). Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus
Tradition. Oxford University Press. p. 280. ISBN 978-0-19-513088-1.
19. ^ The Consolation of Philosophy (Oxford World's Classics), Introduction (2000)
20. ^ Dante placed Boethius the “last of the Romans and first of the Scholastics” among the doctors in his
Paradise (see The Divine Comedy).

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