Literature Timeline

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c. 2500 BCE
Beginning of literature in Sumerian.
2285 BCE - 2250 BCE
Life of Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon of Akkad, and world's first author known by name.
c. 2150 BCE - c. 1400 BCE
The tales of Gilgamesh written which inform The Epic of Gilgamesh
c. 1900 BCE - c. 1600 BCE
Composition of The Descent of Inanna.
c. 1900 BCE - c. 1600 BCE
The poem "Descent of Inanna" is written.
c. 1640 BCE - c. 1700 BCE
Written form of the Atrahasis Myth of the Great Flood.
1345 BCE
The world's first manual on training horses is written by the Mitanni horse trainer Kikkuli (found in Hattusa).
c. 1120 BCE
Extant copy of the Sumerian Enuma Elish (creation story) is made from much older text.
c. 800 BCE - c. 700 BCE
Homer of Greece writes his Iliad and Odyssey.
c. 700 BCE
Greek poet Hesiod writes his Theogony and Works and Days.
c. 647 BCE - c. 629 BCE
Extensive collection of clay tablets acquired known as Ashurbanipal's Library at Nineveh.
c. 500 BCE
The Indian epic the Ramayana is composed by the sage Valmiki.
c. 400 BCE - c. 200 CE
The Bhagavad Gita, part of the Mahabharata, is written at some point between 400 BCE and 200 CE.
213 BCE
The Burning of the Books and the Burying of Philosophers Period in China.
c. 205 BCE - 184 BCE
Plautus writes his Roman comedy plays.
c. 200 BCE
Plautus' comedy play Stichus is first performed.
c. 191 BCE
Plautus' comedy play Pseudolus is first performed.
c. 100 BCE
Buddhist sutras began to be written down in Pali.
59 BCE - 17 CE
Life of Livy.
43 BCE - 17 CE
Life of the Roman writer Ovid, author of Metamorphoses.
c. 30 BCE - c. 19 BCE
Roman poet Virgil writes his Aeneid.
23 CE - Aug 79 CE
Life of Pliny the Elder.
c. 69 CE - c. 130 CE
Life of Roman biographer Suetonius who wrote 'The Twelve Caesars'.
148 CE
An Shigao is the first Buddhist translator mentioned in Chinese sources who established a translation centre in the Chinese imperial capital, Luoyang.