Ideas & Writers

Dates are colour-coded for BC and AD (BCE and CE). Greek writers have a blue background

  between 9000 and 7000 BC Evidence of religious/ritual practices at Gobelkli Tepe in eastern Turkey.
  c.1810 BC —c.1750 BC Code of Hammurabi
  between 1500 and 1200 BC Riga Veda composed in NW India
  unknown date Life of Zoroaster in eastern Iran
  between 1600 and c.1155 BC Compilation of the Epic of Gilgamesh
  c.750-c.725 Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
  c.700 Works and Days of Greek epic poet Hesiod.
  c.620 Birth of Greek lyric poet Alcaeus.
  c.630 Birth of Greek lyric poet Sappho.
  c.580 Birth of Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras.
  c.560 Final editing, in Babylon, of the Pentateuch and the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings of the Hebrew Bible.
  c.518 Birth of Greek lyric poet Pindar.
  525/4-456/5 Aeschylus, Greek writer of tragedies.
  496/5-406 Sophocles, Greek writer of tragedies.
  c.485-406 Euripides, Greek writer of tragedies.
  c.465-c.386 Aristophanes, Greek writer of comedies.
  469-399 Socrates, Greek philosopher.
  c.480-c.425 Herodotus, Greek historian.
  c.460-c.400 Thucydides, Greek historian.
  c.430-c.355 Xenophon, Greek historian.
  c.429-347 Plato, Greek philosopher.
  384-322 Aristotle, Greek philosopher and critic.
  342-292/1 Menander, Greek writer of comedies.
  341-270 Epicurus, Greek philosopher.
  c300 Elements, by Euclid, Greek mathematician.
  c.287-212/1 Archimedes, Greek mathematician and inventor.
  c.285-c.215 Apollonius Rhodius, Greek epic poet.
  c.270 Theocritus, Greek pastoral poet, writing.
  c.260 In Alexandria, the Septuagint, first translation into Greek of the Biblical Pentateuch.
  254-184 Plautus, writer of comedies.
  240-207 Livius Andronicus writing plays and verse in Latin.
  239-169 Ennius, writer of tragedies in verse.
  234-149 Cato the "Censor", historian and general writer.
  c.215 Fabius Pictor, first Roman historian, writing in Greek.
  c.200-c.118 Polybius, Roman historian who wrote in Greek.
  c.185-159 Terence, writer of comedies.
  116-27 Varro, scholar and critic.
  106-43 Cicero, orator and letter writer.
  100-44 Julius Caesar, military historian.
  c.99-55 Lucretius, poet and philospher.
  87-54 Catullus, lyric poet.
  86-35 Sallust, historian.
  c.70-8 Maecenas, patron of literature.
  70-19 Virgil, epic and pastoral poet.
  65-8 Horace, lyric poet.
  59-AD 17 Livy, historian.
  c.50-c.15 Propertius, elegiac poet.
  43-18 Ovid, elegiac and narrative poet.
  c.40 Vitruvius writing treatise on architecture.
  4-AD 65 Seneca the "Younger", philosopher and scientist.
  AD 23-79 Pliny the "Elder", historian and scientist.
  37-c.100 Josephus, Jewish historian who wrote in Aramaic and Greek.
  39-65 Lucan, epic poet.
  66 Death of Petronius, author of Satyricon.
  c.46-120 Plutarch, Roman historian and biographer who wrote in Greek.
  c.40-104 Martial, writer of verse epigrams and satire.
  c.55-c.117 Tacitus, historian and biographer.
  c.61-c.112 Pliny the "Younger", letter writer.
  c.65-c.140 Juvenal, writer of verse satire.
  c.70-140 Suetonius, biographer.
  c.120 - c.180 Lucian, humorist, writing in Greek
  c.125 Birth of Apuleius, novelist.
  c.160 Appian, Roman historian, writing in Greek.
  c.165-c.235 Cassius Dio, Roman historian who wrote in Greek
  c.330-c.393 Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman historian.