Pre 13th century in literature - Definition and Overview

See also: 13th century in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

New Books/Scriptures

• 20th century BC: The Epic of Gilgamesh (Sumerian mythology)
• 19th century BC: The Ramayana (Hindu mythology)
• 1316 BC: The Mahabharata (of which the Bhagavad Gita is a section) (Hindu mythology)
• 8th century BC:
  • The Iliad by Homer (Greek mythology)
  • The Odyssey by Homer (Greek mythology)
  • The Theogony by Hesiod
• 5th century BC:
  • The odes of Pindar
  • The Histories of Herodotus by Herodotus
  • History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
  • The Suppliants, The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, Oresteia by Aeschylus
  • Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, Electra by Sophocles
  • Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus, Electra, Trojan Women, Iphigeneia in Tauris, Helen, Bacchae, Iphigeneia at Aulis by Euripides
  • The Acharnians, The Knights, The Clouds, The Wasps, Peace, The Birds, Lysistrata, Thesmophoriazousae, The Frogs, Ecclesiazousae, Plutus by Aristophanes
  • The Five Classics (Classic of Poetry, Classic of History, Book of Changes, Classic of Rites, and Annals of Spring and Autumn, traditionally by Confucius
• 4th century BC:
  • Anabasis, Cyropaedia by Xenophon
  • Nicomachean Ethics, Metaphysics by Aristotle
  • Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Theaetetus, Parmenides, Symposium, Phaedrus, Protagoras, Gorgias, Meno, Menexenus, Republic, Timaeus by Plato
  • Elements by Euclid
• 2nd century BC: Poenulus, Miles Gloriosus by Plautus
• 1st century BC:
  • Catiline Orations, Pro Caelio, Dream of Scipio by Cicero
  • Gallic Wars by Julius Caesar
  • Eclogues, Georgics and Aeneid by Vergil
  • On the Nature of Things by Lucretius

• Torah (not all books were written at the same time.)
• Bible (not all books were written at the same time.)

• 1st century:
  • Germania by Tacitus
  • Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans by Plutarch
  • Metamorphoses by Ovid
  • Natural History by Pliny the Elder
  • Satyricon by Petronius Arbiter
• 2nd century:
  • Anabasis Alexandri by Arrian
  • Almagest by Ptolemy
  • Deipnosophistae by Athenaeus
  • Enchiridion by Epictetus
  • The Golden Ass by Apuleius
  • Liber Memorialis by Lucius Ampelius
  • Description of Greece by Pausanias
  • Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Suetonius
• 3rd century:
  • De re coquinaria by Apicius
  • Enneads by Plotinus
  • Pervigilium Veneris
  • Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou
• 4th century: De Re Militari by Flavius Vegetius Renatus
• 5th century:
  • City of God by Augustine of Hippo
  • Vulgate of St. Jerome
  • Psychomachia by Prudentius
• 6th century: Etymologiae by Isidore of Seville
• 7th century: Qur'an
• 8th century:
  • Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum by Bede
  • Dream of the Rood
• 9th century:
  • Liber Pontificalis
  • The Book of One Thousand and One Nights compiled by Abu abd-Allah Muhammed el-Gahshigar
• 10th century:
  • Beowulf (Anglo-Saxon mythology)
  • Shahnameh
  • Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
  • De Administrando Imperio by Constantine VII
  • Shahnama by Ferdowsi
• 11th century:
  • 1086 - Domesday Book
  • Proslogium by Anselm of Canterbury
  • Le Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland)
  • The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
• 12th century:
  • Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus
  • Peterborough Chronicle
  • The Alexiad by Anna Comnena
  • Historia Regum Britanniae by Geoffrey of Monmouth
  • The Knight in the Panther's Skin by Shota Rustaveli
  • Sic et Non by Pierre Abélard
  • Lais by Marie de France
  • Chronicon Slavorum by Adam of Bremen
  • Nibelungenlied
  • Mabinogion
  • Ludus de Antichristo
  • Metrical Dindshenchas
  • Táin Bó Cúailnge
  • The Tale of Igor's Campaign
  • Chronicle of Nestor
  • Chanson d'Antioche
  • Chronicon Lethrense
  • Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja

Births

Deaths