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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.
2150 BCE - 1400 BCE: The tales of Gilgamesh written which inform The Epic of Gilgamesh
1900 BCE - 1600 BCE: Composition of The Descent of Inanna.
1900 BCE - 1600 BCE: The poem "Descent of Inanna" is written.
1640 BCE - 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).
1120 BCE: Extant copy of the Sumerian Enuma Elish (creation story) is made from much older text.
800 BCE - 700 BCE: Homer of Greece writes his Iliad and Odyssey.
700 BCE: Greek poet Hesiod writes his Theogony and Works and Days.
647 BCE - 629 BCE: Extensive collection of clay tablets acquired known as Ashurbanipal's Library at Nineveh.
500 BCE: The Indian epic the Ramayana is composed by the sage Valmiki.
400 BCE - 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.
205 BCE - 184 BCE: Plautus writes his Roman comedy plays.
200 BCE: Plautus' comedy play Stichus is first performed.
191 BCE: Plautus' comedy play Pseudolus is first performed.
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.
30 BCE - 19 BCE: Roman poet Virgil writes his Aeneid.
23 CE - 79 CE: Life of Pliny the Elder.
69 CE - 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.