1326 Pentaur, royal poet of Rameses II.

3580 Precepts of Ptah-Hotep (Prisse Papyrus, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris)
2800 Tales of the Magicians (Westcar Papyrus. Berlin Museum)
2500 Festival Dirge of King Antef.
2400 Adventures of Sanehat.

I. 29 I. 22

1. 33

(British Museum)

I. 38

I. 39

I. 51

A.D. 1822 J. F. Champollion deciphered the hieroglyphic alphabet

1300 Tale of the Two Brothers (D'Orbiney Papyrus. British Museum)
195 Rosetta Stone erected in reign of Ptolemy V.

ASSYRIAN LITERATURE.

B.C. 3800 King Sargon I., who reigned in Akkad, founded a library

I. 68

I. 71

I. 68

I. 73

2000? Descent of Ishtar (Venus) to Hades'

650 Assurbanipal (Sardanapalus) founds the library in Nineveh.

I. 69

CHINESE LITERATURE.

520 'Chun-Tsu,'" Annals of Lu," by Confucius

The FIVE CLASSICS

B.C. 3320 Emperor Fu-hsi invented table of trigrams

1140 Yi-King,' the Classic of Changes.

'Li-Ki,' the Book of Ceremonies

720Shu-King,' the Classic of History, gives records from 2450 B.C. to 721

Shi-King,' the Classic of National Songs.

550 CONFUCIUS (Kung-fu-tse), philosopher.

500 Lao Tze (565-500) founder of Taoism.

300 MENCIUS (Meng Tzu), chief philosopher after Confucius

INDIAN (SANSKRIT) LITERATURE.

B.C. 1500? The VEDA. Hymns to Varuna, Indra, Agni, and other gods

1000? The Brahmanas.' Commentary on the Veda.

800? The Puranas.' Traditional explanation of the Veda
600? The Upanishads.' Philosophic dissertations.
500? The Sanskrit Epics.

'Ramayana.' Epic by Valmiki

400? Mahabharata. Epic by Vyasa.

A.D. 500? 'The Toy-Cart.' Earliest Hindu drama. By King Sudraka

550 Sakuntala.' Pastoral drama by Kalidasa .

'The Cloud-Messenger.' Descriptive poem, by Kalidasa .

1200 ‘Gita-govinda' Lyrical drama by Jayadeva

III. 31

III. 35

1500 'The Laws of Manu (Menu).' Modernized version of the Brahman Code

V. 36

400

Year.

B.C.

The BUDDHIST LITERATURE.

Pali dialect. 300 B.C.-900 A.D.

600 Siddhartha Gautama, the BUDDHA, prophet. 500-300 Life, sermons and miracles of Buddha, written, 250 Council of Asoka frames the Buddhist canon Buddhist Birth-Stories,' or 'Jatakas'

A, D. 200 'Hitopadesa.' Book of Good Counsel (Sanskrit)

PERSIAN LITERATURE.

B.C. 550 The AVESTA. ZARATHUStra (Zoroaster) compiled the Gathas (hymns).

A.D. 250 Sassanian Kings edited fragments of the Avesta
655 The Moslem religion established in Persia
900 Rudagi, father of modern Persian poetry

950 Asadi (Essedi), lyric poet.

1000 FIRDAUSI, epic poet. 'Shahnameh' (Book of Kings)

1100 OMAR KHAYYAM, astronomer-poet.

1150 Anwari, eulogistic poet

1170 Khakani, lyric poet

1190 Nizami, romantic poet.

'Rubaiyat'

'Laili and Majnun
'Mesnavi'

1250 Jelaleddin Rumi, Sufic poet.

1275 Sadi, poet. 'Gulistan (Rose Garden); 'Bustan' (Fruit Garden) 1350 HAFIZ of Shiraz, lyric poet, Persian Anacreon.

1450 JAMI, last great poet. Yusuf and Zulaikha'

1500 Hatifi, poet. • Laili and Majnun'

HEBREW LITERATURE.

(The dates are according to Archbishop Usher's chronology. Recent critics consider the historical books of the Old Testament to date from about 800 B.C., and the Psalms from 621 down to 100 B. C.)

B.C. 1490 MOSES. The Ten Commandments. Song of Moses 1040 DAVID. Psalms. Lament for Saul

100 The Great Synagogue preserved and expounded the Law
50 Hillel and Shammai, rabbis .

VII. 95

VII. 101

A.D. 600 "The Mo'allakat," seven select poems of the Arabian Pleiades 622 The Hejra, or Flight of Mohammed; the Mohammedan era

I. 185

I. 189

660 Maísuna's Song-the Arabic Home, Sweet Home'

II. 165

750 Kalilah and Dimnah; Arabic version of Bidpai's Indian fables
800 El Asmai composed The Romance of Antar'

V. 31

II. 155

II. 166

1450 Common version of "The Thousand and One Nights' 1708 "Arabian Nights," translated into French by Galland

Year.

Vol. Page

II. 88

B.C. 600 SAPPHO and Alcæus, Æolic lyric poets of Lesbos. 580 The Seven Wise Men .

570 Æsop the fabulist. The extant fables are later

530 PYTHAGORAS taught at Crotona in Italy

505 Parmenides of Elea, philosophic poet

500 Simonides of Ceos, lyric poet

500 Anacreon of Teos, poet of love and wine
480 PINDAR of Thebes, greatest lyric poet
470 ÆSCHYLUS, tragic poet. 7 tragedies extant.
450 Empedocles of Agrigentum, philosophic poet
450 SOPHOCLES, tragic poet. 7 tragedies extant.
420 EURIPIDES, tragic poet. 18 tragedies extant
420 HERODOTUS, traveler. 'Father of History'
410 THUCYDIDES, general. Peloponnesian War'.

410 SOCRATES, moral philosopher and reformer

410 ARISTOPHANES, writer of comedies (public life), 11 extant

345 ARISTOTLE the Stagirite, founder of the Peripatetics
340 Aschines, rival of Demosthenes.

90 Flavius Josephus, Jewish historian

120? The Sayings of Jesus,' discovered in Egypt in 1897 150? The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles'

330 DEMOSTHENES, greatest Athenian orator. 'On the Crown'

300 Menander and Philemon, writers of New Comedy (private life)

300 The Alexandrian Library founded by Ptolemy Soter

280 THEOCRITUS, Sicilian pastoral poet

275 The Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures

250 Herondas, writer of mimes recently discovered.

250 Bion and Moschus, Sicilian pastoral poets.

250 Cleanthes, Stoic philosopher and poet
240 Babrius, versifier of Asop's Fables.
240 Callimachus, Alexandrian librarian, poet
235 Apollonius the Rhodian, epic poet, Argonautica'
150 Polybius, historian. 'Universal History'
50 Meleager compiled the Garland' or first "

A.D. 50-100 THE NEW TESTAMENT.

80 Epictetus, Stoic philosopher

100 PLUTARCH, Parallel Lives of Greeks and Romans

VI. 33

VI. 34

VII.

V. 62

VI. 42 VI. 60 V. 69 VII. 48

VI. 51

VII. IO

VII. 36

Anthology

VII. 13

VII. 54

VII. 25

VII. 43

VII. 22

VII. 23

360 Basil the Great, Church Father

350 Ephraem the Syrian, hymn writer

350 Heliodorus, afterwards bishop, wrote Æthiopica'

180 Clement of Alexandria wrote earliest Christian hymns.

161 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Emperor and Stoic philosopher
180 LUCIAN of Samosata, satirist

VII. 56

VII. 48

VII. 82

VII. 66

VII. 92

364 Libanius, rhetorician. Eulogy of Julian'

VII. 87

VII. 90

VII. 66

400? Achilles Tatius, romancer. 'Leucippe and Clitophen 450 Longus, romancer. Daphnis and Chloe'

VII. 71

50 C. JULIUS CAESAR, general and dictator. Gallic War'

45 Sallust, historian. Jugurthine War'; 'Conspiracy of Catiline'

B.C.

Year.

30 VIRGIL, epic poet. 'Eclogues'; Georgics'; ' Æneid'

30 HORACE, lyric poet. Odes, Satires, Epistles.

30 Tibullus and Propertius, amatory poets

25 OVID, poet. Heroides'; Art of Love'; 'Metamorphoses'
IO LIVY, historian of Rome.

10 Phædrus translated Æsop's fables

4.D. 50 Lucan, epic poet. 'Pharsalia' on war of Cæsar and Pompey

50 Petronius Arbiter, courtier of Nero.

60 SENECA, philosopher, dramatist

60 Persius, satirist

'Satiricon'.

70 Pliny the Elder, encyclopædist. Natural History

80 JUVENAL, satirist

90 Martial, satirist and epigrammatist.

100 Pliny the Younger, lawyer and letter-writer

110 Quintilian, rhetorician.

'Oratory'.

125 Suetonius, biographer.

'Twelve Cæsars'

VI. 81

140 Aulus Gellius, compiler. Attic Nights'

VI. 99

350 Ausonius, poet, lived in Gaul.

VII. 106

380 St. Jerome, monk, translated the Bible into Latin (Vulgate)
400 Claudian, poet. Rape of Proserpine'

VII. 121

VII. 108

1250 Willem the Minstrel sang 'Reynard the Fox' in Flemish
1270 Maerlant, first Dutch writer.

VI. 258

'Mirror of History'

VI. 258

VI. 258

1625 HUGO GROTIUS, jurist. Latin De Jure Belli ac Pacis

VI. 271

VI. 277

VI. 278

1650 JOOST VAN DEN VONDEL, dramatic poet, wrote 'Lucifer's Tragedy'

VI. 278

1155 Master Wace. Roman de Brut'; 'Roman de Rou'

I. 205

1280 Romance of the Rose,' by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung.
1350 Amis and Amile,' prose romance

I. 281

IV. 243

1530 King Francis I., poet and patron

Queen Margaret of Navarre (Marguerite d'Angoulême), poet, wrote the

IV. 244

'Heptameron'

III. 202

Clement Marot, court poet

III. 176

1540 FRANCOIS RABELAIS, satirist. Gargantua

1570 MICHAEL DE MONTAIGNE, essayist.

1552 Etienne Jodelle's 'Cleopatra,' first French tragedy

1550 The Pléiade, seven poets, the chief being Ronsard, du Bellay and Belleau

1590 Seigneur de Brantôme, memoir writer

III. 205

1600 François de Malherbe, poet and critic, inaugurated classicism

IV. 266

1636 PIERRE CORNEILLE's tragedy, 'The Cid'. 1637 René Descartes, philosopher.

Discourse on the Method of Reasoning.'

V. 255

1650 Paul Scarron travestied Virgil.

1640 Blaise Pascal, philosopher. 'Provincial Letters'.

V. 270

VII. 195

V. 287

1670 Duc de La Rochefoucauld's Maxims'

1667 Mme. de Lafayette, novelist, The Princess of Cleves 1669 J. P. B. MOLIÈRE, comic dramatist.

1675 Madame de Sévigné, letter-writer

VI. 216

1691 JEAN B. RACINE'S tragedy 'Athalie'

1680 Bishop J. B. Bossuet, orator and controversialist 1687 Jean de La Bruyère's 'Characters'

1700 Archbishop Fénelon's Telemachus'

VI. 219

1705 Alain René Le Sage, novelist. Gil Blas'

VII. 199

1721 President Montesquieu, philosopher. Persian Letters'.
1740 Abbé Prévost d'Exiles, novelist. 'Manon Lescaut '
1750 F. M. A. VOLTAIRE, poet, critic, dramatist, skeptic.
1759 JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU, prose-writer. 'Nouvelle Héloise'
1770 The Encyclopædists, Diderot, D'Alembert, etc.

1708 Antoine Galland, Örientalist. Translated the Arabian Nights'

VII. 128

1775 Caron de Beaumarchais, comic dramatist. The Barber of Seville
1787 Bernardin de Saint Pierre, novelist. Paul and Virginia'.
1791 Count Volney's Ruins, or Revolutions of Empires'

VII. 248

Atala,'

'Genius of Chris

VIII. 258

tianity'

1807 Madame de Stael-Holstein, descriptive writer. • Corinne'
1810 Count Joseph de Maistre, reactionary.
1820 Alphonse de Lamartine, poet and prose-writer. Meditations'
1820 P. J. Béranger, song writer for the people.
1825 X. B. Saintine, novelist. 'Picciola'

VIII. 249

Evenings at St. Petersburg'

VIII. 254

VIII. 271

IX. 384

X. 125

1842 HONORÉ DE BALZAC, novelist. 'Comédie Humaine' 1844 'George Sand,' Mme. Dudevant, novelist.

1830 ALEXANDRE DUMAS, père, novelist. The Three Musketeers' 1835 Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny, historical novelist. Cinq Mars 1836 Alfred de Musset, lyric poet. Nights'

X. 97

X. 95

X. 132

X. 109

Consuelo'

IX. 393

1845 Eugene Sue, novelist. 'The Wandering Jew'.
1855 Théophile Gautier, novelist. La Morte Amoureuse'
1858 Octave Feuillet, novelist. Romance of a Poor Young Man

1866 Erckmann-Chatrian, Alsatian novelists. The Conscript'

1862 VICTOR HUGO, poet, dramotist, novelist, 'Les Misérables' 1865 Gustave Flaubert, novelist. Salammbo'

IX. 369

X. 141

X. 147