Aristophanes d. с. -387 (b. с -450)

Etruscan actors stage the first theatrical performances in Rome -365

The Indian heroic epic "Mahabharata" being written (probably to A.D. 350)

Menander, Greek comedy author, b. -342 (d. -290)

Earliest extant papyrus written in Greek, the "Persae" of Timotheus of Miletus -325

Theocritus, Greek bucolic poet, b. -320 (d. -250)

Apollonius of Rhodes, Greek poet, b. с.-293 (d. с. -215)

Menander, master of the Greek New Comedy, d. -290

Philemon, MenanderMenander's rival as a New Comedy poet in Athens, d. -263

Plautus, Roman comedy author, b. с. -250

The comedies of Livius Andronicus first performed in Rome -240

Quintus Ennius, the poet, "father of Latin literature," b. -239 (d. -170)

Plautus: "Miles gloriosus," comedy -205

Gnaeus Naevius, Roman poet and comedy author, d. -201

Mahabharata, ( Sanskrit: “Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty”) one of the two Sanskrit great epic poems of ancient India (the other being the Ramayana).

Ramayana, ( Sanskrit: “Romance of Rama”) shorter of the two great epic poems of India, the other being the Mahabharata (“Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty”). The Ramayana was composed in Sanskrit, probably not before 300 bce, by the poet Valmiki, and in its present form consists of some 24,000 couplets divided into seven books.

Menander, (born c. 342 bc—died c. 292 bc), Athenian dramatist whom ancient critics considered the supreme poet of Greek New Comedy—i.e., the last flowering of Athenian stage comedy. During his life, his success was limited; although he wrote more than 100 plays, he won only eight victories at Athenian dramatic festivals.

Timotheus of Miletus (c. 446-357 BC) was a Greek musician and dithyrambic poet, an exponent of the "new music."

He spent some years in the court of Archelaus I of Macedon.

Fragments of Timotheus' poetry survive, published in T. Bergk, Poetae lyrici graeci. A papyrus-fragment of his Persians (possibly the oldest Greek papyrus in existence), discovered at Abusir has been edited by U. von Wilamowitz-Mollendorff (1903), with discussion of the nome, metre, the number of strings of the lyre, date of the poet and fragment.

Theocritus, (born c. 300 bc, Syracuse, Sicily [Italy]—died after 260 bc), Greek poet, the creator of pastoral poetry. His poems were termed eidyllia (“idylls”), a diminutive of eidos, which may mean “little poems.”
There are no certain facts as to Theocritus’s life beyond those supplied by the idylls themselves. Certainly he lived in Sicily and at various times in Cos and Alexandria and perhaps in Rhodes. The surviving poems by Theocritus that are generally held to be authentic comprise bucolics (pastoral poetry), mimes with either rural or urban settings, brief poems in epic or lyric metres, and epigrams.

Apollonius of Rhodes, (b. с. 293, d. с. 215), Greek poet and grammarian who was the author of the Argonautica.

Philemon (Greek: Φιλήμων); (ca. 362 BC – ca. 262 BC) was an Athenian poet and playwright of the New Comedy.

Plautus, (born c. 254 bc , Sarsina, Umbria? [Italy]—died 184), great Roman comic dramatist, whose works, loosely adapted from Greek plays, established a truly Roman drama in the Latin language.

Lucius Livius Andronicus, (born c. 284 bc, Tarentum, Magna Graecia [now Taranto, Italy]—died c. 204 bc, Rome?), founder of Roman epic poetry and drama.

He was a Greek slave, freed by a member of the Livian family; he may have been captured as a boy when Tarentum surrendered to Rome in 272 bc. A freedman, he earned his living teaching Latin and Greek in Rome.

Livius Andronicus "The Odyssey"

Translated from Latin to English by David Camden, 1999

Quintus Ennius, (born 239 bc, Rudiae, southern Italy—died 169 bc), epic poet, dramatist, and satirist, the most influential of the early Latin poets, rightly called the founder of Roman literature. His epic Annales, a narrative poem telling the story of Rome from the wanderings of Aeneas to the poet’s own day, was the national epic until it was eclipsed by Virgil’s Aeneid.

ANSWER OF PYRRHUS TO THE ROMAN AMBASSADORS,
WHO CAME TO RANSOM THE PRISONERS TAKEN FROM THEM BY THAT PRINCE IN BATTLE.

Translated by Moir

YOUR gold I ask not; take your ransoms home;
Warriors, not trafficers in war, we come;
Not gold, but steel, our strife should arbitrate,
And valour prove which is the choice of fate.
The brave, whose lives the battle spar’d, with me
Shall never mourn the loss of liberty.
Unransom’d then your comrades hence remove,
And may the mighty gods the boon approve!.



FABIUS.

Translated by Dunlop

HEEDLESS of what a censuring world might say,
One man restor’d the state by wise delay;
Hence time has hallow’d his immortal name,
And, with increasing years, increas’d his fame.



A ROMAN TRIBUNE WITHSTANDING THE ATTACK OF A WHOLE HOST.

Translated by Wilson

FORTH on the tribune, like a shower,
the gathering javelins spring,
His buckler pierce — or on its boss
the quivering lances ring —
Or rattle on his brazen helm;
but vain the utmost might
Of foes, that press on every side, —
none can the tribune smite.
And many a spear he shivers then,
and many a stroke bestows,
While with many a jet of reeking sweat
his labouring body flows.
No breathing time the tribune has —
no pause — the winded iron,
The Istrian darts, in ceaseless showers,
provoke him and environ:
And lance and sling destruction bring
on many heroes stout,
Who tumble headlong from the wall,
within it, or without.

SOOTHSAYERS.

Translated by Dunlop

FOR no Marsian augur, (whom fools view with awe,)
Nor diviner, nor star-gazer, care I a straw;
The Egyptian quack, an expounder of dreams,
Is neither in science nor art what he seems;
Superstitious and shameless, they prowl through our streets,
Some hungry, some crazy, but all of them cheats.
292 Impostors! who vaunt that to others they’ll show
A path, which themselves neither travel nor know.
Since they promise us wealth if we pay for their pains,
Let them take from that wealth, and bestow what remains



ARE THERE GODS?

Translated by Dunlop

YES! there are gods; but they no thought bestow
On human deeds, — on mortal bliss or woe, —
Else would such ills our wretched race assail?
Would the Good suffer? — would the Bad prevail?



THE IDLE SOLDIER.

Translated by Dunlop

WHO know not leisure to employ,
Toil more than those whom toils employ;
For they, who toil with purpos’d mind,
In all their labours pleasure find;
But they, whose time no labours fill,
Have in their minds nor wish nor will.
— So ’tis with us, call’d far form home,
Nor yet to fields of battle come,
We hither march, we thither sail,
Our minds as veering as the gale.

ON THE CHARACTER OF AN ADVISER AND FRIEND.

Translated by Dunlop

HIS friend he call’d, — who at his table far’d,
And all his counsels and his converse shar’d;
With whom he oft consum’d the day’s decline
In talk of petty schemes or great design, —
To him with ease and freedom uncontroll’d,
His jests and thoughts, or good or ill, were told;
Whate’er concern’d his fortunes was disclos’d,
And safely in that faithful breast repos’d.
This chosen friend possess’d a stedfast mind,
Where no base purpose could its harbour find;
Mild, courteous, learn’d, with knowledge blest and sense.
A soul serene, contentment, eloquence;
Fluent in words or sparing, well he knew
All things to speak in place and season due;
His mind was amply graced with ancient lore,
Nor less enrich’d with modern wisdom’s store:
Him, while the tide of battle onward press’d
Servilius call’d. . . . . . . . .

Gnaeus Naevius, (born c. 270 bc, Capua, Campania [Italy]—died c. 200 bc, Utica [now in Tunisia]), second of a triad of early Latin epic poets and dramatists, between Livius Andronicus and Ennius. He was the originator of historical plays (fabulae praetextae) that were based on Roman historical or legendary figures and events. The titles of two praetextae are known, Romulus and Clastidium, the latter celebrating the victory of Marcus Claudius Marcellus in 222 and probably produced at his funeral games in 208.

Trumpet-playing competitions in Greece

Aristotle lays the foundations of musical theory с. -340

Aristoxenus defines rhythm as tripartite: speech, melody, movement (c. -320)

Aristoxenus, (flourished 4th century bc), Greek Peripatetic philosopher, the first authority for musical theory in the classical world.