200 BC-Septuagint

The Septuagint (from the Latin septuaginta, "seventy") is a Koine Greek translation of a Hebraic textual tradition that included certain texts which were later included in the canonical Hebrew Bible and other related texts which were not. As the primary Greek translation of the Old Testament, it is also called the Greek Old Testament. This translation is quoted a number of times in the New Testament,^[1][2] particularly in Pauline epistles,^[3] and also by the Apostolic Fathers and later Greek Church Fathers.

The title (Greek: Ἡ μετάφρασις τῶν Ἑβδομήκοντα, lit. "The Translation of the Seventy") and its Roman numeral LXX refer to the legendary seventy Jewish scholars who solely translated the Five Books of Moses into Koine Greek as early as the 3rd century BCE.^[4][5] Separated from the Hebrew canon of the Jewish Bible in Rabbinic Judaism, translations of the Torah into Koine Greek by early Jewish Rabbis have survived as rare fragments only.

The traditional story is that Ptolemy II sponsored the translation of the Torah (Pentateuch, Five Books of Moses). Subsequently, the Greek translation was in circulation among the Alexandrian Jews who were fluent in Koine Greek but not in Hebrew,^[6] the former being the lingua franca of Alexandria, Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean at the time.^[7]

The Septuagint should not be confused with the seven or more other Greek versions of the Old Testament,^[4] most of which did not survive except as fragments (some parts of these being known from Origen's Hexapla, a comparison of six translations in adjacent columns, now almost wholly lost). Of these, the most important are those by Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint

http://www.kalvesmaki.com/LXX/

200 BC-Book of Wisdom

The Wisdom of Solomon or Book of Wisdom is a Jewish work composed in Alexandria (Egypt) around the 1st century CE, with the aim of bolstering the faith of the Jewish community in a hostile Greek world.^[1] It is one of the seven Sapiential or wisdom books included within the Septuagint, along with Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (Song of Solomon), Job, and Sirach, and is included in the canon of Deuterocanonical books by the Roman Catholic Church and the anagignoskomenon (Gr. ἀναγιγνωσκόμενον, meaning "that which is to be read") of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Wisdom

http://thehiddenoness.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/6/2/13629137/the_book_of_wisdom_of_solomon.pdf

200 BC-Polybius and The Histories

Polybius (/pəˈlɪbiəs/; Greek: Πολύβιος, Polýbios; c. 200 – c. 118 BC) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 264–146 BC in detail. The work describes the rise of the Roman Republic to the status of dominance in the ancient Mediterranean world and included his eyewitness account of the Sack of Carthage in 146 BC. Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed constitution or the separation of powers in government, which was influential on Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws and the framers of the United States Constitution.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius

Polybius’ Histories (Greek: Ἱστορίαι Historíai) were originally written in 40 volumes, only the first five of which are extant in their entirety. The bulk of the work is passed down to us through collections of excerpts kept in libraries in Byzantium. Polybius, a historian from the Greek city of Megalopolis in Arcadia, was taken as a hostage to Rome after the Roman defeat of the Achaean League, and there he began to write an account of the rise of Rome to a world power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Histories_(Polybius)

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plb.+toc&redirect=true

200 BC-Sirach

The Book of the All-Virtuous Wisdom of Joshua ben Sira,^[1] commonly called the Wisdom of Sirach /ˈsaɪræk/ or simply Sirach, and also known as the Book of Ecclesiasticus /ᵻˌkliːziˈæstɪkəs/ (abbreviated Ecclus.)^[2] or Ben Sira,^[3] is a work of ethical teachings from approximately 200 to 175 BCE written by the Jewish scribe Ben Sira of Jerusalem, on the inspiration of his father Joshua son of Sirach, sometimes called Jesus son of Sirach or Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira.

In Egypt, it was translated into Greek by the author's (unnamed) grandson, who added a prologue. This prologue is generally considered the earliest witness to a canon of the books of the prophets, and thus the date of the text as we have it is the subject of intense scrutiny. The book itself is the largest wisdom book from antiquity to have survived.^[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirach

http://bensira.org/navigator.php

200 BC-Book of Daniel

The Book of Daniel is a biblical apocalypse, combining a prophecy of history with an eschatology (the study of last things) which is both cosmic in scope and political in its focus.^[1] In more mundane language, it is "an account of the activities and visions of Daniel, a noble Jew exiled at Babylon."^[2] In the Hebrew Bible it is found in the Ketuvim (writings), while in Christian Bibles it is grouped with the Major Prophets.^[3] Its message is that just as the God of Israel saved Daniel and his friends from their enemies, so he would save all of Israel in their present oppression.^[4]

The book divides into two parts, a set of six court tales in chapters 1–6 followed by four apocalyptic visions in chapters 7–12.^[5] The Apocrypha contains three additional stories, the Song of the Three Holy Children, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon.^[6]

Though the book is traditionally ascribed to Daniel himself, modern scholarly consensus considers it pseudonymous, the stories of the first half legendary in origin, and the visions of the second the product of anonymous authors in the Maccabean period (2nd century BC).^[5] Its influence has resonated through later ages, from the Dead Sea Scrolls community and the authors of the gospels and Revelation, to various movements from the 2nd century to the Protestant Reformation and modern millennialist movements – on which it continues to have a profound influence.^[7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Daniel

http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16484

200 BC-Sima Qian Records of the Grand Historian

The Records of the Grand Historian (太史公書), now usually known as the Shǐjì (史記, "The Scribe's Records"), is a monumental history of ancient China and the world finished around 94 BC by the Han dynasty official Sima Qian after having been started by his father, Sima Tan, Grand Astrologer to the imperial court. The work covers the world as it was then known to the Chinese and a 2500-year period from the age of the legendary Yellow Emperor to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han in the author's own time.^[1]

The Records has been called a "foundational text in Chinese civilization".^[2] After Confucius and the First Emperor of Qin, "Sima Qian was one of the creators of Imperial China, not least because by providing definitive biographies, he virtually created the two earlier figures."^[3] The Records set the model for the 24 subsequent dynastic histories of China. Unlike Western historical works, the Records do not treat history as "a continuous, sweeping narrative", but rather break it up into smaller, overlapping units dealing with famous leaders, individuals, and major topics of significance.^[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Records_of_the_Grand_Historian

http://ctext.org/shiji

200 BC-Avestan Vendidad

The Vendidad^{[pronunciation?]} or Videvdat is a collection of texts within the greater compendium of the Avesta. However, unlike the other texts of the Avesta, the Vendidad is an ecclesiastical code, not a liturgical manual.

Name[edit]

The name of the texts is a contraction of the Avestan language Vî-Daêvô-Dāta, "Given Against the Daevas (Demons)", and as the name suggests, the Vendidad is an enumeration of various manifestations of evil spirits, and ways to confound them. According to the divisions of the Avesta as described in the Denkard, a 9th-century text, the Vendidad includes all of the 19th nask, which is then the only nask that has survived in its entirety.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendidad

http://www.avesta.org/vendidad/vd_tc.htm

250 BC-Third Buddhist council

The Third Buddhist council was convened in about 250 BCE at Asokarama in Pataliputra, supposedly under the patronage of Emperor Ashoka. This is however disputed, as mention of the council never appears in the Edicts of Ashoka.

The traditional reason for convening the Third Buddhist Council is reported to have been to rid the Sangha of corruption and bogus monks who held heretical views. It was presided over by the elder monk Moggaliputta-Tissa and one thousand monks participated in the Council. The council is recognized and known to both the Theravada and Mahayana schools, though its importance is central only to the Theravada.^[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Buddhist_council

300 BC-Lucius Cincius Alimentus

Lucius Cincius Alimentus was a celebrated Roman annalist and jurist, who was praetor in Sicily in 209 BC, with the command of two legions.^[1] He wrote principally in Greek.^[2] He and Fabius Pictor are considered the first two Roman historians, though both wrote in Greek as a more conventionally literary language.^[3] Cincian Law, which forbade the acceptance of pay for legal services, takes its name from his proposal of the legislation.^[4]

Among his works is an account of his imprisonment in the Second Punic War, and a biography of the philosopher Gorgias, though these works probably formed part of his Annals.^[5] His objectivity was praised by Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Polybius, and he was frequently cited by the historian Festus.^[6]

Cincius Alimentus was captured in one of the early battles of the Second Punic War and spent years as a prisoner of the Carthaginians under Hannibal, who, for some reason, confided in Alimentus the details of his crossing of the Alps. He transcribed this tale after his release, and the information found its way into the chronicles of many later Roman historians.^[7]

The distinguished historian of Rome Barthold Georg Niebuhr praised Alimentus, early in the 19th century, as a critical investigator of antiquity, who threw light on the history of his country by researches among its ancient monuments.^[8] In particular, Alimentus has a far less triumphal account of the early relations between the Romans and the early Latins than most historians. One of the fragments of Alimentus which survives, dates the founding of Rome as 729/728 BC (the 4th year of the 12th Olympiad); Niebuhr accounted for the difference by supposing that both Alimentus and the other annalists found a record dating the foundation 132 ten-month years before the reign of Tarquin the Elder, who changed the calendar; Niebuhr supposed that Alimentus converted this to 110 twelve-month years before calculating the epoch.

Among the works attributed to Alimentus are a treatise De Officio Jurisconsulti, containing at least two books; one book De Verbis priscis; one De Consulum Potestate, one De Comitiis, one De Fastis, two, at least, Mystagogicon, and several De Re Militari. In the latter work he handles the subjects of military levies, of the ceremonies of declaring war, and generally of the Jus Fetiale.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} Some of these titles have been attributed instead to Cincius the antiquarian, who wrote some 200 years later under Augustus, and some scholars think both Cincii are in fact the same writer.^[14]

300 BC-Quintus Fabius Pictor

Quintus Fabius Pictor (flourished c. 200 BC; his birth has been estimated around 270 BC^[1]) was the earliest Roman historian and is considered the first of the annalists. He was a member of the Senate, and a member of the gens Fabia

Contents

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Life[edit]

Fabius was the son of Consul Gaius Fabius Pictor (269 BC) and grandson of Gaius Fabius Pictor, "the Painter" (pictor in Latin). His career included fighting against the Gauls in 225 BC, and witnessing some if not all of the Second Punic War. He was appointed to travel to the oracle at Delphi in 216 BC, for advice after the Roman defeat at the Battle of Cannae.

His History[edit]

Fabius wrote in Greek, but his work has not survived, and is known to us only through quotations and allusions in later authors. Although he is sometimes referred to as an annalist, it is not in fact clear whether his history was annalistic in form (i.e. narrated events year by year). Fabius used the records of his own and other important Roman families as sources, and began with the arrival of Aeneas in Latium. His work ended with his own recollections of the Second Punic War, which he blamed on Carthage, especially the Barca family of Hamilcar and Hannibal. He dated the founding of Rome to be in the "first year of the eighth Olympiad" or 747 BC, according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus.^[2]

Fabius drew on the writings of the Greek historians Diocles of Peparethus, who allegedly wrote an early history of Rome, and Timaeus, who had written about Rome in his history of the Western Greeks. In turn, Fabius was used as a source by Plutarch,^[3]Polybius, Livy, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. By the time of Cicero his work had been translated into Latin.

Although Polybius used him as a source, he also accuses Fabius of being biased towards the Romans and inconsistent.^[4]

300 BC-Plautus

Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus. The word Plautine /ˈplɔːtaɪn/ refers to both Plautus's own works and works similar to or influenced by his.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plautus

300 BC-Gnaeus Naevius

Gnaeus Naevius (/ˈniːviəs/; c. 270^[1] – c. 201 BC) was a Roman epic poet and dramatist of the Old Latin period. He had a notable literary career at Rome until his satiric comments delivered in comedy angered the Metelli family, one of whom was consul. After a sojourn in prison he recanted and was set free by the tribunes (who had the tribunician power, in essence the power of habeas corpus). After a second offense he was exiled to Tunisia, where he wrote his own epitaph and committed suicide. His comedies were in the genre of Palliata Comoedia, an adaptation of Greek New Comedy. A soldier in the Punic Wars, he was highly patriotic, inventing a new genre called Praetextae Fabulae, an extension of tragedy to Roman national figures or incidents, named after the Toga praetexta worn by high officials. Of his writings there survive only fragments of several poems preserved in the citations of late ancient grammarians (Charisius, Aelius Donatus, Sextus Pompeius Festus, Aulus Gellius, Isidorus Hispalensis, Macrobius, Nonius Marcellus, Priscian, Marcus Terentius Varro).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnaeus_Naevius