Aesop was born in 620 BCE in Mesembria. A storyteller of ancient Greece, Aesop is credited with a large collection of fables in which animals speak and behave like humans to illustrate a moral, such as The Tortoise and the Hare and The Fox and the Grapes. Little is certain about his life: ancient writers, including Herodotus, described him as a slave on the island of Samos, and later biographies added legends about his wit and ugliness. The fables attributed to him were circulated and expanded over centuries, translated into Latin and other languages, and remain among the most widely known tales in the world.
Before and after
- 642 BCEBirth of Nebuchadnezzar II
- 628 BCEBirth of Zoroaster
- from 626 BCE to 539 BCENeo-Babylonian Empire
- 625 BCEBirth of Thales
- 620 BCEBirth of Aesop
- 7th century BCEIntroduction of tetradrachm
- 7th century BCEConstruction of Hanging Gardens of Babylon
- 7th century BCERise of Nyaya
- c. 601 BCEThe Lydians mint the first coins
More in Art, literature & culture
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- c. 2,100s BCEEpic of Gilgamesh
- c. 1,500 BCEOrigins of Zoroastrianism
- c. 750s BCEThe Homeric epics are composed
- from 448 BCE to 433 BCEConstruction of the Parthenon begins
- 42 CEOrigins of Coptic Orthodox Church
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 7th century BCE.