Here is a list of the earliest surviving documents describing famous historical characters. Most people are surprised at how tenuous the line actually is that connects us to antiquity. Many believe that far more was known in the Ancient World than we realise. We have forgotten so much, and what has survived has had an astonishingly precarious path from Then to Now.
Time Gap in years between original and earliest surviving document:
• Homer (Iliad, Oddessy): 500 years
• ‘The Frogs’ of Aristophanes, performed at the Feast of the Lernaea in 405 BC, gaining first prize. Earliest surviving attestation: 900 years later
• Demosthenes: 1400 years
• Herodotus: 1400 years
• Plato: 1200 years
• Tacitus: 1000 years
• Julius Caesar: 1000 years
• Pliny: 750 years
• Christ: Crucified in either 30 or 33AD, attested in Dead Sea Scrolls, 50 AD, i.e. 20 years