"Hammurabi, the king of righteousness, on whom Shamash has conferred the law, am I." "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." This phrase, along with the idea of written laws, goes back to ancient Mesopotamian culture that prospered long before the Bible was written or the civilizations of the Greeks or Romans flowered.
When were the first of Aesop's great Book of fables written? It is not known exactly when the first Book of Aesop's fables were written as the fables were originally handed down from one generation to the next just like a myths, tales and legends.