1 Early Forms

The first known biographies were written by scribes commissioned by the various rulers of antiquity: ancient Assyria, ancient Babylonia, ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia, among others. Such biographies tended to be chiseled into stone or clay tablets, a method called cuneiform. These biographies only detailed accomplishments. The Jewish holy scripture is an anthology of some of the earliest biographies in existence, detailing the lives of chiefs , kings, tribes, patriarchs and prophetsProphets may refer to: The Prophets ( Nevi'im), which is the second of the three major sections in the Tanakh ( Hebrew Bible). In many religions, a prophet is an interpreter or spokesperson of a deity..

2 Classical Forms

Ancient Greece developed biographies that tended not to be objective. Rather, these biographies were defenses of controversial people of the era they were living. The best known of the classical biographies include Memorabilia by XenophonXenophon ( 431- c. 354 BC), whose name means "strange sound", was an Athenian citizen, an associate of Socrates, a Philodorian and is known for his writings on Hellenic history and culture. While a young man, Xenophon participated in the expedition led by, Parallel Lives by PlutarchMestrius Plutarch (c. 120) was a Greek historian/ biographer and essayist. Born in the small town of Chaeronea, in the Greek region known as Boeotia, probably during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius, Mestrius Plutarch travelled widely in the Medite and Lives of Caesars by SuetoniusGaius Suetonius Tranquillus ( 75- 160), commonly known simply as Suetonius was a Roman writer. Suetonius was an administrator working as a secretary to the emperor Hadrian. He is remembered chiefly as the author of "The Lives of the First Twelve Caesars". During the reign of the Roman Empire60 and 400 with major cities. During this time only Dacia and Mesopotamia were added to the Empire but were lost before 300. The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Roman state in the centuries following its reorganization under t, the Gospels attributed to JohnJohn is a common name for males. See John (name) In a Christian context the name typically refers to one of: Gospel of John John the Baptist John the Apostle, to whom the Gospel of John is attributed John the Evangelist, traditionally identified with the, Luke, Mark and Matthew in the New Testament of the Bible were biographies about Jesus.