History Begins at Sumer

The Old Testament is the product of a century or two of Judaeit writers at work during and after King Josiah's reign in 640 BCE. Eliot does not seem to understand that these Anglophone poets did not have access to translations of Greek literature, writes David Frum. In early modern England, an aspiring poet might seek out a copy of Ovid or Juvenile but as he walked across town there were no Cicero nor Sappho.