5th century in poetry

Roman Empire

Events

• 476: Invasion of Germanic tribes and fall of the Western Roman Empire leads to eclipse of Latin as the European Lingua franca; Germanic and Celtic vernaculars begin process of becoming literary languages.

Roman poets

• Rutilius Claudius Namatianus flourishes, writing in Latin.
• Sidonius Apollinaris (430–489), in Lugdunum, Gaul, writing in Latin.
• Magnus Felix Ennodius (474 – July 17, 521), Bishop of Pavia and poet, writing in Latin
• Coluthus of Lycopolis (fl. 491–518), writing in Greek.
• Jacob of Serugh (451 – November 521), writing in Syriac
• Blossius Aemilius Dracontius (c. 455 – c. 505), writing in Latin in Carthage

Roman works

• Blossius Aemilius Dracontius, Satisfactio

South Asia

Poets

• Probable date of Kālidāsa, Sanskrit poet, author of Meghadūta

Works

• Cilappatikaram, one of Five Great Epics of Tamil literature.

China

Poets

• Tao Qian (simplified Chinese: 陶潜; traditional Chinese: 陶潛; pinyin: Táo Qián; Wade–Giles: T'ao Ch'ien), also known as Tao Yuanming (陶淵明) (365–427)
• Xie Lingyun (385–433)
• Bao Zhao (鮑照, also known as Mingyuan (明遠)) (c.414–September 466, executed), poet and official

Timeline

• 427 – Tao Qian simplified Chinese: 陶潜; traditional Chinese: 陶潛; pinyin: Táo Qián; Wade–Giles: T'ao Ch'ien, also known as Tao Yuanming 陶淵明, died (born 365), Chinese poet
• 430 – Sidonius Apollinaris born (died 489), in Lugdunum, Gaul, writing in Latin
• 433 – Xie Lingyun died (born 385), Chinese poet
• 451 – Jacob of Serugh born (died November 521), writing in Syriac
• 455 – Blossius Aemilius Dracontius born about this year (died 505) of Carthage, Latin poet
• 474 – Magnus Felix Ennodius born (died July 17, 521), Bishop of Pavia and Latin poet
• 489 – Sidonius Apollinaris died (born 430), in Lugdunum, Gaul, writing in Latin
• 491 – Coluthus of Lycopolis is known to have lived starting this year (fl. 491–518), writing in Greek-language poet