If we ignore the wider definitions of literature, then written forms of works of art really established themselves to wide readerships in the Romantic period in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Of course, many classical allusions were made in such works, so some argue that literature really dates back to Ancient Greece and Rome, in the western tradition, at least. Poetry is the oldest form in nearly all cultures. However, much ancient poetry is in an oral tradition which is spoken and remembered rather than written down. Essentially, literature's popular establishment coincides with the advent of widespread printing on prose, as well as poetry, in particular, the rise of the novel.