The ''Sex aetates mundi'' is an 11th-century short chronicle in

Middle Irish Middle Irish, sometimes called Middle Gaelic ( ga, An Mheán-Ghaeilge, gd, Meadhan-Ghàidhlig), is the Goidelic language which was spoken in Ireland, most of Scotland and the Isle of Man from AD; it is therefore a contemporary of late Old Engl ...

which gives an overview of Old Testament history organized under the schema of the six ages of the world in alternating prose and verse. It is found in several manuscripts, including the Lebor na hUidre. It draws in part on the 9th-century

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

Historia Brittonum ''The History of the Britons'' ( la, Historia Brittonum) is a purported history of the indigenous British ( Brittonic) people that was written around 828 and survives in numerous recensions that date from after the 11th century. The ''Historia B ...

'', incorporating a version of the 6th-century "Frankish" Table of Nations that itself is derived from the 1st-century ''

Germania Germania ( ; ), also called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman province of the same name, was a large historical region in north-c ...

'' of

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

., pp. 209–232.

Editions

* Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (ed.), ''The Irish Sex Aetates Mundi'', 1983.

References

11th-century literature Early Irish literature Irish chronicles Irish-language literature Old Testament apocrypha Periodization {{ireland-hist-book-stub