Greek civilization supplied Rome and much of Europe with a cultural foundation in art, literature, architecture, and philosophy. The fundamentals of Greek life and religious beliefs were laid out in poetry, the earliest form of Greek literature, during the Archaic age (800–500 B.C.E.) by authors such as Homer, Hesiod, and Sappho, while philosophy took root under the Pre-Socratics. During the classical period (500–338 B.C.E.), authors including Herodotus, Thucydides, Sophocles, and Euripides created new genres such as history and drama, while philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle established the course of Western philosophy. Art focused on explorations of human perfection. After Alexander (d. 323 B.C.E.), Greek culture spread throughout Egypt and the Middle East. In this age, referred to as the Hellenistic period (336–100 B.C.E.), innovations in science and philosophy continued, but developments in the arts remain the best-known contribution of this period, as artists began to depict people in less idealized forms.