languages, attesting that, during the Middle Ages, the novel was nearly as popular as the Bible. Versions of the Alexander Romance were so commonplace in the fourteenth century that Geoffrey Chaucer wrote that "...every wight that hath discrecioun / Hath herd somwhat or al of [Alexander's] fortune." Legacy Ancient Greek literature has had an enormous impact on western literature as a whole. Ancient Roman authors adopted various styles and motifs from ancient Greek literature. These ideas were later, in turn, adopted by other western European writers and literary critics. Ancient Greek literature especially influenced later Greek literature. For instance, the Greek novels influenced the later work Hero and Leander, written by Musaeus Grammaticus. Ancient Roman writers were acutely aware of the ancient Greek literary legacy and many deliberately emulated the style and formula of Greek classics in their own works. The Roman poet Vergil, for instance, modeled his epic poem the Aeneid on the Iliad and the Odyssey. During the Middle Ages, ancient Greek literature was largely forgotten in Western Europe. The medieval writer Roger Bacon wrote that "there are not four men in Latin Christendom who are acquainted with the Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic grammars." It was not until the Renaissance that Greek writings were rediscovered by western European scholars. During the Renaissance, Greek began to be taught in western European colleges and universities for the first time, which resulted in western European scholars rediscovering the literature of ancient Greece. The Textus Receptus, the first New Testament printed in the original Greek, was published in 1516 by the Dutch humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus. Erasmus also published Latin translations of classical Greek texts, including a Latin translation of Hesiod's Works and Days. The influence of classical Greek literature on modern literature is also evident. Numerous figures from classical literature and mythology appear throughout The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. Plutarch's Lives were a major influence on William Shakespeare and served as the main source behind his tragedies Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus. Shakespeare's comedies A Comedy of Errors and The Twelfth Night drew heavily on themes from Graeco-Roman New Comedy. Meanwhile, Shakespeare's tragedy Timon of Athens was inspired by a story written by Lucian and his comedy Pericles, Prince of Tyre was based on an adaptation of the ancient Greek novel Apollonius of Tyre found in John Gower's Confessio Amantis. John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost is written