Many brave men lived before Agamemnon, but all unwept and unknown they sleep in endless night, for they had no poets to sound their praises.

Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]

Odes [Carmina], Book 4, Ode 9, l. 25

Alt. trans.: "Brave men were living before Agamemnon."