Historical background of the short story?

People have always told short stories around the fireside, and longer stories at public gatherings, festivals, or religious services.

The short stories in ancient times took the form of Eclogues (short story poems by Theocritus, Bion, Vergil and others) then developed through works like Lucian's 'True Story' (a science fiction story written two thousand years ago) and the fabliaux of the middle ages.

Longer stories were at first told as epic poem (the Iliad, the Aeneid, the Beowulf), and in time became our modern novels.