I was reading on Wiki about the interaction between Aztec leader Moctezuma and Cortez upon thier first meeting in the 1500’s. Wiki insinuates Moctezuma was satirically overly polite stating "You have come to sit on your seat of authority, which I have kept for a while for you, where I have been in charge for you, for your agents the rulers..." according to wiki this was common in Nahua language (I think mostly for higher ups but not sure) to be be overly polite while meaning the opposite of what was said. (E.g. wiki ) “However, these words might be a polite expression that was meant to convey the opposite meaning, which was common in Nahua culture. “ Around the same time Shakespeare started writing satirical plays. And then in 1600’s Don Quixote was written. I find it fascinating that the Nahua people used over politeness to convey and opposite meaning. Are there earlier examples in history of sarcasm?
TLDR: casually read Wiki about Aztecs using sarcasm ; wondering about other early evidence of sarcasm.[the wiki article ; see Contact with the Spanish, 4th paragraph
A lot of Roman Comedies have sarcasm in them, but it can be hard to detect due to how little we know of casual culture. The best example from the top of my head is Plautus' Bacchides, with the character of the servant who makes continuous snarks at the soldier's expense. It's been a couple of years since I read it in any great detail, or I could give you an act and scene number for it, but the whole thing is translated on The Perseus Project.
And because he is a servant talking this way about both his master and this soldier, Plautus makes sure the audience remembers that if he's caught talking shit then he'll be tortured. That, of course, doesn't stop him. Great play, possibly adapted from Menander's Dis Exapaton, but we aren't completely sure.