True. Ancient Greek romances are today recognised as novels. Even though there are only five of them preserved completely, many more fragments have survived. The most notable among those preserved Greek novels are Longus' "Daphnis and Chloe" and Heliodorus' "Aethiopica". As for Spanish adventure stories, the so-called Picaresque novel of the 16th century was extremely popular. It is much closer to our own understanding of a novel - it doesn't deal with mythology, but realistic characters from lower social classes, and their adventures.