Jerusalem Talmud Sheqalim 5:1 (48c): Separation of Halakhah and Aggadah

Greco-Roman Period
The role of Rabbi Akiva in organizing the separate disciplines of aggadah and halakhah is asserted here, although some held that these approaches were already distinguished by the Persian period. Modern scholars assume that these distinctions were made only in the tannaitic period.

Rabbi Jonah said- “It is written, ‘Therefore I will give him a portion with the great, and
with the mighty shall he divide the spoils’ (Is. 53-12). This refers to Rabbi Akiva who
organized the learning of Midrash, Halakhah, and Aggadah.”

But some say- “The Men of the Great Assembly organized these. So what did he
organize? [Rabbi Akiva] organized generalizations and particularizations.” 130

129. Trans. S. Berrin.

130. This latter opinion would date the organization of the corpus of tradition to the
Persian period rather than the Roman period.