← Fame through time1-99
The 1st century
Whose working lives fell in the 1st century. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 1st century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Seneca the Younger2 decades - 2
Mary Magdalene22 decades - 3
Plutarch22 decades - 4
Epictetus22 decades - 5
Ignatius of Antioch18 decades - 6
Hero of Alexandria19 decades - 7
Philonot measured- - 8
Apollonius of Tyana22 decades - 9
Rabbi Akiva5 decades - 10Gaius Musonius Rufus0 decades
- 11
Nicomachusnot measured- - 12
Zhang Daolingnot measured- - 13Geminus of Rhodosnot measured-
- 14Lucius Annaeus Cornutus0 decades
- 15Helvidius Priscus11 decades
- 16Chaeremon of Alexandria0 decades
- 17Arulenus Rusticus3 decades
- 18
Onasandernot measured- - 19Papirius Fabianus0 decades
- 20Moderatus of Gades0 decades
- 21Ammonius of Athensnot measured-
- 22Euphrates the Stoic0 decades
- 23
Xenarchus of Seleucia0 decades - 24Herennius Senecio1 decades
- 25Quintus Lucilius Balbus0 decades
- 26Damis22 decades
How to read these rankings
- Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
- Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
- Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.