Claim profile
1–99

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 Wikipedia coverage and readership agree.

CountryAll🇮🇹 Italy🇮🇱 Israel🇹🇷 Turkey🇪🇸 Spain🇩🇪 Germany🇫🇷 France🇪🇬 Egypt🇨🇳 China🇰🇷 South Korea🇺🇸 United States
FieldAllPoliticiansHistorical FiguresReligious FiguresWritersAcademicsDoctorsScientistsModelsBusiness ProfessionalsArchitects
  1. 1Luke the EvangelistLuke the Evangelistdied 84 · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Doctors13 decades
  2. 2Pedanius DioscoridesPedanius Dioscorides40–90 · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Doctors0 decades
  3. 3Aulus Cornelius CelsusAulus Cornelius Celsus25 BC–50 · Doctors0 decades
  4. 4CharakaCharakaborn 50 · Doctors17 decades
  5. 5GSGaius Stertinius Xenophon10 BC–54 · Doctors0 decades
  6. 6AArchigenes1–200 · Doctors10 decades
  7. 7AAgathinus50–100 · Doctors0 decades
  8. 8COCriton of Heracleaborn 50 · Doctorsnot measured—
  9. 9Ursicinus of RavennaUrsicinus of Ravennadied 67 · Doctorsnot measured—
  10. 10HeraclasHeraclas1–1 · Doctorsnot measured—

How this is measured

  • Placing people in time. Each person belongs to the century in which they were most active — around age 35, and never after their death.
  • Who ranks highest. Within a century, people are ranked where two independent signals agree: how many of the world’s Wikipedia language editions cover them, and how many people actually read about them. Article counts alone can be lifted by a person’s own circle; readers cannot.
  • Fame in print. The curves count how often a name appears in Google Books from 1800 to 2019, as a share of all the words printed each year, in the person’s own language wherever that corpus exists. Those decades are over, so each measurement is made once and kept.
  • What is left out. A lifetime is measured only from 1820, when there is enough print to judge; the five years after a death are skipped as obituaries; and a name shared with someone equally notable is credited to neither.