Claim profile
1000–1 BC

The 1st millennium BC

Whose working lives fell in the 1st millennium BC. 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 millennium BC, ranked where Wikipedia coverage and readership agree.

CountryAll🇮🇹 Italy🇹🇷 Turkey🇨🇳 China🇮🇳 India🇪🇬 Egypt🇫🇷 France🇯🇵 Japan🇪🇸 Spain🇧🇷 Brazil🇩🇪 Germany
FieldAllPoliticiansHistorical FiguresWritersAcademicsModelsArtistsScientistsReligious FiguresDoctorsArchitects
  1. 1CleopatraCleopatra69 BC–30 BC · 🇪🇬 Egypt · Historical Figures22 decades
  2. 2CaesarionCaesarion47 BC–30 BC · 🇪🇬 Egypt · Historical Figures19 decades
  3. 3Ptolemy XIII Theos PhilopatorPtolemy XIII Theos Philopator62 BC–47 BC · 🇪🇬 Egypt · Historical Figures0 decades
  4. 4Cleopatra Selene IICleopatra Selene II40 BC–5 BC · 🇪🇬 Egypt · Historical Figures0 decades
  5. 5Apollonius of RhodesApollonius of Rhodes295 BC–215 BC · 🇪🇬 Egypt · Writers8 decades
  6. 6Arsinoe IV of EgyptArsinoe IV of Egypt68 BC–41 BC · 🇪🇬 Egyptnot measured—
  7. 7Alexander HeliosAlexander Heliosborn 40 BC · 🇪🇬 Egypt · Historical Figures0 decades
  8. 8Cleopatra TheaCleopatra Thea164 BC–121 BC · 🇪🇬 Egypt0 decades
  9. 9Cleopatra IV of EgyptCleopatra IV of Egypt138 BC–112 BC · 🇪🇬 Egyptnot measured—
  10. 10Alexandros II ZabinasAlexandros II Zabinas200 BC–123 BC · 🇪🇬 Egypt · Historical Figuresnot measured—
  11. 11DCDidymus Chalcenterus63 BC–10 · 🇪🇬 Egypt · Writers0 decades

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.