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. 1VirgilVirgil70 BC–19 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers22 decades
  2. 2OvidOvid43 BC–17 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers22 decades
  3. 3HoraceHorace65 BC–8 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writersnot measured—
  4. 4LivyLivy59 BC–17 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers22 decades
  5. 5LucretiusLucretius94 BC–55 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers22 decades
  6. 6CatullusCatullus84 BC–54 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers22 decades
  7. 7PlautusPlautus250 BC–184 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers22 decades
  8. 8Diodorus SiculusDiodorus Siculus90 BC–20 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers22 decades
  9. 9SallustSallust86 BC–35 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers22 decades
  10. 10PropertiusPropertius47 BC–16 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers22 decades
  11. 11EnniusEnnius239 BC–169 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers22 decades
  12. 12TibullusTibullus50 BC–15 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers22 decades
  13. 13Cornelius NeposCornelius Nepos100 BC–25 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers22 decades
  14. 14Livius AndronicusLivius Andronicus280 BC–200 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers20 decades
  15. 15CalpurniaCalpurnia76 BC–44 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers22 decades
  16. 16Gnaeus NaeviusGnaeus Naevius275 BC–201 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers0 decades
  17. 17GLGaius Lucilius180 BC–102 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writers0 decades
  18. 18AAlexis372 BC–270 BC · 🇮🇹 Italy · Writersnot 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.