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🇮🇱 Israel🇩🇪 Germany🇯🇵 Japan🇪🇸 Spain
FieldAllPoliticiansHistorical FiguresWritersAcademicsModelsArtistsScientistsReligious FiguresDoctorsArchitects
  1. 1DiogenesDiogenes400 BC–323 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academicsnot measured—
  2. 2Thales of MiletusThales of Miletus625 BC–545 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academics22 decades
  3. 3HeraclitusHeraclitus535 BC–470 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academics22 decades
  4. 4AnaximanderAnaximander610 BC–546 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academics22 decades
  5. 5AnaxagorasAnaxagoras500 BC–428 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academics22 decades
  6. 6XenophanesXenophanes570 BC–478 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academics22 decades
  7. 7AspasiaAspasia470 BC–400 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academicsnot measured—
  8. 8ChrysippusChrysippus281 BC–208 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academics22 decades
  9. 9Anaximenes of MiletusAnaximenes of Miletus585 BC–525 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academics0 decades
  10. 10LeucippusLeucippus500 BC–500 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academics22 decades
  11. 11CleanthesCleanthes331 BC–232 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academics22 decades
  12. 12XenocratesXenocrates396 BC–314 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academics22 decades
  13. 13ArcesilausArcesilaus315 BC–240 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academicsnot measured—
  14. 14Bias of PrieneBias of Priene600 BC–530 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academics1 decades
  15. 15Heraclides PonticusHeraclides Ponticus385 BC–322 BC · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Academics8 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.