← Fame through time1000-1 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 coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Phidias22 decades - 2
Praxiteles22 decades - 3
Apelles22 decades - 4
Myronnot measured- - 5Polykleitosnot measured-
- 6
Lysippos13 decades - 7
Scopas22 decades - 8Leochares16 decades
- 9
Polygnotus of Thasos0 decades
- 10
Chares of Lindos0 decades - 11
Zeuxis22 decades - 12
Cresilas0 decades - 13
Parrhasius21 decades - 14
Alcamenes15 decades - 15
Iaianot measured- - 16
Achilles Painter0 decades - 17Apollodorusnot measured-
- 18
Timarete0 decades - 19
Antenornot measured- - 20
Bryaxis8 decades - 21
Alexandros of Antioch0 decades - 22Philoxenus of Eretria0 decades
- 23
Cephisodotus the Elder0 decades - 24
Silanion1 decades - 25Agatharchus6 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.