← 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
Alexander the Great22 decades - 2
Cleopatra22 decades - 3
Qin Shi Huang4 decades - 4
Cyrus the Great22 decades - 5
Ashoka8 decades - 6
Darius the Great11 decades - 7
Spartacus22 decades - 8
Nebuchadnezzar II4 decades - 9
Herod the Great22 decades - 10
Philip II of Macedon6 decades - 11
Chandragupta Maurya9 decades - 12
Pyrrhus of Epirus0 decades - 13
Ptolemy I Soter1 decades - 14
Darius III13 decades - 15
Seleucus I Nicator0 decades - 16
Ashurbanipal13 decades - 17
Caesarion19 decades - 18
Emperor Jimmu6 decades - 19
Cambyses II0 decades - 20
Sennacherib22 decades - 21
Roxananot measured- - 22
Antiochus IV Epiphanes6 decades - 23
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus0 decades - 24
Alexander IV of Macedon0 decades - 25
Ptolemy II Philadelphus3 decades - 26
Antiochus III the Great0 decades - 27
Tigranes the Great1 decades - 28
Pytheas22 decades - 29
Bindusara9 decades - 30
Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator0 decades - 31
Artaxerxes III9 decades - 32
Darius II15 decades - 33
Sargon II14 decades - 34
Ptolemy XII Auletes0 decades - 35
Cleopatra Selene II0 decades - 36
Cassander22 decades - 37Hanno the Navigator0 decades
- 38
Lysimachus22 decades - 39
Jugurtha22 decades - 40
Wang Mang12 decades - 41
Esarhaddon22 decades - 42
Nabopolassarnot measured- - 43
Ahaz22 decades - 44
Xanthippe19 decades - 45
Hephaestion22 decades - 46
Astyages22 decades - 47
Bardiyanot measured- - 48
Antiochus I Soter0 decades - 49
Arsesnot measured- - 50
Julia the Elder0 decades - 51
Antipaternot measured- - 52
Ashurnasirpal II2 decades - 53
Masinissa22 decades - 54
Cambyses I0 decades - 55Megasthenes22 decades
- 56
Ptolemy V Epiphanes0 decades - 57
Necho II0 decades - 58
Jehu22 decades - 59
Ptolemy III Euergetes0 decades - 60
Achaemenes12 decades - 61
Cyrus I0 decades - 62
Philip V of Macedon1 decades - 63
Arsaces I of Parthianot measured- - 64
Mithridates I of Parthia0 decades - 65
Sogdianus8 decades - 66
Artaxerxes I of Persia0 decades - 67
Alexander Helios0 decades - 68
Mausolus22 decades - 69
Amon of Judah0 decades - 70
Omrinot measured- - 71
Shalmaneser III12 decades - 72
Hasdrubal Barca0 decades - 73
Antiochus II Theos0 decades - 74
Atossa22 decades - 75
King Dongmyeong of Goguryeonot measured- - 76
Shalmaneser V1 decades - 77
Ptolemy VIII Physcon0 decades - 78
Ptolemy IV Philopator0 decades - 79
Arsinoe II2 decades - 80Gorgo22 decades
- 81
Antonia Minor0 decades - 82
Mayanot measured- - 83Amel-Marduknot measured-
- 84
Mithridates II of Parthia0 decades - 85
Pushyamitra Shunga0 decades - 86
Zhang Qian2 decades - 87
Emperor Hui of Han0 decades - 88
Seleucus II Callinicus0 decades - 89
Ptolemy VI Philometor0 decades - 90
Ptolemy X Alexander I0 decades - 91Teispesnot measured-
- 92
Jehoram22 decades - 93
Emperor Ai of Han0 decades - 94
Demetrius I Soter0 decades - 95
Demetrius I of Bactria0 decades - 96
Hoshea22 decades - 97
Cleopatra II of Egyptnot measured- - 98
Nearchus22 decades - 99
Salome Alexandra0 decades - 100
Zimrinot measured-
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.