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← 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. 1Aristarchus of Samos310 BC-230 BC · Scientists19 decades
  2. 2Hipparchus190 BC-120 BC · Turkey · Scientists22 decades
  3. 3Apollonius of Perga262 BC-190 BC · Turkey · Scientists7 decades
  4. 4Eudoxus of Cnidus408 BC-355 BC · Turkey · Scientists0 decades
  5. 5Ctesibius284 BC-221 BC · Scientists18 decades
  6. 6Yajnavalkya800 BC-700 BC · India · Scientists17 decades
  7. 7Xu Fuborn 255 BC · Scientistsnot measured-
  8. 8Lu Ban507 BC-444 BC · Scientists1 decades
  9. 9Timaeus of Locri500 BC-500 BC · Scientists0 decades
  10. 10Liu An179 BC-122 BC · Scientists4 decades
  11. 11Meton of Athensborn 500 BC · Scientists0 decades
  12. 12Gan De400 BC-400 BC · Scientists2 decades
  13. 13Sosigenes of Alexandria100 BC-100 BC · Scientists0 decades
  14. 14Seleucus of Seleucia190 BC-150 BC · Scientists0 decades
  15. 15Conon of Samos280 BC-220 BC · Scientists0 decades
  16. 16Jīvaka Kaumārabhṛtya401 BC-401 BC · Scientistsnot measured-
  17. 17Bian Que401 BC-310 BC · Scientists0 decades
  18. 18Shi Shen400 BC-400 BC · Scientistsnot measured-
  19. 19Butades700 BC-600 BC · Scientists0 decades
  20. 20Timocharis320 BC-260 BC · Scientists7 decades
  21. 21Kidinnu400 BC-330 BC · Scientists0 decades
  22. 22Cleostratus520 BC-432 BC · Scientists4 decades
  23. 23Andronicus of Cyrrhus200 BC-100 BC · Scientists0 decades
  24. 24Aristyllus400 BC-300 BC · Scientists0 decades
  25. 25Ecphantus the Pythagoreandied 400 BC · Scientists0 decades
Show 16 more

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.