Claim profile
300–399

The 4th century

Whose working lives fell in the 4th century. 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 4th century, ranked where Wikipedia coverage and readership agree.

CountryAll🇪🇬 Egypt🇮🇹 Italy🇹🇷 Turkey🇫🇷 France🇨🇳 China🇯🇵 Japan🇬🇧 United Kingdom🇮🇱 Israel🇵🇹 Portugal🇪🇸 Spain
FieldAllPoliticiansReligious FiguresWritersHistorical FiguresAcademicsModelsDoctorsActorsMusiciansArtists
  1. 1Saint GeorgeSaint George275–303 · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Religious Figures22 decades
  2. 2Basil of CaesareaBasil of Caesarea329–379 · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Religious Figures5 decades
  3. 3Saint BlaiseSaint Blaise300–316 · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Religious Figures1 decades
  4. 4Gregory of NyssaGregory of Nyssa335–395 · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Religious Figures22 decades
  5. 5Pancras of RomePancras of Rome289–304 · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Religious Figures0 decades
  6. 6Saint NinoSaint Nino296–335 · 🇹🇷 Turkey · Religious Figures0 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.