Caption: A timeline of significant intellectuals of Classical Antiquity (c.800 BCE--c.500 CE) (see also Greco-Roman Antiquity (c.800 BCE--c.500 CE)).

Significance is in the eye of the beholder, but these folks seem significant to yours truly either in history, as representitive types, or in the instrinsic significance of their ideas

Them in alphabetical order:

1. Aeschylus (c.525--c.455 BCE): Greek tragic playwright, fought at the Battle of Marathon.
2. Anaxagoras (c.510--c.428 BCE): Presocratic philosopher.
3. Anaximander (c.610--c.546 BCE): Presocratic philosopher, proposer of the apeiron (AKA the Boundless).
4. Anaximenes (c.585--c.528 BCE): Presocratic philosopher.
5. Apollonius of Perga (c.262--c.190 BCE): Greek mathematician, mathematical astronomer.
6. Archimedes (c.287--c.212 BCE): Greek mathematician, inventor.
7. Aristarchos of Samos (c.310--c.230 BCE): Greek mathematician, mathematical astronomer, first proposer of the heliocentric solar system.
8. Aristophanes (c.446--c.386): ancient Greek Old Comedy playwright.
9. Aristotle (384--322 BCE): Greek philosopher.
10. St. Augustine (354--430 CE): theologian, memoirist.
11. Caius Musonious Rufus (c.25--c.100 CE): Stoic philosopher, Bertrand Russell (1872--1970) found him congenial.
12. Catullus (c.84--c.54 BCE): Latin poet.
13. Cicero (106--43 BCE): orator, philosopher.
14. Democritus (c.460--c.370 BCE): Presocratic philosopher, second founder of Greek atomism.
15. Diogenes the Cynic (c.410--323 BCE): Greek philosopher, second founder of Cynic philosophy.
16. Diophantus (c.210--c.290 CE): Greek mathematician.
17. Empedocles (c.490--c.430 BCE): Presocratic philosopher.
18. Epictetus (55--135): Stoic philosopher.
19. Epicurus (341--271 BCE): Greek philosopher, founder of Epicureanism.
20. Eratosthenes (c.276--c.195 BCE): Greek mathematician, first to measure the circumference of the Earth.
21. Euclid (fl. 300 BCE): Greek mathematician, author of Euclid's Elements of Geometry.
22. Eudoxus of Cnidus (410 or 408--355 or 347 BCE): Greek mathematician, mathematical astronomer.
23. Euripides (c.480--c.406 BCE): Greek tragic playwright, but he wrote comedies too.
24. Eusebius (c.260--339/340 CE): ancient Greek historian.
25. Exekias (fl. 540 BCE): master of ancient Greek ceramics.
26. Galen (129--c.210 CE): ancient Greek physician.
27. Hadrian (76--138) Roman Emperor (117--138): patron of architecture.
28. Heraclitus (c.535--c.475 BCE): Presocratic philosopher.
29. Hero of Alexandria (c.10--c.70 CE): Greek mathematician, inventor.
30. Herodotus (c.484--c.425 BCE): ancient Greek historian, the father history, he coined the word history.
31. Hillel the Elder (c.90 BCE--10 CE): Jewish theologian.
32. Hipparchus (c.190--120 BCE): ancient Greek astronomer, mathematical astronomer.
33. Hippocrates (c.460--c.370): ancient Greek physician.
34. Hypatia (c.360--415 CE): Greek mathematician, mathematical astronomer, Greek philosopher.
35. Jesus (historical, c.1--c.35 CE): prophet among other things.
36. St. Jerome (c.347--420 CE): theologian, translator.
37. John Philoponus (c.490--c.570 CE): Greek philosopher.
38. Josephus (37--c.100 CE): Hellenistic Jewish historian.
39. Julius Caesar (100--44 BCE): ancient Roman historian, calendrical reformer, old Caius.
40. Justinian (c.482--565 CE, East Roman/Byzantine Emperor 527--565): patron of architecture and jurisprudence.
41. Kleisthenes (fl. 510 BCE): statesman, Athenian democratic reformer.
42. Ktesibios (c.285--c.222 BCE): Greek mathematician, inventor.
43. Leucippus (first half of 5th century BCE). Presocratic philosopher, founder of Greek atomism.
44. Lucretius (c.99--c.55 BCE): Latin poet, Epicurean philosopher.
45. Marcus Aurelius (121--180 CE), Roman Emperor (161--180 CE): Stoic philosopher in his spare time.
46. Maurice (539--602 CE, East Roman/Byzantine Emperor 582--602): traditional patron/author of the Strategikon of Maurice, handbook/manual military science, highly thought-of by Lynn Montross (1895--1961) in his War Through the Ages (1960) (see also Amazon: War Through the Ages (1960)).
47. Menander (c.342--c.290): ancient Greek New Comedy playwright.
48. Ovid (43 BCE--17/18 CE): Latin poet.
49. Parmenides of Elea (early 5th century BCE): Presocratic philosopher, probably the first proposer of the spherical Earth theory (Furley, D.J. 1987, The Greek Cosmologists, p. 41).
50. St. Paul (c.5--c.67 CE): theologian.
51. Pervigilium Veneris poet (2nd--5th century CE): anonymous Latin poet of Pervigilium Veneris (The Vigil of Venus), swan song of classical antiquity. See Latin Pervigilium Veneris and English translation The Night Watch of Venus.
52. Philo (c.25 BCE--c.50 CE): Hellenistic Jewish philosopher.
53. Philolaus (c.470--c.385 BCE): Presocratic philosopher, Pythagorean, proposer of the first Solar System model.
54. Plato (428/427--348/347 BCE): Greek philosopher.
55. Plutarch (c.46--c.120 CE): ancient Greek historian, biographer.
56. Polybius (200--118 BCE): ancient Greek historian.
57. Procopius (c.500--c.560 CE): ancient Greek historian.
58. Protagoras (c.490--c.420 BCE): Presocratic philosopher, sophist.
59. Ptolemy (c.100--c.170 CE): ancient Greek mathematician, mathematical astronomer.
60. Pythagoras (c.570--c.495 BCE): Presocratic philosopher, founder of Pythagoreanism.
61. Pythagoras the Samian (fl. 5th century BCE): ancient Greek sculptor, possibly the sculptor of the Charioteer of Delphi.
62. Sappho (c.620--c.570 BCE): Greek lyric poet.
63. Seneca (c.4 BCE--c.65 CE): Stoic philosopher, Roman theater playwright.
64. Simplicius (c.490--c.560 CE): Greek philosopher.
65. Solon (c.638--c.558 BCE): lawgiver, statesman, Greek lyric poet.
66. Sophocles (c.497/6--406/5 BCE): Greek tragic playwright.
67. Socrates (c.469--399 BCE): Greek philosopher, Presocratic philosopher. He has dual status. He counts as a Presocratic because of his early interest in natural philosophy and is ex officio a "Socratic philosopher".
68. Strabo (c.63 BCE--c.24 CE): geographer, ancient Greek historian, Greek philosopher.
69. Tacitus (c.56--c.117 CE): ancient Roman historian.
70. Thales (c.624--c.546 BCE): Presocratic philosopher, sometimes called the father of science.
71. Theognis (6th century BCE): Greek lyric poet.
72. Theon of Alexandria (c.335--c.405 CE): ancient Greek mathematician, mathematical astronomer, the father of Hypatia (c.360--415 CE).
73. Thespis (fl. 530 BCE): Greek tragic playwright, actor---the first known actor in written plays and, ex officio, a thespian.
74. Thucydides (c.460--c.400 BCE): ancient Greek historian.
75. Virgil (70--19 BCE): Latin poet, owes Dante Alighieri (1265--1321) a lot for making him a mythic person.
76. Vitruvius (c.75--c.10 BCE): civil engineer, military engineer, architect, writer on architecture.
77. Xenophanes (c.570--c.475 BCE): Presocratic philosopher, theologian
78. Zeno of Elea (c.490--c.430 BCE): Presocratic philosopher.
79. Zeno the Stoic (c.344--c.262 BCE): Greek philosopher, founder of Stoicism.

Notes:

1. All the persons listed above are shown in the image.
2. In making the list of significant intellectuals, yours truly favored cosmologists, historians, mathematical astronomers, playwrights, and poets.
3. There are only two woman: Sappho (c.620--c.570 BCE) and Hypatia (c.360--415 CE)---early and late.
4. The mythological gods who were intellectuals, Prometheus, and Furl, are excluded.
5. CE stands for the year count Common Era which is the same as Anno Domini (AD), but is secular in name.
6. BCE, of course, stands for Before Common Era which is the same as Before Christ (BC), but is secular in name.
7. In the image, negative numbers are used to indicate BCE years.
8. The "c." sign stands for circa. In most cases, the uncertainty is probably ± 20 years or less.
9. The sign "fl." stands for floruit meaning flourished about that time.

Credit/Permission: © David Jeffery, 2016 / Own work.
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