Heraclitus
c. 535 BC – 475 BC · 60 years · Ephesus · Middle East
Philosopher of constant change ('everything flows') and the unity of opposites, nicknamed 'the Obscure'.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 6th century BC
Portrait: Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Pythagoras — Greek philosopher and mathematician, 35 years older
- Leonidas I — king of Sparta, 5 years older
- Sophocles — Athenian tragic playwright, 38 years younger
- Pericles — Athenian statesman, 40 years younger
- Themistocles — Athenian statesman and admiral, 11 years younger
Middle East
- Darius the Great — King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, 15 years older
- Xerxes I — king of the Achaemenid Empire, 17 years younger
Asia
- Confucius — Chinese philosopher, 16 years older
- Gautama Buddha — founder of Buddhism, 28 years older
- Sun Tzu — Chinese military strategist, 9 years older
The world in their lifetime
- c. 509 BC Founding of the Roman Republic — aged 26, Europe
- 508 BC Cleisthenes' reforms and the birth of democracy — aged 27, Europe
- 490 BC Battle of Marathon — aged 45, Europe
- c. 483 BC Death of the Buddha — aged 52, Asia
- 480 BC Battle of Thermopylae — aged 55, Europe
- 479 BC Death of Confucius — aged 56, Asia