Parmenides
.jpg?width=160 "Sergio Spolti · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons")
c. 515 BC – 470 BC · 45 years · Elea · Europe
Philosophy: Eleatics (founder)
Author of the poem On Nature. He argued that being is one, unchanging and eternal, and that change and plurality are illusions of the senses.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 5th century BC
Portrait: Sergio Spolti · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Pythagoras — Greek philosopher and mathematician, 55 years older
- Leonidas I — king of Sparta, 25 years older
- Sophocles — Athenian tragic playwright, 18 years younger
- Pericles — Athenian statesman, 20 years younger
- Phidias — ancient Greek sculptor, 35 years younger
- Themistocles — Athenian statesman and admiral, 9 years older
Middle East
- Xerxes I — king of the Achaemenid Empire, 3 years older
- Darius the Great — King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, 35 years older
- Herodotus — ancient Greek historian, 31 years younger
- Heraclitus — Greek philosopher, 20 years older
Asia
- Confucius — Chinese philosopher, 36 years older
- Gautama Buddha — founder of Buddhism, 48 years older
- Laozi — Chinese sage, founder of Taoism, 56 years older
- Sun Tzu — Chinese military strategist, 29 years older
The world in their lifetime
- c. 509 BC Founding of the Roman Republic — aged 6, Europe
- 508 BC Cleisthenes' reforms and the birth of democracy — aged 7, Europe
- c. 500 BC Sun Tzu's The Art of War — aged 15, Asia
- 490 BC Battle of Marathon — aged 25, Europe
- c. 483 BC Death of the Buddha — aged 32, Asia
- 480 BC Battle of Thermopylae — aged 35, Europe
- 480 BC Battle of Salamis — aged 35, Europe
- 479 BC Death of Confucius — aged 36, Asia