Pyrrho
c. 360 BC – 270 BC · 90 years · Elis · Europe
Philosophy: Pyrrhonism (founder)
Travelled with Alexander the Great as far as India. He taught suspension of judgement: nothing can be known for certain about the nature of things, and tranquillity follows once one stops insisting.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 4th century BC
Portrait: Girolamo Olgiati · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Aristotle — ancient Greek philosopher and scientist, 24 years older
- Archimedes — mathematician, physicist and engineer, 73 years younger
- Plato — ancient Greek philosopher, 68 years older
- Epicurus — ancient Greek philosopher, 19 years younger
- Pytheas — Greek navigator and geographer, 10 years younger
- Zeno of Citium — ancient Greek philosopher, founder of Stoicism, 26 years younger
Middle East
- Alexander the Great — king of Macedon and conqueror, 4 years younger
Africa
- Euclid — ancient Greek mathematician, 35 years younger
- Ptolemy I Soter — founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, 7 years older
- Arsinoe II — queen of Ptolemaic Egypt, 44 years younger
Asia
- Mencius — Chinese Confucian philosopher, 12 years older
- Chandragupta Maurya — founder of the Maurya Empire, 20 years younger
- Ashoka — Maurya emperor, 56 years younger
- Zhuangzi — Chinese Taoist philosopher, 9 years older
- Qu Yuan — Chinese poet and minister, 20 years younger
- Xunzi — Chinese Confucian philosopher, 50 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 331 BC Battle of Gaugamela — aged 29, Middle East
- 331 BC Founding of Alexandria — aged 29, Africa
- 323 BC Death of Alexander the Great — aged 37, Middle East
- c. 322 BC Founding of the Maurya Empire — aged 38, Asia
- c. 300 BC Maya script — aged 60, Americas
- c. 300 BC–150 El Mirador, capital of the Preclassic Maya — aged 60, Americas
- c. 285 BC Library of Alexandria — aged 75, Africa
- c. 280 BC–247 BC Lighthouse of Alexandria — aged 80, Africa