Pythagoras
c. 570 BC – 495 BC · 75 years · Croton · Europe
Founded a religious-philosophical brotherhood at Croton, taught that number underlies the world; the famous theorem bears his name.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 6th century BC
Portrait: Galilea at German Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Leonidas I — king of Sparta, 30 years younger
- Solon — Athenian lawgiver and poet, 60 years older
- Themistocles — Athenian statesman and admiral, 46 years younger
Middle East
- Cyrus the Great — founder of the Achaemenid Empire, 30 years older
- Darius the Great — King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, 20 years younger
- Thales of Miletus — philosopher and mathematician, 54 years older
- Xerxes I — king of the Achaemenid Empire, 52 years younger
- Heraclitus — Greek philosopher, 35 years younger
Asia
- Gautama Buddha — founder of Buddhism, 7 years younger
- Confucius — Chinese philosopher, 19 years younger
- Sun Tzu — Chinese military strategist, 26 years younger
- Mahavira — spiritual teacher of Jainism, 29 years older
The world in their lifetime
- c. 563 BC Birth of the Buddha — aged 7, Asia
- 551 BC Birth of Confucius — aged 19, Asia
- 550 BC Cyrus the Great founds the Achaemenid Empire — aged 20, Middle East
- 539 BC Fall of Babylon to Cyrus — aged 31, Middle East
- c. 509 BC Founding of the Roman Republic — aged 61, Europe
- 508 BC Cleisthenes' reforms and the birth of democracy — aged 62, Europe