99 greatest historical famous people

Moses

Born circa 1300 B.C., Egypt

Died 1180 B.C., Canaan
Was put in a basket and sent down a river as a baby by his sister to avoid the killing of Hebrew boys by Pharaoh. He was then found and raised by a princess of Egypt. 
Learning of his heritage he supposedly was charged by God with the task of going before Pharaoh to demand his people be set free from slavery. When Pharaoh refused, Moses call granted the power to call a plague upon Egypt of supernatural origin and catastrophic consequences. 
After ten plagues, he led the Hebrews for forty years in the wilderness en route to the promised land of Canaan which they would later conquer and make the Kingdom of Israel. 
It was under Moses leadership that the Hebrew people received most of their laws, including the Ten Commandments, and became what we today consider Jewish. 
Moses supposedly was killed by God for not following his specific instructions for the carrying out of a miracle, but not before he was brought up a mountain to see the land he had brought the Israelites to conquer.


Muhammad

Born 570 B.C., Mecca

Died June 8, 632 B.C., Medina
Founder and holy prophet of the Muslim faith. 
Implored the people of his area to return to the belief in one true God rather than the pagan worship of many gods. 
Was not received well in the city of Mecca which he fought many battles against over the years. 
Was also not well received by Jews who could not believe that a prophet would ever come from a non-Jew. To this Muhammad pointed out that Abraham was not a Jew. 
United many tribes in Arabia with Medina as its capital. 
Began receiving the inspired word of god when he was forty in a cave where he fasted and worshiped annually during the month of Ramadan.


Mursilis I

Born circa 1640, Hittite Kindom

Died circa 1595, Hittite Kingdom
Lead the Hittites to victory in Syria where they destroyed Aleppo. 
Lead them to further victory with the sacking of Babylon which ended the rule of the descendants of Hammurabi. 
Was assassinated by his Brother-in-law, Hantili, when who he returned to his Kingdom. Hantili then succeeded him as King.


Nebuchadnezzar

Born circa 625 B.C., Babylon

Died circa 562 B.C., Babylon
Considered the greatest king of Babylon but has been vilified for his treatment of the Jews. 
Nebuchadnezzar sieged and conquered Jerusalem, destroying the Temple of Solomon in the process. 
He enslaved the inhabitants of Judah and brought them to Babylon. 
Brought about the Neo-Babylonian Empire sometimes referred to as the Chaldeans after the dynasty that he belonged to. 
Was fare to those he conquered, only willing to destroy a city if absolutely necessary and showing royal officials great courtesy. This can be seen in his treatment of Jeremiah, and Danial and his companions.


Nefertiti

Born 1370 B.C., Egypt

Died 1330 B.C., Egypt
Wife of Akhenaten and possible coregent with him during parts of his reign. 
Step mother of Tutankhamen. 
May have ruled solely for a brief period after her husbands death under the name Neferneferuaten-nefertiti. 
Was believed to be much more well liked then her husband as her statues were not smashed in their tomb.





Nero

Born December 15, 37 B.C., Rome

Died June 9 68 A.D., Rome
Last emperor of the Julio-claudian dynasty. 
Is reviled as a tyrant and a persecutor of Christians who was famous for allegedly "fiddling while Rome burned." Many sources indicate that Nero may have actually been well liked and there is no backing behind the claim that he regarded the burning of Rome with happiness or even flippancy. 
He warred and negotiated peace with the Parthian Empire. 
Was born Lucius Dominitus Ahenobarbus


Osiris

Worship began 3000 B.C., Egypt

Worship ended 500 A.D., Egypt
God of life, death, and fertility. 
Was the judge of the dead but also the one who allowed life. 
At times was considered the primary deity of the henotheistic society. 
Is said to be Anubis' father as he replaced him as the god primarily associated with the afterlife. 
Was murdered by Set but resurrected for a time by his wife Isis who then became pregnant with Horus, the god of new beginnings.


Ovid

Born March 20, 43 B.C., Sulmona

Died 17 A.D., Tomis
A Latin poet ranked with Virgil and Horace in importance. 
Had an impact on art and literature for centuries into the middle ages. 
Wrote of love, women, and mythological transformation.


Pericles

Born 495 B.C., Athens

Died 429 B.C., Athens
A great statesman and general for Athens, he was the leader of their forces (strategos). 
Lived during the Golden Era between the Persian War and the Peloponnesian War. 
Faught for 2 years in the Peloponnesian War before dying from an unknown epidemic that many accused him of bringing on Athens because he sailed to war after witnessing a lunar eclipse. 
He knew better than most of the true nature of eclipses having been educated by Anaxagoras. 
Had he lived Athens may have won the war against Sparta because it is said that his successors were inferior to him.



Philip II

Born 382 B.C., Macedon

Died 336 B.C., Macedon
Father of Alexander the Great, Philip III, and possible Ptolemy Soter. 
United the Greek city states into one nation under Macedonian rule. 
As a child was a well treated hostage in Thebes, Egypt. 
Came to the thrown only after his elder brothers, Alexander II and Perdiccas III. And he was only elected regent for the true rightful heir, Amyntas IV, who was Perdiccas' infant son. He managed to secure the thrown for himself though. 
Was assassinated by one of his own body guards at his daughter's wedding.


Plato

Born circa 428 B.C., Athens

Died circa 348 B.C., Athens
Student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle. 
Left Athens for a long time because he was disgusted with them for executing Socrates. 
Wrote many books on philosophy, most famous of which are the Apology and the Republic. 
Developed a philosophy of greater and greater levels of truth known as Platonism. 
Founded the first school of higher learning in the western world, known as the Academy.


Pompey

Born September 29, 106 B.C., Picenum

Died September 29, 48 B.C., Egypt
Roman statesman and general who very well could have gone on to fill Julius Caesar's role in Rome. 
He entered into the First Triumvirate with Caesar and Crassus. 
He fled Rome from Caesar during their civil war, allowing Caesar to capture the treasury which was kept at the temple of Saturn. 
He managed to once beat Caesar in a battle, but failed to pursue and destroy his enemies much smaller army. 
Pompey was killed in a boat going to shore at Egypt where he believed he had found safe haven. Really, the Egyptian king had arranged for his assassination by two of his old comrades, in order to gain prestige with Caesar.


Pontius Pilate

Born circa 10 B.C., Roman Empire

Died circa 36 B.C., Roman Empire
Pontius Pilate was the man who is believed to have presided over the trial and sentencing of Jesus Christ. 
According to the Bible, Pilate found no guilt in Jesus and was confused as to how the Jews welcomed him as a prophet just a week before but know demanded his death. 
Being a governor in a territory that balked at their Roman overlords and were known to cause uprisings, he was put in the difficult situation of trying to avid a riot as it could cost him his life. 
According to some accounts, Jesus himself told Pilate that it was not he who was responsible for the death but rather the people pressuring him and that he would not be in the wrong for issuing the sentence. Either way, Pilate is famous for washing his hands as a display that he was not at fault in the matter of killing what he considered to be an innocent man.


Ptolemy I

Born 367 B.C., Macedon

Died 283 B.C., Egypt
Possibly the half-brother of Alexander the Great. 
One of Alexander's most trusted generals. 
In the civil war that broke out after the death of Alexander, Ptolemy was one of the generals to secure land and proclaimed himself the king of Egypt. 
From his dynasty, Cleopatra came.


Ramses II a.k.a. Ramses the Great

Born circa 1290 B.C., Egypt

Died circa 1213 B.C., Egypt
A member of the nineteenth dynasty. 
Is said to be the greatest king of Egypt. 
Has many monuments built to himself across the land of Egypt. 
Is believed to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus who Moses went before to demand his people's freedom. 
Fought with the Hittites and one a famous battle at Kadesh despite the fact that he was tricked. Though he won the battle he lost the war as he didn't have enough troops of supplies to continue.


Remus

Born circa 771 B.C., Temple of Vesta

Died circa 753 B.C., Rome
One of the legendary founders of Rome. 
Supposedly fathered by the god of war, Mars. 
Supposedly descended from Aeneas, a survivor of Troy. 
Was killed by his brother Romulus over who should rule the new city of Rome.


Romulus

Born 771 B.C., Temple of Vesta

Died 717 B.C., Rome
Twin brother of Remus. 
Romulus crowned himself the first king of Rome after killing his brother, the city's cofounder. 
Named the city after himself.


Sappho

Born circa 620 B.C., Lesbos

Died circa 570 B.C., Lesbos
Like her fellow poets, Hesiod and Homer, very little is known about Sappho except her poetry. 
She was an educated woman, which was very rare for her time. 
She was born into an aristocratic family which afforded her a sophisticated language and many rare places to visit and write about. 
Is believed to have been a lesbian by many because of her poems to women. The word lesbian in fact comes from the name of her birthplace: Lesbos.


Sargon

Born circa 1500 B.C., Sumeria

Died circa 1440 B.C., Sumeria
Sargon is considered one of if not the earliest emperor. He preceeded the first Babylonian Empire and the Assyrians. 
His empire spanned across most of the fertile crescent. 
It is said that when he invaded Babylon and desecrated the temples there, he angered the Babylonian patriot god, Marduk, who then cursed Sargon to have rebellion throughout his land and never peace. 
Marduk's curse brought the downfall of Sargon's empire.


Saul

Born circa 900 B.C., Israel

Died circa 850 B.C.Israel
Saul was the first king of Israel and a celebrated man in the earlier days of his reign. 
His increased madness towards the end of his reign leads many theologians to believe that since the Hebrews demanded a king instead of relying on God, God therefore punished them by making Saul king. 
Saul united all the tribes of Israel for the first time since the exodus. 
Saul fell out of God's grace when he plundered an army he was told to completely destroy. 
Was very close to David until later years when David was anointed the new king of Israel and a civil war broke out between them.











Seneca

Born circa 4 B.C., Hispania

Died circa 65 A.D., Rome
Son of another Seneca who was a famous Roman orator. 
A sickly child who was sent to Rome for schooling and then to Egypt for treatment of his illness. 
Was almost killed in a conflict with Emperor Caligula, but was spared because the Emperor thought he would die soon anyway because of his sickness. 
Was the tutor of Emperor Nero and latter his advisor.


Shalmaneser

Born circa 1274 B.C., Asshur

Died circa 1245 B.C., Asshur
Assyrian king who vastly expanded the empire. 
Claimed to have blinded 14,400 enemy prisoners in one eye. 
Would often deport captured people to foreign lands rather than slaughter them. 
Was the ancestor to Shalmaneser V, who is believed to be the Assyrian King that captured the the lost tribes of Israel.


Socrates

Born circa 470 B.C., Athens

Died circa 399 B.C., Athens
Socrates was the teacher of Plato. 
He developed the Socratic method, a philosophical method of question and answer that is designed to get to the heart of matters. 
He was opposed to the democratic ruling of Athens and felt that government should be a council of philosophers deciding on matters. 
The oracle at Delphi claimed that he was the wisest man in Greece. 
Though Socrates disbelieved her at first and set out to prove her wrong, he found no man in Greece wiser than himself. 
He was accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and was sentenced to death which he humbly accepted. He drank hemlock as his death penalty.


Solomon

Born 800 B.C., Jerusalem

Died 720 B.C., Jerusalem
Solomon was the son of King David and the heir to the thrown. 
He was the bastard child of David and Bathsheba. 
The Bible claims he was the wisest man on earth. 
Unlike his father, who was a warrior king, Solomon expanded his kingdom through diplomacy and trade. 
It is said that God was often displeased with him for allowing his many wives to influence him with pagan beliefs. 
Despite his great wealth, success, and heresy, he is believed to have written the book of Ecclesiastes in his old age, which is notorious for its view of worldly things as meaningless.


Solon

Born circa 638 B.C., Athens

Died circa 558 B.C., Athens
Athenian lawmaker. 
One of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. 
Advised Athens to war over possession of the island of Salamis and became a hero when they won. 
Solon introduced the concept of a trial by jury. 
Also credited with introducing pederastic education.


Sophocles

Born 495 B.C., Attica

Died 406 B.C., Athens
Second of the three great tragedians. 
Wrote 123 plays in his life. 
Only seven have survived to modern times. 
As a child he led the chorus of boys at the Athenian celebration of the victory over the Persians at Salamis.


St. Benedict of Nursia

Born circa 480 A.D., Nursia

Died circa 543 A.D., Monte Cassino
A famous monk who constructed many monasteries throughout Italy. 
Towards the later years of his life, he lived mostly in seclusion but became a highly respected man in the area. 
It is said that whenever an abbot would die at a nearby monastery, the inhabitants would beg him to become their abbot. 
Founder of the Benedictine order.


St. Helena

Born circa 248 AD Drepanon, Bithynia

Died circa 328 AD Nicomedia, Bithynia
Mother of Emperor Constantine the first, Helena was made empress dowager by her son when he came to power in 306 AD, even though his father, Constantius Chlorus had renounced her. 
After a family tragedy in which her favorite grandson Crispus Caeser was executed, Helena traveled to the Holy Land, building churches on the supposed sites of the Nativity and the Ascension. 
Later in the century Helena was credited with finding the cross and over the years the story was embellished and romanticized.


St. Patrick

Born circa 600 A.D., Britain

Died circa 660 A.D., Ireland
Early Christian missionary and a patron saint of Ireland along with Brigid of Kildare. 
Was captured at the age of sixteen by Irish invaders and kept as a slave for six years. 
When he escaped and returned home, he went to school and became a deacon and eventually a bishop. 
He returned to Ireland as a missionary and was very successful at converting the inhabitants. 
St. Patrick's Day is in honor of him.


St. Paul

Born circa 20 B.C., Tarsus

Died circa 70 B.C., Rome
The most prolific writer in the New Testament, with 13 books credited to him. 
Known as the apostle to the gentiles, Paul's mission was the conversion of people to Christianity throughout the Greek world. 
Was originally a Pharisee and a persecutor of Christians before Jesus supposedly appeared to him on the road to Damascus. 
Paul remained a devout Jew throughout his missions, even though he broke Jewish law if he felt it could aid in his work. 
Was arrested in Israel and spent many years in and out of court traveling from Jerusalem to Rome in the process. 
He was eventually martyred in Rome by beheading. 










St. Peter

Born circa 1 A.D., Capernaum

Died circa 70 A.D., Rome
Peter was the leader of the apostles and took over charge of the Christian faith after Jesus ascension. 
Like Paul, he traveled around the Greek world teaching and writing letters outlining Christian ethics. 
He is considered the first Pope by Catholics. 
Paul was martyred in Rome, but not being a Roman citizen, he was made to suffer crucifixion instead of simple beheading. It is said that he felt he was unworthy to died in the same manner that Christ did, and so he was crucified upside down.


Thucydides

Born circa 460 B.C., Alimos

Died circa 400 B.C., Greece
Famous historian who wrote The History of the Peloponnesian War. 
Was a strategos in the Athenian navy but was exiled for his failure to help the key city of Amphipolis when it was attacked by Spartans. 
Travelling throughout the Peloponnesian regions freely as an exile he was able to get a better perspective on the war which he used to write his book. 
It is considered the first ancient Greek historical account that leaves out the use of gods and goddesses as causes for political events and rather described man being the cause of all that occurred.


Tiberius

Born November 16, 42 B.C., Rome

Died March 16, 37 A.D., Rome
Successor of Augustus and the second Roman emperor. 
Ruled during the ministry and martyrdom of Jesus Christ. 
Was not a Julian by blood line but was adopted by Augustus as a child. 
He did marry Augustus' daughter which kept the bloodline but due to the mix, historians refer to the dynasty after Tiberius as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Claudius being what his middle name was before he changed it to Caesar.


Tiberius Gracchus

Born 163 B.C., Rome

Died 133 B.C., Rome
Roman politician who tried to make agrarian reforms in the republic. 
He was met with heavy resistant which eventually led to his death at the hands of a conservative faction of the Roman Senate. 
His family was very wealthy and was well connected to the government.


Tiglath-Pileser III

Born circa 765 B.C., Assyria

Died circa 727 B.C., Assyria
Created the Neo-Assyrian Empire. 
Conquered most of the world known to Assyria at the time. 
Followed the precedence of other Assyrian kings and deported many of his captured enemies. 
May have been the king to conquer the Israelites and take away the ten lost tribes.


Trajan

Born September 18, 53 B.C., Italica

Died August 9, 117 B.C., Selinus
Served in the Roman army and worked his way up through the ranks. 
Emperor Domitian's successor Nerva was not liked by the army and appointed Trajan to be his successor to gain favor. 
Trajan is known for being a stark contrast to Domitian, as he was peaceful. He freed many people enslaved by the late emperor and returned much seized property.


Tutankhamen

Born circa 1360 B.C., Armarna

Died circe 1378 B.C., Armarna
Tutankhamen was the son of the heretic Pharaoh, Akhenaton. 
Going against his father's religious movement, Tutankhamen allowed polytheist worship again. 
He is best known for having one of the best preserved tombs in Egypt. No grave robbers seemed to have gotten to it before Archaeologists discovered it. 
Ruled for a very short time and died of a head wound at the age of 18 or 19.


Virgil

Born October 15, 70 B.C., Rome

Died September 21, 19 B.C., Rome
Famous Roman poet who wrote the Aeniad which became the Roman Empire's national epic. 
The epic recounts the mythological story of Aeneas, a survivor of Troy who's descendants, Romulus and Remus, went on to found Rome. 
Virgil abandoned the study of rhetoric, medicine, and astronomy for the study of philosophy.


Xerxes

Born circa 500 B.C.

Died circa 430 B.C.
Xerxes ruled the Persian Empire at it's peek, inheriting it from his father Darius. 
He lead the war against Greece after his father, and witnessed the devastating blow to his army at the battle of Thermopoly. 
His army eventually was defeated and he returned to Persia, never to raid Greece again. 
He is also the king in the book of Esther. He chose Esther to replace his deposed Queen Vashti. 
He ordered the genocide of all Jews in his empire under the influence of adviser, Haman, but eventually changed his mind at Esther's revelation that she was Jewish.


Yahweh

Worship began circa 10,000 B.C., The Garden of Eden

Worship is still practiced today
Yahweh is the proper name of the Hebrew, Christian, and Muslim God in the Hebrew language. 
The name means I Am, which signifies the inability for any worldly terms to qualify or define him. 
The name was not spoken by Hebrews for fear of misusing it. Instead other terms such as Elohim, Sabbaot, and El Shaddai were used. 
It is uncertain exactly what time period the concept of an uncreated creator who is infinite came about, but the term Yahweh was first used during the Israelites time in the Sinai wilderness, after the exodus from Egypt.


Zeno

Born 425 A.D., Byzantine Empire

Died 291 A.D., Byzantine Empire
Was a Byzantine Emperor in the empire's early years. 
Despite constant civil disorder, Zeno was somewhat successful in foreign affairs. 
Zeno, though born of a people looked upon as barbarians, he found favor in the Emperor Leo I as a valiant warrior. Through this he moved up the ranks until eventually he succeeded Leo as emperor.


Zeus

Worship began 1000 B.C., Greece

Worship ended 300 A.D., Rome
Zeus was the youngest child of Chronos but was his successor because of his great valor in the war of the gods. 
Greek legend has it that Chronos feared one of his children becoming greater than him and so he devoured them as they were born, eating three girls and two boys. Being immortal, the children could not die but rather grew in him. Zeus' mother hid him away and he was raised by humans. He then came back and freed his siblings from Chronos' stomach and overthrew him. 
He chose to reign over the sky as his domain and is depicted as the bringer of rains and as using lightening as his weapon. Though he was god of the sky, he was also the king of all the gods.





Zoroaster a.k.a. Zerathustra

Born circa 1200-600 B.C., Persia

Died circa 1130-530 B.C., Persia
Zoroaster is the founder of Mazdaism, today known as Zoroastrianism. 
The religion believes in an uncreated creator god called Ahura Mazda. It is unclean if there is any relation between this god and the God of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths. 
It is believed by many that Zoroastrianism is a duelist religion, believing in two god, one evil and one good, but both even in strength and it is up to man to choose which to follow. But this there was only a cult of people within Zoroastrianism who believed that, and most believe that in the end, the supreme god will defeat the evil god. 
Zoroaster is one of the least known figures in history, which is stunning considering the impact he had on the middle eastern world. His religion was the official one of the Persian Empire and is still practiced today in parts of India. It is considered to be the oldest living religions in the world.