All figures
125 profiles in 8 eras, from Homer (born 750 BCE) to Rosa Parks (died 2005).
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Ancient Greece
The Cradle of the West · ~800-146 BCE · 14 figures
- Homer (750-700 BCE), The Blind Bard
- Sappho (630-570 BCE), The Tenth Muse
- Pythagoras (570-495 BCE), The Father of Numbers
- Leonidas I (540-480 BCE), The Lion of Thermopylae
- Pericles (495-429 BCE), The First Citizen of Athens
- Herodotus (484-425 BCE), The Father of History
- Socrates (470-399 BCE), The Gadfly of Athens
- Hippocrates (460-370 BCE), The Father of Medicine
- Thucydides (460-400 BCE), The Father of Political Realism
- Plato (428-348 BCE), The Founder of the Academy
- Aristotle (384-322 BCE), The Master of Those Who Know
- Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE), The Conqueror of the Known World
- Euclid (325-265 BCE), The Father of Geometry
- Archimedes (287-212 BCE), The Greatest Mathematician of Antiquity
The Roman World
Republic & Empire · ~753 BCE-476 CE · 16 figures
- Hannibal Barca (247-183 BCE), The Nightmare of Rome
- Scipio Africanus (236-183 BCE), The Conqueror of Hannibal
- Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE), The Voice of the Republic
- Spartacus (103-71 BCE), The Gladiator Who Shook Rome
- Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE), The Man Who Ended the Republic
- Virgil (70-19 BCE), The Poet of Empire
- Cleopatra VII (69-30 BCE), The Last Pharaoh
- Augustus (63 BCE-14 CE), The Architect of Empire
- Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE), The Master of Metamorphosis
- Seneca the Younger (4 BCE-65 CE), The Stoic at the Heart of Power
- Nero (37-68), The Emperor Who Fiddled
- Trajan (53-117), The Emperor of Greatest Extent
- Hadrian (76-138), The Builder of Walls and Wonders
- Marcus Aurelius (121-180), The Philosopher on the Throne
- Constantine the Great (272-337), The Emperor Who Changed the Faith of an Empire
- Augustine of Hippo (354-430), The Mind That Shaped Western Christianity
Medieval Europe
Faith, Feudalism & Kingdoms · ~500-1400 CE · 15 figures
- Justinian I (482-565), The Last Roman Emperor
- Charlemagne (742-814), The Father of Europe
- Alfred the Great (849-899), The Scholar-King of England
- Leif Erikson (970-1020), The Viking Who Found America
- William the Conqueror (1028-1087), The Norman Who Remade England
- Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), The Sibyl of the Rhine
- Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204), Queen of France, Queen of England
- Frederick Barbarossa (1122-1190), The Red-Bearded Emperor
- Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199), The Crusader King
- Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), The Poor Man of God
- Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), The Angelic Doctor
- Marco Polo (1254-1324), The Great Traveler
- Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), The Supreme Poet
- Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), The Father of English Literature
- Joan of Arc (1412-1431), The Maid of Orléans
The Renaissance
Rebirth of Art & Ideas · ~1350-1600 · 16 figures
- Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1468), Father of the Printing Revolution
- Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), Painter of the Florentine Golden Age
- Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492), The Magnificent
- Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), Navigator of the New World
- Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), The Universal Genius
- Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), Prince of the Humanists
- Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), Father of Modern Political Science
- Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), Father of Modern Astronomy
- Michelangelo (1475-1564), The Divine Artist
- Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521), Pioneer of the First Circumnavigation
- Martin Luther (1483-1546), Father of the Protestant Reformation
- Raphael (1483-1520), Master of Harmony and Grace
- Henry VIII (1491-1547), Founder of the Church of England
- Elizabeth I (1533-1603), The Virgin Queen
- Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), Father of the Modern Novel
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Bard of Avon
Scientific Revolution & Enlightenment
Reason, Science & Liberty · ~1600-1800 · 16 figures
- Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Father of the Scientific Method
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Father of Modern Science
- Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Father of Modern Philosophy
- Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Master of Light and Shadow
- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Mathematician, Physicist, and Philosopher of the Heart
- John Locke (1632-1704), Father of Liberalism
- Isaac Newton (1643-1727), Architect of the Laws of Nature
- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Supreme Master of Western Music
- Voltaire (1694-1778), Champion of Reason and Civil Liberties
- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Founding Father, Inventor, and Sage of the Enlightenment
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Prophet of the Social Contract and Natural Freedom
- Adam Smith (1723-1790), Father of Modern Economics
- Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Architect of Critical Philosophy
- Catherine the Great (1729-1796), Empress Who Made Russia a European Power
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Author of the Declaration of Independence
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), The Divine Prodigy
Age of Revolution
Liberty, Equality & Empire · ~1750-1850 · 14 figures
- George Washington (1732-1799), First President of the United States
- Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803), Leader of the Haitian Revolution
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), Germany's Greatest Writer
- Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), Architect of American Finance
- Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834), The Hero of Two Worlds
- Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), Britain's Greatest Naval Commander
- Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), Pioneer of Women's Rights
- Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), The Father of Ecology
- Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), The Iron Duke
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), Emperor of the French
- Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), The Titan of Music
- Jane Austen (1775-1817), Master of the English Novel
- Simón Bolívar (1783-1830), The Liberator of South America
- Lord Byron (1788-1824), The Romantic Rebel
Industrial & Victorian Age
Steam, Steel & Social Change · ~1800-1910 · 18 figures
- Victor Hugo (1802-1885), The Voice of the People
- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), The Great Emancipator
- Charles Darwin (1809-1882), The Father of Evolution
- Charles Dickens (1812-1870), The Novelist of the People
- Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), The Iron Chancellor
- Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), The Lion of Abolition
- Karl Marx (1818-1883), The Architect of Revolution
- Queen Victoria (1819-1901), The Grandmother of Europe
- Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), The Lady with the Lamp
- Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), The Champion of Women's Suffrage
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), The Psychologist of the Soul
- Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), Moses of Her People
- Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), The Father of Microbiology
- Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), The Mirror of the Russian Soul
- Mark Twain (1835-1910), The Father of American Literature
- Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), The Inventor of the Telephone
- Thomas Edison (1847-1931), The Wizard of Menlo Park
- Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), The Master of Lightning
The Modern Era
World Wars, Science & Civil Rights · ~1880-1965 · 16 figures
- Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), The Father of Psychoanalysis
- Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), The Rough Rider President
- Marie Curie (1867-1934), Pioneer of Radioactivity
- Winston Churchill (1874-1965), The British Bulldog
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955), The Architect of Relativity
- Alexander Fleming (1881-1955), The Discoverer of Penicillin
- Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), The Revolutionary of Modern Art
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), The New Deal President
- Coco Chanel (1883-1971), The Architect of Modern Fashion
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), The Supreme Commander
- Amelia Earhart (1897-1937), The First Lady of the Sky
- Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), The Master of Modern Prose
- Alan Turing (1912-1954), The Father of Computer Science
- Rosa Parks (1913-2005), The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement
- Anne Frank (1929-1945), The Voice of the Holocaust
- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), The Dream of Justice