# Think of a figure who lived BCE **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 20, 2016, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404 "2016-07-20T07:25:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/1 "2016-07-20T07:25:43Z")
Last one of these, promise - but taking it back a while. Who is the first figure to come to mind who lived before 1 BCE? Got a feeling that this will be a landslide and the figure that sprang to mind for me will be the same as it is for you, so I want to see how justified this inkling is. The figure I thought of straight away was Julius Caesar, the Roman geezer. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/2 "2016-07-20T07:30:09Z")
I thought of Cleopatra, actually, but since they were bedmates, I count it as close enough. ---
**Author:** ![williambaskerville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@williambaskerville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williambaskerville)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/3 "2016-07-20T07:30:22Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Last one of these, promise - but taking it back a while. Who is the first figure to come to mind who lived before 1 BCE? Got a feeling that this will be a landslide and the figure that sprang to mind for me will be the same as it is for you, so I want to see how justified this inkling is. > > The figure I thought of straight away was Julius Caesar, the Roman geezer. Nope, on the current sample of 3 not a landslide. Mine was Aristotle. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/4 "2016-07-20T07:40:16Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Last one of these, promise - but taking it back a while. Who is the first figure to come to mind who lived before 1 BCE? Got a feeling that this will be a landslide and the figure that sprang to mind for me will be the same as it is for you, so I want to see how justified this inkling is. > > The figure I thought of straight away was Julius Caesar, the Roman geezer. Wow, yeah, I did as well. Because he famously died only 44 years before the Common Era began. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/5 "2016-07-20T07:42:32Z")
Hammurabi. Julius Caesar was my second thought. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/6 "2016-07-20T07:52:48Z")
Judah Maccabee ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/7 "2016-07-20T08:00:12Z")
Once my brain woke up enough to understand BCE, it was a neck-to-neck between Alexander and Plato. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/8 "2016-07-20T08:00:15Z")
Aristotle ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/9 "2016-07-20T08:02:21Z")
Tutankhamun ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/10 "2016-07-20T08:06:39Z")
Julius Caesar ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/11 "2016-07-20T08:32:00Z")
Alexander the Great ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/12 "2016-07-20T08:39:27Z")
My first one was Socrates. ---
**Author:** ![KellyCriterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@KellyCriterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyCriterion)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/13 "2016-07-20T09:07:50Z")
Homer. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/14 "2016-07-20T09:53:13Z")
IVLIVS CAESAR (as his name would have been chiseled in marble). ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/15 "2016-07-20T10:43:39Z")
Aristotle. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/16 "2016-07-20T10:56:50Z")
Huh. Another Aristotle. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/17 "2016-07-20T11:08:55Z")
John McCain. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/18 "2016-07-20T11:21:49Z")
Plato for me. You know, that Belgian dude. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/19 "2016-07-20T11:41:56Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > John McCain. The question was BCE, not BFE… ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404/20 "2016-07-20T11:54:23Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Tutankhamun Two for Tut. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-of-a-figure-who-lived-bce/760404.md?page=2)