# Who were some early "famous" people (not kings or queens, etc)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 8, 2025, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054 "2025-02-08T18:39:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/1 "2025-02-08T18:39:34Z")
How widely would early troubadours, for instance, have been popular? I’m sure locally known singers or lute players existed but who was known across England, or France or whatever? Did people travel to hear Socrates speak or did he only speak locally and his wisdom spread by word of mouth? ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/2 "2025-02-08T18:43:14Z")
My personal favorite, although not that early: [Roger the Farter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_the_Farter) ---
**Author:** ![Zoobi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/13edae/32.png) [@Zoobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoobi)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/3 "2025-02-08T18:44:54Z")
Adam wasn’t a king as far as I know ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/4 "2025-02-08T18:45:18Z")
Genghis Khan was pretty famous. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/5 "2025-02-08T18:49:27Z")
> Have you ever heard of Plato? Aristotle? Socrates? **MORONS!** (more scientific morons): Archimedes, Pythagoras, Hippocrates Literature: Homer, Herodotus, Sappho > [@mixdenny](#): > > wisdom spread by word of mouth They all wrote stuff yet there were no printing presses, public libraries or schools with access to the latest teachings of scholars. And homework tonight: Read the first half of _The Iliad_ ETA: Some of them learned directly - dunno that Plato or Aristotle ever met Socrates but they definitely knew a lot of his teachings. ETA2: Plato was Socrates student and both probably read all of the Iliad. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/6 "2025-02-08T18:50:01Z")
> [@Zoobi](#): > > Adam wasn’t a king as far as I know I’m certain that OP was looking for real people. > [@bob\_2](#): > > Genghis Khan was pretty famous. Khan literally means ruler/king. See thread title. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/7 "2025-02-08T18:54:23Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > Did people travel to hear Socrates speak or did he only speak locally and his wisdom spread by word of mouth? Yeah they did, I mean only a pretty small elite did (even if relatively equitable historically speaking ancient Greece still consisted of a massive poor illiterate agrarian masses with a tiny rich elite.) But going to study under or debate with a famous philosopher was definitely a thing. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/8 "2025-02-08T19:02:12Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > singers or lute players I think singers and musicians were considered pretty low class and not considered “worthy” celebrities (kinda comparable to porn stars nowadays, they may be famous but only in a seedy kinda way). This is the subtext to roman historians making a big deal of Nero being a musician. Athletes were a little more respectable and there many examples of famous athletes in the greco roman world who were not royalty… [https://greekreporter.com/2024/05/05/diocles-15-billion-athlete-ancient-world](https://greekreporter.com/2024/05/05/diocles-15-billion-athlete-ancient-world) ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/9 "2025-02-08T19:09:33Z")
Will Kempe isn’t particularly early, but otherwise he fits the OP well. The specialist comic in Shakespeare’s plays for the Chamberlain’s Men, and somewhat of a star in his own right. The Nine Days Wonder indicates that his fame spread outside London. > **[William Kempe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kempe)** > > William Kempe (c. 1560 – c. 1603), commonly referred to as Will Kemp, was an English actor and dancer who specialised in comic roles. He was best known as one of the original stage actors in early dramas by William Shakespeare, and roles associated with his name may have included the comic creation Falstaff. His contemporaries considered him to be a successor to the great clown of the previous generation, Richard Tarlton. > Kempe's success and influence was such that in December 1598 he was one... > In February and March 1600, he undertook what he would later call his “Nine Days Wonder”, in which he morris danced from London to Norwich, a distance of about 110 miles or 177 km, a journey which took him nine days (spread over several weeks), often amid cheering crowds. j ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/10 "2025-02-08T19:10:07Z")
In Ancient Rome successful chariot racers could become famous. One such was Scorpus: [Scorpus - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpus) ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/11 "2025-02-08T19:17:50Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Will Kempe isn’t particularly early, but otherwise he fits the OP well. The specialist comic in Shakespeare’s plays for the Chamberlain’s Men, and somewhat of a star in his own right. The Nine Days Wonder indicates that his fame spread outside London. In that vein and a few decades earlier was Will Sommers, the jester to Henry VIII. I believe the first known named jester. > **[Will Sommers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Sommers)** > > William Sommers (or Somers or Somer; died 15 June 1560) was the best-known court jester (believed to be a ‘natural fool’) of Henry VIII of England. > He was said to have been born in Shropshire, and came to the attention of Richard Fermor, a merchant of the Staple at Calais, who brought him to Greenwich in 1525 to present to the King. This comes from an 18th-century account; little is known for certain of his early life. He is first mentioned in the royal accounts on 28 June 1535. > Sommers rema... ---
**Author:** ![Zoobi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/13edae/32.png) [@Zoobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoobi)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/12 "2025-02-08T19:20:35Z")
Thespis ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/13 "2025-02-08T19:30:45Z")
Ancient Rome definitely had celebrity actors, including [Roscius](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintus_Roscius_Gallus), who was still a familiar enough name by the nineteenth century for [Ira Aldridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Aldridge) to be billed as the “African Roscius.” I imagine there must have been some in Greece, as well. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/14 "2025-02-08T19:39:27Z")
Aesop. Aesop’s Fables were widely known in Ancient times and were centuries old by the time Socrates/Plato/Aristotle were alive. Though at this point we may have to debate who was real and who was mythical. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/15 "2025-02-08T19:42:53Z")
Jesus’ disciples/apostles weren’t kings or queens. Stephen, the first known Christian martyr. Polycarp, who was believed to be the last living person to have known one of the Twelve. The OT prophets with Biblical books named after them. And Elijah and Nathan, who didn’t have books named after them, but are memorialized in the books of Kings and Samuel, respectively. ETA: > [@dorvann](#): > > Though at this point we may have to debate who was real and who was mythical. Yeah, I was thinking about that too. IIRC, King David is the earliest Biblical character that the historians think there’s evidence of existence, so I left Adam, Abraham, Moses, etc. out of this post. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/16 "2025-02-08T20:32:31Z")
That famous Egyptian architect, Imhotep, whose name is still mentioned in blockbuster movies today. But waaaaaaaay back in the day he became so famous they made him a god in his hometown three thousand years after he died. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/17 "2025-02-08T21:00:26Z")
He was not a king, but a member of nobility, so perhaps he does not count, but [**El Cid**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Cid) was pretty famous and even got his own epic poem, _[**El Cantar de mio Cid**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantar_de_mio_Cid)_. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/18 "2025-02-08T21:05:05Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > That famous Egyptian architect, Imhotep, whose name is still mentioned in blockbuster movies today. But waaaaaaaay back in the day he became so famous they made him a god in his hometown three thousand years after he died. I’m fairly sure Imhotep is the earliest named non-regal person who is mentioned in contemporary documents, but there may be others. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/19 "2025-02-08T21:12:32Z")
Poets and playwrights of ancient Greece and Rome. Euripedes. Ovid. Sappho. There are a lot of Greeks I can think of. Pythagoras. Hippocrates. Long list. And a much longer list of Roman statesmen, poets, generals … I guess it would be good to define ‘early’. Anything BCE? ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054/20 "2025-02-08T21:48:17Z")
[Porphyrius the Charioteer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porphyrius_the_Charioteer) He was awarded multiple monuments and was honored by both the Greens and the Blues while still young. It was unusual for either faction to do so during a charioteer’s lifetime, except in advanced age. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-some-early-famous-people-not-kings-or-queens-etc/1014054.md?page=2)