400 BC world map

Border history

The interactive map lets you inspect named territories in 400 BC and compare them to earlier or later snapshots on the timeline.

Biographical context

This page highlights figures close to 400 BC so readers can move from geography to biography without leaving the Historiqly ecosystem.

Era-based reading

The related chronicles below surface long-form reading connected to the classical period.

Greece

Plato

c. 428 BC – c. 348 BC

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”

Philosopher, founder of the Academy, author of the Republic and the Dialogues

Greece

Socrates

c. 470 BC – 399 BC

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Philosopher, founder of Western ethics, inventor of the Socratic method

Greece

Aristotle

384 BC – 322 BC

“It is owing to wonder that men both now and at the first began to philosophise.”

Philosopher, scientist, tutor of Alexander the Great, founder of the Lyceum

Athens

Pericles

c. 495 BC – 429 BC

“For famous men have the whole earth as their memorial.”

Athenian statesman, orator, patron of the arts, architect of the Golden Age of Athens

Macedon

Alexander the Great

356 BC – 323 BC

“If I were not Alexander, I should wish to be Diogenes.”

Undefeated military commander, conqueror of the Persian Empire, founder of over twenty cities

Judea

Yose ben Yoezer

c. 200 BC – c. 161 BC

“Let your house be a meeting place for the Sages; sit in the dust of their feet, and drink their words thirstily.”

First Nasi of the Sanhedrin, founder of the Zugot era, martyr of the Maccabean persecution, called the most pious of the priesthood

Greece · Philosopher

Plato

The Philosopher Who Invented the West

The philosopher who founded the Academy, wrote the Republic, and shaped every branch of Western thought for two and a half thousand years — from the streets of wartime Athens to the courts of Sicilian tyrants.

Greece · Philosopher

Socrates

The Man Who Knew Nothing

The stonemason’s son who never wrote a word, yet became the most influential philosopher in Western history — condemned to death by the democracy he loved for the crime of asking questions.

Greece · Philosopher

Aristotle

The Man Who Catalogued the World

The philosopher who catalogued the world — from logic to biology, politics to poetry. Plato's greatest student, Alexander's tutor, and the mind that shaped Western thought for two thousand years.

Athens · Leader

Pericles

The First Citizen of Athens

The statesman who built the Parthenon, perfected Athenian democracy, and delivered the most famous speech in Western history — then watched plague destroy everything he had created.