I call this the Age of the Prophets. It was the time when many of the major religious and ethical teachers appeared. They appeared all over the world, not just in one area. It was as if the time was suddenly right for these ideas to appear and spread. The second half from ©650 onwards also marks the first great age of Greece, from the law-making of Solon to the death of Socrates. For consistency I have relied mainly on the dates as given in the Chambers Biographical Dictionary (1993) edited by Magnus Magnusson.
Hesiod & & & & & (fl.c.−750) Greek poet, Works and Days, Theogony & &.
Homer & (fl.c.−750) Greek poet, Iliad & & & H H, Odyssey & & & H H.
Isaiah (fl.c.−750) Book of Isaiah Jewish prophet. Assyrian invasion −701. [CBD]
Sennacherib (king of Assyria −705 - −681), Annals of Sennacherib.
Ashurbanipal & & aka Sardanapalos (−685 - −627), king of Assyria −669, gathered cuneiform library at Nineveh, a near-complete Epic of Gilgamesh survives.
Nebuchadnezzar (d.−562) king of Babylon 605, features in the Book of Daniel.
Jeremiah (fl.c.−650) Jewish prophet. In Jerusalem at time of seige by Nebuchadnezzar. [CBD] Jerusalem destroyed −609.
Zarathustra, aka Zoroaster & & & (c.−630 - c.−553, but possibly much earlier c.−900) founder of Zoroastrianism or Parsiism, dualism between good and evil, Ormuzd and Ahriman, appears in the Avesta &.
Ezekiel, Jewish prophet captive in Mesopotamia under Nebuchadnezzar −597.
Lycurgus lawgiver of Sparta.
Draco (fl.c.−621) known for his severe 'Draconian' laws.
Solon & & & (c.−640 - −559) Athenian ruler and reformer, Laws.
Peisistratus (c.−600 - −527) Athenian ruler.
Croesus & & & (−595 - −546) last king (c.−560) of Lydia, of proverbial wealth, defeated by Cyrus.
Cyrus 'the Great' (c.−600 - −529) founder of the Persian empire.
Thales & & (c.−625 - c.−545), predicted an eclipse of the sun (−586).
Anaximander (c.−610 - c.−545) &.
Anaximenes (d.−528) &.
These philosophers, all of Miletus, taught more widely than just ethics, attempting speculations, often wildly imaginative, on the nature of the cosmos.
Pythagoras (fl.c.−530), taught that "all is number", he and his followers the Pythagoreans developed propositional geometry, investigated proportions in music of lyre strings.
Siddhartha Gautama &, aka Buddha ("enlightened one") (c.−560 - −480), Buddhist text chronology, Buddhsi bark texts, Buddhist timeline.
Lao-Tzu, aka Laozi & (fl.−550) Tao-te-Ching & (The Way of Power).
Confucius & & aka K'ung Ch'iu, Kong Qiu, or K'ung Fu-tzu (−551 - −479), Analects.
Heracleitus & (c.−540 - c.−475), philosopher, known for the saying "All is Flux" fragments.
Sun Tzu (c.−544 - −496), The Art of War.
Darius I (−548 - −486) king (−522) of Persia, made Zoroastrianism the state religion, defeated at Marathon −490.
Xerxes I (ruled −486 - −465) king of Persia, halted at Thermopylae by army led by Leonidas king of Sparta, but destroyed Athens −480, defeated in naval battles at Salamis and on land at Plataea −479.
Anaxagoras (c.−500 - −428) philosopher, teacher of Pericles and Euripides.
Aeschylus & & & & (c.−525 - c.−456) dramatist, 7 extant plays & out of 60, Persians −472, Seven against Thebes, Prometheus Bound, Suppliants, Oresteia trilogy −458.
Pindar & & (c.−522 - c.−440) poet, triumphal odes Epinikia survive, but others only in fragments.
Panini (c.−520 - c.−460), grammarian of Classical Sanskrit, Ashtadhyayi.
−516. Jews return to Jerusalem after exile in Babylon.
Parmenides of Elea & (c.−515 - c.−455), sceptic.
Sophocles (c.−496 - −405) dramatist, 7 plays extant out of over 100, Ichneutae, Ajax, Antigone c.−441, Electra, Oedipus Tyrannus, Trachiniae, Philoctetes −409, Oedipus Coloneus.
Empedocles (c.−494 - c.−434).
Pericles & & & & & (c.−490 - −429) Athenian naval commander and ruler, under whom architecture, sculpture and drama flourished.
Phidias & & & (c.−490 - c.−430) sculptor and superintendent of public works under Pericles, Parthenon, Athena, Zeus.
Roman fresco −450 shows musicians performing.
Myron (fl.c.−480 - −444) sculptor in bronze, Discobolus, Maryas.
Zeno of Elea (c.−490 - c.−430) originator of the paradoxes of infinity.
Protagoras & & & (c.−490 - c.−420) sophist philosopher, known for the saying "Man is the measure of all things".
Herodotus (c.−485 - −425) historian and storyteller.
Leucippus (c.−480 - c.−420) the first 'atomist'.
Euripides (c.−480 - −406), dramatist, 18 plays survive complete out of 80, Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus, Hecuba, Andromache, Supplices, Heraclidae, Troades, Helena, Phoenissae, Orestes, Bacchae, Iphigenia in Aulis, Iphigenia in Tauris, Ion, Hercules Furens, Electra, Cyclops, Rhesus(?).
Ezra, lived in Babylon during the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus or Artaxerxes II. Led a band of Jews to Jerusalem (−458 or −397) and rebuilt their temple. Believed to have arranged the books of the Pentateuch as they are now. [CBD]
Socrates & & & (−469 - −399) - left no writings, but his thoughts are expressed in dialogues written by his pupil Plato.
Mo Tzu (−470 - −391), chinese philosopher.
Democritus (c.−460 - c.−370) - 'atomist' philosopher.
Thucydides (c.−460 - c.−400), historian, History of the Peloponnesian War.
Hippocrates (c.−460 - −377) physician.
Aristophanes (c.−448 - c.−388), dramatist, 11 plays of 54 are extant, Acharnians, Knights, Clouds, Wasps, Peace, Birds, Lysistrata, Thesmophoriazusae, Frogs, Ecclesiazusae, Plutus, caricatured Socrates in The Clouds as a sophist.
Xenophon & & (c.−435 - −354), soldier and historian, presents Socrates as a practical common-sense thinker, Anabasis and other works &.
Plato & & & & (−427 - −347) describes the trial of Socrates and features him as a speaker in his Dialogues.
Archytas (c.−428 - c.−350) mathematician interested in the problem of duplication of the cube.
Thaetetus (c.−417 - c.−369), mathematician, discoverer of the icosahedron (completing the five 'Platonic' solids).
Eudoxus (−408 - −355), believed to have originated the ideas in Euclid Book V for dealing with incommensurable magnitudes (like the side and diagonal of a square), used the method of exhaustion for areas.