page_title: 5th century BC
section_title: Significant people
hierarchical_section_title: 5th century BC / Significant people
caption_attribution_description: English: Sophocles. Cast of a bust in the Pushkin Museum.
context_page_description: The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 BC.
  This century saw the establishment of Pataliputra as a capital of the Magadha Empire. This city would later become the ruling capital of different Indian kingdoms for about a thousand years. This period saw the rise of two great philosophical schools of the east, Jainism and Buddhism.
  This period saw Mahavira and Buddha spreading their respective teachings in the northern plains of India. This essentially changed the socio-cultural and political dynamics of the region of South Asia. Buddhism would later go on to become one of the major world religions.
  This period also saw the work of Yaska, who created Nirukta, that would lay the foundation stone for Sanskrit grammar and is one of the oldest works on grammar known to mankind.
  This century is also traditionally recognized as the classical period of the Greeks, which would continue all the way through the 4th century until the time of Alexander the Great. The life of Socrates represented a major milestone in Greek philosophy though his teachings only survive through the work of his students, most notably Plato and Xenophon.
context_section_description: Agesilaus II, King of Sparta
  Alcibiades, Athenian general and politician
  Alexander I, King of Macedonia
  Aristides, Athenian statesman
  Artabanus of Persia, Regent King for Artaxerxes I
  Artaxerxes II, King of Persia
  Aspasia of Miletus, Mistress of Pericles of Athens
  Brasidas, Spartan general
  Marcus Furius Camillus, Roman statesman
  Cimon, Athenian statesman
  Cleon, Athenian statesman
  Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, Roman statesman
  Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, Roman general
  Darius II, King of Persia
  Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse
  Ephialtes, betrayer of Greece at the Battle of Thermopylae
  Fan Li, Chinese advisor
  King Fuchai of Wu, King of the state of Wu
  King Goujian of Yue, King of Yue
  King Kao of Zhou, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China
  Leonidas I, King of Sparta
  Lu Ban, Chinese engineer and inventor
  Lysander, Spartan general and admiral
  Mardonius, Persian general
  Marquess Wen of Wei, Chinese ruler of the state of Wei
  Miltiades, Athenian general
  Pausanias, Spartan general
  Pericles, Athenian politician
  Pleistarchus, King of Sparta
  King Porus, King of Paurava, fought against Alexander at the Battle of Hydaspes
  Themistocles, Athenian statesman and general
  King Weilie of Zhou, King of the Zhou Dynasty
  Wu Zixu, Chinese general and politician
  Verginia, Legendary victim of the decemviri
  Xerxes I, King of Persia
  Xi Shi, Chinese beauty
  King Zhending of Zhou, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China
caption: Sophocles
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