Where people of the ancient world grew up and lived

Akhenaten1353 BC–1336 BC

📍 Amarna, Minya Governorate, Egypt

I built Amarna from nothing — a new city on virgin ground in Middle Egypt, dedicated entirely to the Aten, the disc of the sun, whom I proclaimed the one true god. No other pharaoh had done…

Alexander the Great

📍 Royal Palace of Pella, Pella, Central Macedonia 59035, Greece

I grew up in the royal palace at Pella, a city my father Philip II transformed from a modest settlement into the greatest capital in Greece. The palace was vast — its mosaic floors…

Archimedes287 BC–212 BC

📍 Ortygia, 96100 Syracuse, Sicily, Italy

I was born in Syracuse, then a great Greek city in Sicily, around 287 BC. My father, Phidias, was an astronomer, and from him I learned to watch the heavens and to love mathematics…

Ashoka the Great268 BC–232 BC

📍 Pataliputra Palace, Patna, Bihar, India

I ruled from Pataliputra — the great city on the Ganges that Chandragupta, my grandfather, had made the capital of the Maurya Empire. By my reign it was one of the largest cities in the…

Attila the Hun406–453

📍 Pannonian Plain, Hungary

My palace — if you can call it that — was a great compound on the Pannonian plain, in the heart of what is now Hungary. The Roman diplomat Priscus visited me there in 448 and wrote about it…

Augustus36 BC–14

📍 House of Augustus, Palatine Hill, 00186 Rome, Italy

I was born Gaius Octavius into a well-to-do family from Velletri, and my great-uncle Julius Caesar made me his heir in his will. After his murder I fought my way to power and became Rome's…

Boudicca30–61

📍 Venta Icenorum region, Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk, England, UK

I was queen of the Iceni tribe of eastern Britain, and my home was among the marshes and oak forests of what the Romans called East Anglia — a landscape of mist and river and deep silence…

Cleopatra VII

📍 Royal Palace Quarter (Brucheion), Alexandria, Egypt

I was born Kleopatra Philopator around 69 BC in Alexandria, Egypt, into the Ptolemaic dynasty that had ruled Egypt since Alexander the Great's death three centuries before. The royal palace…

Confucius

📍 Kong Miao (Temple of Confucius), Qufu, Shandong 273100, China

I was born Kong Qiu on the 28th of September 551 BC in the state of Lu — now Qufu in Shandong province, China. My father died when I was three and my mother raised me in modest…

Constantine the Great306–316

📍 Aula Palatina (Basilica of Constantine), Konstantinplatz, 54290 Trier, Germany

My father was a Roman general who rose to become emperor in the west, and I spent much of my youth at the court of the eastern emperor Diocletian, where I learned both soldiering and…

Cyrus the Great

📍 Pasargadae, Fars Province, Iran

I built Pasargadae as the first capital of the Achaemenid Empire, on the plain where I defeated the Median king Astyages and began my conquest of the ancient world. It was airy and open, a…

Hadrian128–138

📍 Villa Adriana, Largo Marguerite Yourcenar 1, 00010 Tivoli, Italy

My family came from Italica in Spain, and when my father died when I was ten, my cousin, the future emperor Trajan, became my guardian. I spent half my reign on the move, from Britain…

Hannibal Barca

📍 Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia

I grew up in Carthage — the great city my people built on the coast of North Africa, its harbours the finest in the Mediterranean world. My father Hamilcar brought me to the army's…

Jesus of Nazareth

📍 Nazareth, Galilee, Israel

I grew up in Nazareth, in the workshop and home of my father Joseph. The smell of fresh timber and sawdust was the smell of my childhood — a craftsman's home, modest and honest, with…

Julius Caesar

📍 Domus Publica, Roman Forum, Rome, Italy

As Pontifex Maximus I lived in the Domus Publica — the official residence that stood at the edge of the Roman Forum, between the temple of Vesta and the Sacred Way. To walk out my front…

Laozi

📍 Luyi, Henan, China

I was born Li Er — known to the world as Laozi, meaning Old Master — in the state of Chu in what is now Henan province, China, traditionally dated to around 601 BC though my historicity is…

Leonidas I

📍 Sparta, Laconia, Greece

Sparta was not like other Greek cities. There were no great temples to impress visitors, no grand public buildings, no city walls — we considered our soldiers our walls. I grew up as all…

Marcus Aurelius121–138

📍 Caelian Hill, 00184 Rome, Italy

I was born in my family's house on the Caelian Hill in Rome in 121, a quiet district of aristocratic villas and gardens, with few public buildings and fine views across the city. My father…

Nefertiti1346 BC–1332 BC

📍 North Palace, Amarna (Akhetaten), Minya Governorate, Egypt

I was Great Royal Wife to the pharaoh Akhenaten, and together we led one of the boldest changes Egypt had ever known. My husband turned the kingdom's worship towards a single god, the Aten…

Nero64–68

📍 Domus Aurea, Via della Domus Aurea 1, 00184 Rome, Italy

My father died when I was very small, and my mother Agrippina schemed tirelessly until I became emperor at sixteen. In the year 64 a great fire destroyed two-thirds of Rome, and on the…

Pericles

📍 Agora of Athens, Monastiraki, Athens, Attica 105 55, Greece

I led Athens during its golden age in the fifth century BC, and the city I served was also the city that formed me. I was born around 495 BC into the Alcmaeonid family — one of Athens' most…

Plato387 BC–347 BC

📍 Plato's Academy Park, Akadimia Platonos, 104 42 Athens, Greece

I was born into an aristocratic family in Athens and grew up expecting a life in politics. Then I met Socrates, and spent my youth following him through the marketplace, watching him…

Ramesses II

📍 Pi-Ramesses, Qantir, Egypt

I built Pi-Ramesses from nothing, raising it on the eastern edge of the Delta as the greatest city Egypt had ever seen. Four great temples marked its quarters, dedicated to Amun, Ra, Ptah…

Saint Augustine354–430

📍 Thagaste (now Souk Ahras), Algeria

I was born Aurelius Augustinus around 354 AD in Thagaste in Roman North Africa — now Souk Ahras in Algeria. My mother Monica was devoutly Christian; my father Patricius was a pagan. I was…

Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha)

📍 Sacred Garden, Lumbini, Rupandehi District 32900, Nepal

I was born Siddhartha Gautama around 563 BC in Lumbini, in what is now Nepal, the son of a king of the Shakya clan. My mother died a week after my birth. I grew up sheltered from suffering…

Socrates469 BC–399 BC

📍 Ancient Agora of Athens, Adrianou 24, 105 55 Athens, Greece

I was the son of a stonemason and a midwife, from the district of Alopeke just south of Athens. My father, Sophroniscus, taught me his trade, and for many years I worked stone. My mother…

Tutankhamun1341 BC–1332 BC

📍 Amarna (Akhetaten), Minya Governorate, Egypt

I was born Tutankhaten — living image of the Aten — most likely in Akhetaten, the new capital my father, Akhenaten, built in the empty desert on the east bank of the Nile, midway between…

Zenobia of Palmyra240–274

📍 Palmyra, Tadmur, Syria

I ruled Palmyra — the great oasis city in the Syrian desert — first as regent for my son after my husband Odaenathus was assassinated, and then as queen of an empire that at its height…