Writing Prompt: The List

Writing Prompt #220

If anyone should be able to actually list one hundred people that lived a thousand years ago, I should. I may stray into mythishness after a while, but I’m confident I’ll be able to at least get the list halfway done. I’m guessing that a good half of the names I can conjure up will be Roman (and if I’m short on names, I’ll have to venture back to Troy). I promise not to cheat and use the internet to look things up. I will only use my college degree. (Ha, I’m using my college degree!)

Richard the Bastard, Duke of Normandy

Ethelred the Unready, King of England

Knut, Viking Ruler of England

Emma, Queen of England (Wife of Ethelred… and Knut)

Godwin, adviser to the King(s) of England

Constantine

Hadrian

Trajan

Valentian

Domitian

Attila the Hun

Nero

Claudius

Caligula

Tiberius

Julia (daughter of Augustus Caesar)

Augustus Caesar (Octavian)

Pontias Pilate

Mark Antony

Cleopatra

Brutus

Cassius

Pompey

Cicero

Julius Caesar

Scipio Africanus

Dido

Hannibal

Sulla

Marius

Gracchus

Cincinnatus

Livy

Plutarch

Paul of Tarsus

Jesus of Nazareth

Joseph of Nazareth

Mary

Elizabeth

Zachariah

John the Baptist

Simon Peter

Andrew

James (son of Zebedee)

John

Matthew

Bartholomew

Thaddeus

Philip

Thomas

Simon the Zealot

James (not the son of Zebedee)

Judas Iscariot

Mohammed

Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha)

Plato

Socrates

Aristotle

Homer

Virgil

Euclid

Pythagoras

Ptolemy

Alexander the Great

Phillip of Macedon

Xerxes

Nebuchadnezzar

Darius

Daniel

Shadrach

Meshach

Abednego

Esther

Jeremiah

Amos

Obadiah

Malachi

Nehemiah

Isaiah

Solomon

Bathsheba

David

Jonathan

Jesse

Samuel

Saul

Ruth

Boaz

Deborah

Samson

Delilah

Rahab

Joshua

Caleb

Moses

Aaron

Miriam

Ramesses II

Ramesses I

Tutankhamen

Wow, I really thought I’d have to break out the super-ancient stuff that you read about in Greek plays (I really like writing the word “Agamemnon” even if he wasn’t the nicest dude). I didn’t even get to Genesis, let alone The Iliad or The Odyssey, which I guess is good, because a good deal of the characters in Homer’s poems were gods, which is not so much under the heading of “historical figures” and more under the heading of “fictional characters.”

My list (which I tried to arrange from youngest to oldest, but failed near the end) mostly consists of Kings and Queens, and those involved in the drama of Kings and Queens. I’ve got religious leaders, philosophers, and historians; warriors, judges, and prophets. I suppose that’s what it takes to be remembered. I guess if I want to make the list, I’d better get to work.