Alcibiades

As always with threads like this,OP is self-explanatory.For the record,criterion I choose for deciding who to include and who not to(despite them living during that century),is that they had to live AT LEAST half their life in period between 600 BC and 501 BC.So,fire away and discuss.
Alcibiades

Salah

I'm inclined to put in a word for Kurush/Cyrus the Great of Persia.

Thessalonian

Sappho because she was Lesbian and from Lesbos island.
She gave the world, the word Lesbian. My two cents.... :P

okamido

I am not sure that it can be narrowed down:
Buddha
Mahivara
Solon
Pythagoras
Confucius
Sun Tzu
Laozi

Quite a few strong players.

Alcibiades

Indeed.This century is one of the most loaded with a true GIANTS of history.That's why I choose it.
Alcibiades

Toltec

Buddha surely, a billion Buddhists on earth, a pretty good legacy.

Everyone else is virtually forgotten.

Alcibiades

Even Confucius?Oh boy,I hope no Chinese reads this,for your safety.
Alcibiades

Linschoten

I voted for Buddha because he has the greatest living legacy; maybe it was unfair to have the founder of a great religion among the candidates! Before the revolution in China, Confucius would have been quite a rival; and his influence on Chinese thought has been incalculable in any case. But this is a question that one could answer in so many different ways, according to the nature of the influence that one is envisaging.

okamido

What about the Pythagorean Theorem? Pretty darn influential I would think.

Alcibiades

Or Solon's and Cleisthenes's social,political and judicial reforms.
Alcibiades