What are some good examples of short periods of time in which, by chance, people who would later become extremely important, influential or powerful lived in the same city? For example, XVI century Florence with Da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo.

by FiodorBax

DaphneDK

In 4th century BC Athens all of these could more or less have bumped into each other: Pericles Alcibiades Aristophanes Aeschylus Sophocles Euripides Socrates Plato Xenophon Diogenes the Cynic Anaxagoras Hippocrates Democritus Empedocles Herodotus Thucydides

Sebatinsky

I'm not at all certain that these things happened by chance. When it comes to your example, for instance, the political situation in Florence and the practices of the powerful Medici family had a big impact on the flourishing of 'renaissance' art.