flourished in the 69th Olympiad. 504-500 b.c. He is believed to have been the first to detect the identity of Hesperus, the evening-star, and Phosphorus, the morning-star; so Favorinus in the fifth book of his Memorabilia ; but others attribute this to Pythagoras, whereas Callimachus holds that the poem in question was not the work of Pythagoras. Parmenides is said to have served his native city as a legislator: so we learn from Speusippus in his book On Philosophers.
Also to have been the first to use the argument known as "Achilles [and the tortoise]": so Favorinus tells us in his Miscellaneous History.
There was also another Parmenides, a rhetorician who wrote a treatise on his art.
Chapter 4. MELISSUS Melissus, the son of Ithaegenes, was a native of Samos. He was a pupil of Parmenides. Moreover he came into relations with Heraclitus, on which occasion the latter was introduced by him to the Ephesians, who did not know him, Cf.
supra, § 15. as Democritus was to the citizens of Abdera by Hippocrates. He took part also in politics and won the approval of his countrymen, and for this reason he was elected admiral and won more admiration than ever through his own merit.
In his view the universe was unlimited, unchangeable and immovable, and was one, uniform and full of matter. There was no real, but only apparent, motion. Moreover he said that we ought not to make any statements about the gods, for it was impossible to have knowledge of them.
According to Apollodorus, he flourished in Chapter 5. ZENO OF ELEA Zeno was a citizen of Elea. Apollodorus in his Chronology says that he was the son of Teleutagoras by birth, but of Parmenides by adoption, while Parmenides was the son of Pyres. Of Zeno and Melissus Timon Fr. 45 D. speaks thus Cf. Il. xxiii 827; v. 783.: Great Zeno's strength which, never known to fail, On each side urged, on each side could prevail.
In marshalling arguments Melissus too, More skilled than many a one, and matched by few.
Zeno, then, was all through a pupil of Parmenides and his bosom friend. He was tall in stature, as Plato says in his Parmenides. 127 b. The same philosopher [mentions him] in his Sophist, p. 216 a. [and Phaedrus,] 261 d. and calls him the Eleatic Palamedes. Aristotle says that Zeno was the inventor of dialectic, as Empedocles was of rhetoric.
He was a truly noble character both as philosopher and as politician; at all events, his extant books are brimful of intellect. Again, he plotted to overthrow Nearchus the tyrant (or, according to others, Diomedon) but was arrested: so Heraclides in his epitome of Satyrus. On that occasion he was crossexamined as to his accomplices and about the arms which he was conveying to Lipara; he denounced all the tyrant's own friends, wishing to make him destitute of supporters. Then, saying that he had something to tell him about certain people in his private ear, he laid hold of it with his teeth and did not let go until stabbed to death, meeting the same fate as Aristogiton the tyrannicide.
Demetrius in his work on Men of the Same Name says that he bit off, not the ear, but the nose. According to Antisthenes in his Successions of Philosophers, after informing against the tyrant's friends, he was asked by the tyrant whether there was anyone else in the plot; whereupon he replied, "Yes, you, the curse of the city!"; and to the bystanders he said, "I marvel at your cowardice, that, for fear of any of those things which I am now enduring, you should be the tyrant's slaves." And at last he bit off his tongue and spat it at him; and his fellow-citizens were so worked upon that they forthwith stoned the tyrant to death. The heroic death of Zeno and his defiance of the tyrant furnished a theme for various writers; cf. Plutarch, Adv.
; De Stoicorum repugn. p. 1051 c, where he is ranked with Socrates, Pythagoras and Antiphon. Cf. also Clem. Alex. Strom.
iv. 57, citing Eratosthenes. In this version of the story most authors nearly agree, but Hermippus says he was cast into a mortar and beaten to death.
Of him also I have written as follows Anth. Pal. vii. 129.
: You wished, Zeno, and noble was your wish, to slay the tyrant and set Elea free from bondage. But you were crushed; for, as all know, the tyrant caught you and beat you in a mortar. But what is this that I say? It was your body that he beat, and not you.
In all other respects Zeno was a gallant man; and in particular he despised the great no less than Heraclitus. For example, his native place, the Phocaean colony, once known as Hyele and afterwards as Elea, a city of moderate size, skilled in nothing but to rear brave men, he preferred before all the splendour of Athens, hardly paying the Athenians a visit, but living all his life at home.
He was the first to propound the argument of the "Achilles," which Favorinus attributes to Parmenides, and many other arguments. His views are as follows.
There are worlds, but there is no empty space. The substance of all things came from hot and cold, and dry and moist, which change into one another. The generation of man proceeds from earth, and the soul is formed by a union of all the foregoing, so blended that no one element predominates.
We are told that once when he was reviled he lost his temper, and, in reply to some one who blamed him for this, he said, "If when I am abused I pretend that I am not, then neither shall I be aware of it if I am praised." A similar answer is ascribed to Empedocles in Gnomologion Parisinum, n. 153.
The fact that there were eight men of the name of Zeno we have already mentioned under Zeno of Citium. vii. 35. Our philosopher flourished in the 79th Olympiad. 464-460 b.c.
Chapter 6. LEUCIPPUS With the account of Leucippus and Democritus Diels ( op. cit. p. 142) compares Hippolytus, Ref. Haeres. i. 12. 1-2 and i. 13. 1; Aëtius i. 3.
from Theophrastus, Phys. Opin. Fr.
8.
Leucippus was born at Elea, but some say at Abdera and others at Miletus. He was a pupil of Zeno. His views were these. The sum of things is unlimited, and they all change into one another. The All includes the empty as well as the full. The worlds are formed when atoms fall into the void and are entangled with one another; and from their motion as they increase in bulk arises the substance of the stars. The sun revolves in a larger circle round the moon. The earth rides steadily, being whirled about the centre; its shape is like that of a drum.
Leucippus was the first to set up atoms as first principles. Such is a general summary of his views; on particular points they are as follows.
He declares the All to be unlimited, as already stated; but of the All part is full and part empty, By the "full" is meant matter, atoms; by the "empty," space.
and these he calls elements. Out of them arise the worlds unlimited in number and into them they are dissolved. This is how the worlds are formed. In a given section many atoms of all manner of shapes are carried from the unlimited into the vast empty space. These collect together and form a single vortex, in which they jostle against each other and, circling round in every possible way, separate off, by like atoms joining like. And, the atoms being so numerous that they can no longer revolve in equilibrium, the light ones pass into the empty space outside, as if they were being winnowed; the remainder keep together and, becoming entangled, go on their circuit together, and form a primary spherical system.
This parts off like a shell, enclosing within it atoms of all kinds; and, as these are whirled round by virtue of the resistance of the centre, the enclosing shell becomes thinner, the adjacent atoms continually combining when they touch the vortex.
In this way the earth is formed by portions brought to the centre coalescing. And again, even the outer shell grows larger by the influx of atoms from outside, and, as it is carried round in the vortex, adds to itself whatever atoms it touches. And of these some portions are locked together and form a mass, at first damp and miry, but, when they have dried and revolve with the universal vortex, they afterwards take fire and form the substance of the stars.
The orbit of the sun is the outermost, that of the moon nearest to the earth; the orbits of the other heavenly bodies lie between these two. All the stars are set on fire by the speed of their motion; the burning of the sun is also helped by the stars; the moon is only slightly kindled. The sun and the moon are eclipsed [when..., but the obliquity of the zodiacal circle is due So Diels; but see T. L. Heath, Aristarchus p. 122, note 3, who prefers to supply "the obliquity of the circles of the stars." Cf. also Aët. iii. 12. 1-2 ( Dox.
Gr. p. 377). ] to the inclination of the earth to the south; the regions of the north are always shrouded in mist, and are extremely cold and frozen. Eclipses of the sun are rare; eclipses of the moon constantly occur, and this because their orbits are unequal. As the world is born, so, too, it grows, decays and perishes, in virtue of some necessity, the nature of which he does [not] specify.
Democritus was the son of Hegesistratus, though some say of Athenocritus, and others again of Damasippus. He was a native of Abdera or, according to some, of Miletus. He was a pupil of certain Magians and Chaldaeans. For when King Xerxes was entertained by the father of Democritus he left men in charge, as, in fact, is stated by Herodotus Diels remarks that this is a free interpretation of Hdt. vii. 109, viii.
120.; and from these men, while still a boy, he learned theology and astronomy. Afterwards he met Leucippus and, according to some, Anaxagoras, being forty years younger than the latter. But Favorinus in his Miscellaneous History tells us that Democritus, speaking of Anaxagoras, declared that his views on the sun and the moon were not original but of great antiquity, and that he had simply stolen them. Democritus also pulled to pieces the views of Anaxagoras on cosmogony and on mind, having a spite against him, because Anbaxagoras did not take to him. If this be so, how could he have been his pupil, as some suggest?
According to Demetrius in his book on Men of the Same Name and Antisthenes in his Successions of Philosophers, he travelled into Egypt to learn geometry from the priests, and he also went into Persia to visit the Chaldaeans as well as to the Red Sea. Some say that he associated with the Gymnosophists in India and went to Aethiopia. Also that, being the third son, he divided the family property. Most authorities will have it that he chose the smaller portion, which was in money, because he had need of this to pay the cost of travel; besides, his brothers were crafty enough to foresee that this would be his choice.
Demetrius estimates his share at over 100 talents, the whole of which he spent. His industry, says the same author, was so great that he cut off a little room in the garden round the house and shut himself up there. One day his father brought an ox to sacrifice and tied it there, and he was not aware of it for a considerable time, until his father roused him to attend the sacrifice and told him about the ox. Demetrius goes on: "It would seem that he also went to Athens and was not anxious to be recognized, because he despised fame, and that while he knew of Socrates, he was not known to Socrates, his words being, `I came to Athens and no one knew me.'"
"If the Rivals be the work of Plato," says Thrasylus, "Democritus will be the unnamed character, different from Oenopides and Anaxagoras, who makes his appearance when conversation is going on with Socrates about philosophy, and to whom Socrates says that the philosopher is like the all-round athlete. Rivals, 132 a-c. And truly Democritus was versed in every department of philosophy, for he had trained himself both in physics and in ethics, nay more, in mathematics and the routine subjects of education, and he was quite an expert in the arts." From him we have the saying, "Speech is the shadow of action." Demetrius of Phalerum in his Defence of Socrates affirms that he did not even visit Athens. This is to make the larger claim, namely, that he thought that great city beneath his notice, because he did not care to win fame from a place, but preferred himself to make a place famous.
His character can also be seen from his writings. "He would seem," says Thrasylus, "to have been an admirer of the Pythagoreans. Moreover, he mentions Pythagoras himself, praising him in a work of his own entitled Pythagoras. § 46. He seems to have taken all his ideas from him and, if chronology did not stand in the way, he might have been thought his pupil." Glaucus of Rhegium certainly says that he was taught by one of the Pythagoreans, and Glaucus was his contemporary.
Apollodorus of Cyzicus, again, will have it that he lived with Philolaus.
He would train himself, says Antisthenes, by a variety of means to test his sense-impressions by going at times into solitude and frequenting tombs.
The same authority states that, when he returned from his travels, he was reduced to a humble mode of life because he had exhausted his means; and, because of his poverty, he was supported by his brother Damasus. But his reputation rose owing to his having foretold certain future events; and after that the public deemed him worthy of the honour paid to a god. w(s de\ proeipw/n...h)ciw/qh.
This sentence in oratio recta, interrupting the extract from Antisthenes, finds its counterpart in the stories attributing to Democritus the power of forecasting the weather or the seasons, on the strength of his scientific attainments. Cf. Pliny, N.H. xviii. 273, 341, and Clem. Alex. Strom. vii. 32.
There was a law, says Antisthenes, that no one who had squandered his patrimony should be buried in his native city. Democritus, understanding this, and fearing lest he should be at the mercy of any envious or unscrupulous prosecutors, read aloud to the people his treatise, the Great Diacosmos, the best of all his works; and then he was rewarded with 500 talents; and, more than that, with bronze statues as well; and when he died, he received a public funeral after a lifetime of more than a century.
Demetrius, however, says that it was not Democritus himself but his relatives who read the Great Diacosmos, and that the sum awarded was 100 talents only; with this account Hippobotus agrees.
Aristoxenus in his Historical Notes affirms that Plato wished to burn all the writings of Democritus that he could collect, but that Amyclas and Clinias the Pythagoreans prevented him, saying that there was no advantage in doing so, for already the books were widely circulated. And there is clear evidence for this in the fact that Plato, who mentions almost all the early philosophers, never once alludes to Democritus, not even where it would be necessary to controvert him, obviously because he knew that he would have to match himself against the prince of philosophers, for whom, to be sure, Timon Fr. 46 D. has this meed of praise Cf. Il. i. 263, iv.
341.: Such is the wise Democritus, the guardian of discourse, keen-witted disputant, among the best I ever read.
As regards chronology, he was, as he says himself in the Lesser Diacosmos, a young man when Anaxagoras was old, being forty years his junior. He says that the Lesser Diacosmos was compiled 730 years after the capture of Troy. According to Apollodorus in his Chronology he would thus have been born in the 80th Olympiad, 460-457 b.c. but according to Thrasylus in his pamphlet entitled Prolegomena to the Reading of the works of Democritus, in the third year of the 77th Olympiad, 470-469 b.c. which makes him, adds Thrasylus, one year older than Socrates. He would then be a contemporary of Archelaus, the pupil of Anaxagoras, and of the school of Oenopides; indeed he mentions Oenopides.
Again, he alludes to the doctrine of the One held by Parmenides and Zeno, they being evidently the persons most talked about in his day; he also mentions Protagoras of Abdera, who, it is admitted, was a contemporary of Socrates.
Athenodorus in the eighth book of his Walks relates that, when Hippocrates came to see him, he ordered milk to be brought, and, having inspected it, pronounced it to be the milk of a black she-goat which had produced her first kid; which made Hippocrates marvel at the accuracy of his observation. Moreover, Hippocrates being accompanied by a maidservant, on the first day Democritus greeted her with "Good morning, maiden," but the next day with "Good morning, woman," As a matter of fact the girl had been seduced in the night.
Of the death of Democritus the account given by Hermippus is as follows. When he was now very old and near his end, his sister was vexed that he seemed likely to die during the festival of Thesmophoria and she would be prevented from paying the fitting worship to the goddess. He bade her be of good cheer and ordered hot loaves to be brought to him every day. By applying these to his nostrils he contrived to outlive the festival; and as soon as the three festival days were passed he let his life go from him without pain, having then, according to Hipparchus, attained his one hundred and ninth year.
In my Pammetros I have a piece on him as follows Anth.
Pal. vii. 57.: Pray who was so wise, who wrought so vast a work as the omniscient Democritus achieved? When Death was near, for three days he kept him in his house and regaled him with the steam of hot loaves.
Such was the life of our philosopher.
His opinions are these. The first principles of the universe are atoms and empty space; everything else is merely thought to exist. The worlds are unlimited; they come into being and perish. Nothing can come into being from that which is not nor pass away into that which is not. Further, the atoms are unlimited in size and number, and they are borne along in the whole universe in a vortex, and therby generate all composite things--fire, water, air, earth; for even these are conglomerations of given atoms. And it is because of their solidity that these atoms are impassive and unalterable. The sun and the moon have been composed of such smooth and spherical masses [ i.e. atoms], and so also the soul, which is identical with reason. We see by virtue of the impact of images upon our eyes.
All things happen by virtue of necessity, the vortex being the cause of the creation of all things, and this he calls necessity. The end of action is tranquillity, which is not identical with pleasure, as some by a false interpretation have understood, but a state in which the soul continues calm and strong, undisturbed by any fear or superstition or any other emotion. This he calls well-being and many other names. The qualities of things exist merely by convention; in nature there is nothing but atoms and void space. These, then, are his opinions.
Of his works Thrasylus has made an ordered catalogue, arranging them in fours, as he also arranged Plato's works.
The ethical works are the following: I. Pythagoras.
Of the Disposition of the Wise Man.
Of those in Hades.
Tritogeneia (so called because three things, on which all mortal life depends, come from her).
II. Of Manly Excellence, or Of Virtue. Amalthea's Horn (the Horn of Plenty).
Of Tranquillity.
Ethical Commentaries: the work on Wellbeing is not to be found.
So much for the ethical works.
The physical works are these: III. The Great Diacosmos (which the school of Theophrastus attribute to Leucippus).
The Lesser Diacosmos.
Description of the World.
On the Planets.
IV. Of Nature, one book.
Of the Nature of Man, or Of Flesh, a second book on Nature.
Of Reason.
Of the Senses (some editors combine these two under the title Of the Soul).
V. Of Flavours.
Of Colours.
Of the Different Shapes (of Atoms).
Of Changes of Shape.
VI.
Confirmations (summaries of the aforesaid works).
On Images, or On Foreknowledge of the Future.
On Logic, or Criterion of Thought, three books.
Problems.
So much for the physical works.
The following fall under no head: Causes of Celestial Phenomena.
Causes of Phenomena in the Air.
Causes on the Earth's Surface.
Causes concerned with Fire and Things in Fire.
Causes concerned with Sounds.
Causes concerned with Seeds, Plants and Fruits.
Causes concerned with Animals, three books.
Miscellaneous Causes.
Concerning the Magnet.
These works have not been arranged.
The mathematical works are these: VII. On a Difference in an Angle, or On Contact with the Circle or the Sphere.
On Geometry.
Geometrica.
Numbers.
VIII. On Irrational Lines and Solids, two books.
Extensions Diels compares Ptolemy, Geogr. vii. 7 u(pograf h\ tou= e)pipe/dw| katagr afh/ ktl. The title *)ekpeta/s mata may therefore mean "Projection of an armillary sphere on a plane." (Projections).
The Great Year, or Astronomy, Calendar.
Contention of the Water-clock [and the Heaven].
IX. Description of the Heaven.
Geography.
Description of the Pole.
Description of Rays of Light.
These are the mathematical works.
The literary and musical works are these: X. On Rhythms and Harmony.
On Poetry.
On Beauty of Verses.
On Euphonious and Cacophonous Letters.
XI.
Concerning Homer, or On Correct Epic Diction, and On Glosses.
Of Song.
On Words.
A Vocabulary.
So much for the works on literature and music.
The works on the arts are these: XII. Prognostication.
Of Diet, or Diaetetics.
Medical Regimen.
Causes concerned with Things Seasonable and Unseasonable.
XIII. Of Agriculture, or Concerning Land Measurements.
Of Painting.
Treatise on Tactics, and On Fighting in Armour.
So much for these works.
Some include as separate items in the list the following works taken from his notes: Of the Sacred Writings in Babylon.
Of those in Meroë.
A Voyage round the Ocean.
Of [the Right Use of] History.
A Chaldaean Treatise.
A Phrygian Treatise.
Concerning Fever and those whose Malady makes them Cough.
Legal Causes and Effects.
Problems wrought by Hand. xeiro/k mhta is a correction of Salmasius based upon Pliny, N.H. xxiv. 160, and Vitruvius, ix. i. 14. The mss. give either a/, the sense of which is not clear; they read h)\ before problh/m ata..
The other works which some attribute to Democritus are either compilations from his writings or admittedly not genuine. So much for the books that he wrote and their number.
The name of Democritus has been borne by six persons: (1) our philosopher; (2) a contemporary of his, a musician of Chios; (3) a sculptor, mentioned by Antigonus; (4) an author who wrote on the temple at Ephesus and the state of Samothrace; (5) an epigrammatist whose style is lucid and ornate; (6) a native of Pergamum who made his mark by rhetorical speeches.
Protagoras, son of Artemon or, according to Apollodorus and Dinon in the fifth book of his History of Persia, of Maeandrius, was born at Abdera (so says Heraclides of Pontus in his treatise On Laws, and also that he made laws for Thurii) or, according to Eupolis in his Flatterers, at Teos ; for the latter says: Inside we've got Protagoras of Teos.
He and Prodicus of Ceos gave public readings for which fees were charged, and Plato in the Protagoras 316 a. calls Prodicus deep-voiced. Protagoras studied under Democritus. The latter Cf. Clem. Strom. vi.
32, and Suidas, s.v.
*dhmo/kr itos. was nicknamed "Wisdom," according to Favorinus in his Miscellaneous History.
Protagoras was the first to maintain that there are two sides to every question, opposed to each other, and he even argued in this fashion, being the first to do so. Furthermore he began a work thus : "Man is the measure of all things, of things that are that they are, and of things that are not that they are not." He used to say that soul was nothing apart from the senses, as we learn from Plato in the Theaetetus, 152 a sq. and that everything is true. In another work he began thus: "As to the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or that they do not exist.
For many are the obstacles that impede knowledge, both the obscurity of the question and the shortness of human life."
For this introduction to his book the Athenians expelled him; and they burnt his works in the market-place, after sending round a herald to collect them from all who had copies in their possession.
He was the first to exact a fee of a hundred minae and the first to distinguish the tenses of verbs, to emphasize the importance of seizing the right moment, to institute contests in debating, and to teach rival pleaders the tricks of their trade. Furthermore, in his dialectic he neglected the meaning in favour of verbal quibbling, and he was the father of the whole tribe of eristical disputants now so much in evidence; insomuch that Timon Fr. 47 D. too speaks of him as Cf. Il. xv. 679.
Protagoras, all mankind's epitome, Cunning, I trow, to war with words.
He too first introduced the method of discussion which is called Socratic. Again, as we learn from Plato in the Euthydemus, 286 c. he was the first to use in discussion the argument of Antisthenes which strives to prove that contradiction is impossible, and the first to point out how to attack and refute any proposition laid down: so Artemidorus the dialectician in his treatise In Reply to Chrysippus. He too invented the shoulder-pad on which porters carry their burdens, so we are told by Aristotle in his treatise On Education; for he himself had been a porter, says Epicurus somewhere. Sc. in an epistle, *peri\ e)pithde uma/twn, cf. Athen. viii. 354 c. This was how he was taken up by Democritus, who saw how skilfully his bundles of wood were tied. He was the first to mark off the parts of discourse into four, namely, wish, question, answer, command This answers roughly to the optative, the indicative, and the imperative.; others divide into seven parts, narration, question, answer, command, rehearsal, wish, summoning; these he called the basic forms of speech. Alcidamas made discourse fourfold, affirmation, negation, question, address.
The first of his books he read in public was that On the Gods, the introduction to which we quoted above; he read it at Athens in Euripides' house, or, as some say, in Megaclides'; others again make the place the Lyceum and the reader his disciple Archagoras, Theodotus's son, who gave him the benefit of his voice. His accuser was Pythodorus, son of Polyzelus, one of the four hundred; Aristotle, however, says it was Euathlus.
The works of his which survive are these: * * The Art of Controversy.
Of Wrestling.
On Mathematics.
Of the State.
Of Ambition.
Of Virtues.
Of the Ancient Order of Things.
On the Dwellers in Hades.
Of the Misdeeds of Mankind.
A Book of Precepts.
Of Forensic Speech for a Fee, two books of opposing arguments.
This is the list of his works. That the list is defective is evident from the fact that the two works by which Protagoras is best known ( supra, §§ 51, 54) are not here named. Moreover there is a dialogue which Plato wrote upon him.
Philochorus says that, when he was on a voyage to Sicily, his ship went down, and that Euripides hints at this in his Ixion.
According to some his death occurred, when he was on a journey, at nearly ninety years of age, though Apollodorus makes his age seventy, assigns forty years for his career as a sophist, and puts his floruit in There is an epigram of my own on him as follows Anth.
Pal. vii. 130.: Protagoras, I hear it told of thee Thou died'st in eld when Athens thou didst flee; Cecrops' town chose to banish thee; but though Thou `scap'dst Athene, not so Hell below.
The story is told that once, when he asked Euathlus his disciple for his fee, the latter replied, "But I have not won a case yet." "Nay," said Protagoras, "if I win this case against you I must have the fee, for winning it ; if you win, I must have it, because you win it."
There was another Protagoras, an astronomer, for whom Euphorion wrote a dirge; and a third who was a Stoic philosopher.
Chapter 9. DIOGENES OF APOLLONIA We naturally feel surprise when this early philosopher is interpolated between Protagoras and Anaxarchus, both assumed to be pupils of Democritus. The only explanation suggested is a severe reflection on our author's acquaintance with his subject. There was a certain Diogenes of Smyrna, an obscure adherent of the school of Abdera. D. L., or more probably one of his authorities, has confused this Democritean with the earlier and better-known Diogenes of Apollonia. It is also strange that there is no Life of Metrodorus of Chios or of Nausiphanes.
Diogenes of Apollonia, son of Apollothemis, was a natural philosopher and a most famous man.
Antisthenes calls him a pupil of Anaximenes; but he lived in Anaxagoras's time. This man, i.e. Anaxagoras. so great was his unpopularity at Athens, almost lost his life, as Demetrius of Phalerum states in his Defence of Socrates.
The doctrines of Diogenes were as follows. Diels ( op. cit. p. 144) compares Plutarch, Strom. apud Euseb. Praep.
Evang. i. 8. 13; Aëtius i. 3. 26; Theophrastus, Phys. Opin. Fr. 2. Air is the universal element. There are worlds unlimited in number, and unlimited empty space. Air by condensation and rarefaction generates the worlds.
Nothing comes into being from what is not or passes away into what is not. The earth is spherical, firmly supported in the centre, having its construction determined by the revolution which comes from heat and by the congealment caused by cold.
The words with which his treatise begins are these: "At the beginning of every discourse I consider that one ought to make the starting-point unmistakably clear and the exposition simple and dignified."
Chapter 10. ANAXARCHUS Anaxarchus, a native of Abdera, studied under Diogenes of Smyrna, Here a Diogenes is mentioned as a link between Demo critus and Anaxarchus. See p. 468, note c.
; Epiphanius, De fide, 9, p. 591. and the latter under Metrodorus of Chios, who used to declare that he knew nothing, not even the fact that he knew nothing; while Metrodorus was a pupil of Nessas of Chios, though some say that he was taught by Democritus. Now Anaxarchus accompanied Alexander and flourished in the 110th Olympiad. 340-337 b.c. He made an enemy of Nicocreon, tyrant of Cyprus. Once at a banquet, when asked by Alexander how he liked the feast, he is said to have answered, "Everything, O king, is magnificent; there is only one thing lacking, that the head of some satrap should be served up at table." This was a hit at Nicocreon, who never forgot it, and when after the king's death Anaxarchus was forced against his will to land in Cyprus, he seized him and, putting him in a mortar, ordered him to be pounded to death with iron pestles. But he, making light of the punishment, made that well-known speech, "Pound, pound the pouch containing Anaxarchus; ye pound not Anaxarchus." And when Nicocreon commanded his tongue to be cut out, they say he bit it off and spat it at him. This is what I have written upon him Anth. Pal.
vii. 133.: Pound, Nicocreon, as hard as you like: it is but a pouch. Pound on; Anaxarchus's self long since is housed with Zeus. And after she has drawn you upon her carding-combs a little while, Persephone will utter words like these: "Out upon thee, villainous miller!"
For his fortitude and contentment in life he was called the Happy Man. He had, too, the capacity of bringing anyone to reason in the easiest possible way. At all events he succeeded in diverting Alexander when he had begun to think himself a god; for, seeing blood running from a wound he had sustained, he pointed to him with his finger and said, "See, there is blood and not Ichor which courses in the veins of the blessed gods." Il. v.
340.
Plutarch reports this as spoken by Alexander to his friends. Vit. Alex. c.
28. Moreover, on another occasion, when Anaxarchus was drinking Alexander's health, he held up his goblet and said: One of the gods shall fall by the stroke of mortal man. Euripides, Orestes, 271.
Pyrrho of Elis was the son of Pleistarchus, as Diocles relates. According to Apollodorus in his Chronology, he was first a painter; then he studied under Stilpo's son Bryson For "Stilpo's son Bryson" Roeper's conjecture bru/swn os h)\ *sti/lpwn os ( Philolog. xxx. 462) would substitute "under Bryson or Stilpo." In any case chronology seems to forbid the supposition that Pyrrho was a pupil of either Stilpo or Bryson.: thus Alexander in his Successions of Philosophers. Afterwards he joined Anaxarchus, whom he accompanied on his travels everywhere so that he even forgathered with the Indian Gymnosophists and with the Magi. This led him to adopt a most noble philosophy, to quote Ascanius of Abdera, taking the form of agnosticism and suspension of judgement. He denied that anything was honourable or dishonourable, just or unjust. i.e. a particular act is no more just than unjust. And so, universally, he held that there is nothing really existent, but custom and convention govern human