A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

166 ANAXIMENES.
into Greece by Anaximander or his contemporaries.
(Favorin. ap. Diog. 1. c.; Plin. ii. 8; Herod. ii.
109.) The assertion of Diogenes that he invented
this instrument, and also geographical maps, cannot be taken to prove more than the extent of his
reputation. On the subject of the Gnomon, see
Salmas. Plin. Exercit. p. 445, b, G, ed. Utrecht,
1689, and Schaubach, Gesch. cd. Griech. Astronomite,
p. 119, &c. It probably consisted of a style on a
horizontal plane, and its first use would be to determine the time of noon and the position of the
meridian by its shortest shadow during the day;
the time of the solstices, by its shortest and longest
meridian shadows; and of the equinoxes, by the
rectilinear motion of the extremity of its shadow:
to the latter two purposes Anaximander is said to
have applied it; but since there is little evidence
that the ecliptic and equinoctial circles were known
in Greece at this period, it must be doubted
whether the equinox was determined otherwise
than by a rough observation of the equality of day
and night. (Schaubach, p. 140, &c.) Anaximander flourished in the time of Polycrates of
Samos, and died soon after the completion of his
64th year, in 01. Iviii. 2 (B. c. 547), according to
Apollodorus. (ap. Diog. 1. c.) But since Polycrates
began to reign B. c. 532, there must be some mistake in the time of Anaximander's death, unless
the elder Polycrates (mentioned by Suidas, s. v.
"IgvICo) be meant. (Clinton, Fast. Hlell.) (For
the ancient sources of information see Preller,
H[list. Philosoph. Graeco-Romanaen ex fintium locis
contexta.) [W. F. D.]
ANAXI'MENES ('Avaue'is), who is usually
placed third in the series of Ionian philosophers,
was born at Miletus, like Thales and Anaximander,
with both of whom he had personal intercourse:
for besides the common tradition which makes him
a disciple of the latter, Diogenes Laertius quotes at
length two letters said to have been written to
Pythagoras by Anaximenes; in one of which he
gives an account of the death of Thales, speaking
of him with reverence, as the first of philosophers,
and as having been his own teacher. In the other,
he congratulates Pythagoras on his removal to
Crotona from Samos, while he was himself at the
mercy of the tyrants of Miletus, and was looking
forward with fear to the approaching war with the
Persians, in which he foresaw that the lonians
must be subdued. (Diog. Laert. ii. 3, &c.)
There is no safe testimony as to the exact periods of the birth and death of Anaximenes: but
since there is sufficient evidence that he was the
teacher of Anaxagoras, B. c. 480, and he was in repute in B. c. 544, he must have lived to a great age.
(Strab. xiv. p. 645; Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 11;
Origen, vol. iv. p. 238.) The question is discussed
by Clinton in the Philological Museum. (Vol. i.
p. 86, &c.)
Like the other early Greek philosophers, he
employed himself in speculating upon the origin,
and accounting for the phenomena, of the universe:
and as Thales held water to be the material cause
out of which the world was made,, so Anaximenes
considered air to be the first cause of all things, the
primary form, as it were, of matter, into which the
other elements of the univerj were resolvable.
(Aristot. Melaph. i. 3.) For both philosophers
seem to have thought it possible to simplify physical science by tracing all material things up to a
single element: while Anaximander, on the con

ANAXIMENES.
trary, regnrded the substance out of which the
universe was formed as a mixture of all elements
and qualities. The process by which, according to
Anaximenes, finite things were formed from the
infinite air, was that of compression and rarefaction
produced by motion which had existed from all
eternity: thus the earth was created out of air
made dense, and from the earth the sun and the
other heavenly bodies. (Plut. ap. Euseb. Praep..Evang. i. 8.) According to the same theory, heat
and cold were produced by different degrees of
density of the primal element: the clouds were
formed by the thickening of the air; and the earth
was kept in its place by the support of the air beneath it and by the flatness of its shape. (Plut. de
Pr. Frig. 7, de Plac. Ph. iii. 4; Aristot. Metaph.
ii. 13.)
Hence it appears that Anaximenes, like his predecessors, held the eternity of matter: nor indeed
does he seem to have believed in the existence of
anything immaterial; for even the human soul,
according to his theory, is, like the body, formed
of air (Plut. de Plac. Ph. i. 3); and he saw no
necessity for supposing an Agent in the work of
creation, since he held that motion was a natural
and necessary law of the universe. It is therefore
not unreasonable in Plutarch to blame him, as well
as Anaximander, for assigning only the material,
and no efficient, cause of the world in his philosophical system. (Plut. 1. c.) [C. E. P.]
ANAXI'MENES ('Aevaerpjs) of LAMFlsACUS,
son of Aristocles, and pupil of Zoilus and Diogene,
the Cynic. He was a contemporary of Alexander
the Great, whom he is said to have instructed, and
whom he accompanied on his Asiatic expedition.
(Suidas, s. v.; Eudoc. p. 51; comp. Diog. Laert. v.
10; Diod. xv. 76.) A pretty anecdote is related
by Pausanias (vi. 18. ~ 2) and Suidas, about the
manner in which he saved his native town from
the wrath of Alexander for having espoused the
cause of the Persians. His grateful fellow-citizens
rewarded him with a statue at Olympia. Anaximenes wrote three historical works: 1. A history
of Philip of Macedonia, which consisted at least of
eight books. (Harpocrat. s. v. KagevAs, 'XAAdvro'ros;
Eustratius. ad Aristot. Eth. iii. 8.) 2. A history of
Alexander the Great. (Diog. Laert. ii. 3; Harpocrat. s. v. 'AAbriaXos, who quotes the 2nd book of
it.) 3. A history of Greece, which Pausanias
(vi. 18. ~ 2) calls 7rd v "EAieow dpxalia, which,
however, is more commonly called Trpcra lo'ropiaI
or 7rpcdrmT lorTopia. (Athen. vi. p. 231; Diod. xv.
89.) It comprised in twelve books the history of
Greece from the earliest mythical ages down to the
battle of Mantineia and the death of Epaminondas.
He was a very skilful rhetorician, and wrote a
work calumniating the three great cities of Greece,
Sparta, Athens, and Thebes, which he published
under the name of Theopompus, his personal enemy, and in which he imitated the style of the latter so perfectly, that every one thought it to be
really his work. This production Anaximenes sent
to those cities, and thus created exasperation against
his enemy in all Greece. (Paus. vi. 8. ~ 3; Suid.
I. c.) The histories of Anaximenes, of which only
very few fragments are now extant, are censured
by Plutarch (Praec. Pol. 6) for the numerous prolix and rhetorical speeches he introduced in them.
(Comp. Dionys. Hal. De Isaeo, 19; De admn. vi
die. Dnemosth. 8.) The fact that we possess so little
of his histories, shews that the ancients did not