III. Anaximenes
23.Life. Anaximenes of Miletos, son of Eurystratos, was, according to Theophrastos, an "associate" of Anaximander.[1] Apollodoros said, it appears, that he "flourished" about the time of the fall of Sardeis (546/5 B.C.), and died in Ol. LXIII. (528/525 B.C.).[2] In other words, he was born when Thales "flourished," and "flourished" when Thales died, and this means that Apollodoros had no definite information about his date. He perhaps made him die in the sixty-third Olympiad because that gives just three generations for the Milesian school.[3] We cannot therefore say anything positive as to his date, except that he must have been younger than Anaximander.
24.His book. Anaximenes wrote a book which survived until the age of literary criticism; for we are told that he used a simple and unpretentious Ionic,[4] very different, we may suppose, from the poetical prose of Anaximander.[5] The speculations of Anaximander were distinguished for their hardihood and breadth; those of Anaximenes are marked by the opposite quality. He appears to have thought out his system carefully, but he rejects the more audacious theories of his predecessor. The result is that, while his view of the world is less like the truth than Anaximander's,
- ↑ Theophr. Phys. Op. fr. 2 (R. P. 26).
- ↑ This follows from a comparison of Diog. ii. 3 with Hipp. Ref. i. 7 (R. P. 23) and Souidas (s.v.). In Hippolytos we must, however, read τρίτον for πρῶτον with Diels. The suggestion in R. P. 23 a that Apollodoros mentioned the Olympiad without giving the number of the year is inadequate; for Apollodoros did not reckon by Olympiads, but Athenian archons.
- ↑ Jacoby (p. 194) brings the date into connexion with the floruit of Pythagoras, which seems to me less probable.
- ↑ Diog. ii. 3 (R. P. 23).
- ↑ Cf. the statement of Theophrastos above, § 13.
καὶ δέχονται εἰς ἑαυτοὺς τοὺς νεοττούς, ib. 565 b 23), for which compare also Ael. i. 17; Plut. De amore prolis 494 c; De soll. anim. 982 a. The placenta and umbilical cord described by Johannes Müller will account sufficiently for all he says.
