Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​Anaximenes, son of Eurystratus, of Miletus, was a pupil of Anaximander; some say that he also heard Parmenides. He declared the first principle to be air and the boundless; and that the stars move not under the earth, but around it. He used a simple and unadorned Ionic diction. He was born, as Apollodorus says, around the time of the capture of Sardis, and died in the sixty-third Olympiad. There were also two other men of Lampsacus of the same name: an orator and a historian, the latter being the sister's son of the orator who wrote the deeds of Alexander. Now this philosopher wrote letters as follows:

​Anaximenes to Pythagoras: “Thales, the son of Examyes, has departed this life in old age by an ill fate. At night, as was his custom, he went forth from his courtyard with his handmaid and was observing the stars; and—for he did not keep it in mind—as he was gazing, he stepped out over a cliff and fell down. For the Milesians, then, the astronomer has met such an end. But let us, his fellow inquirers, remember the man ourselves, and let our children and fellow inquirers do so, and let us still embrace his doctrines; at all events, let the beginning of all discussion be attributed to Thales.” And again:

​Anaximenes to Pythagoras: “You were the best advised among us in migrating from Samos to Croton, where you live in peace. But the sons of Aeaces perpetrate irremediable evils, and tyrants never fail the Milesians. Dreadful to us also is the King of the Medes, though not so if we are willing to pay tribute; but the Ionians are about to enter into war with the Medes for the freedom of all. And once they have engaged, there is no longer any hope of safety for us. How, then, could Anaximenes still have it in mind to study the heavens, living in terror of destruction or enslavement? But you are dear to the hearts of the Crotoniats, and dear also to the other Italiotes; and fellow inquirers flock to you even from Sicily.”