Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​Democritus was the son of Hegesistratus, or according to some, of Athenocritus, and according to others, of Damasippus; he was a native of Abdera, or as some say, of Miletus. He was a pupil of certain Magi and Chaldaeans, King Xerxes having left them behind as overseers with his father when he was entertained by him, just as Herodotus also relates; from these, while still a boy, he learned theology and astronomy. Later he associated with Leucippus, and, according to some, with Anaxagoras, being forty years younger than the latter. But Favorinus in his Universal History states that Democritus said concerning Anaxagoras that the doctrines regarding the sun and the moon were not his own, but ancient, and that he had plagiarized them.

​He also states that Democritus disparaged Anaxagoras' doctrines on the cosmos and on mind, being hostile toward him because Anaxagoras had not received him into his company. How then could he, according to some, have been his pupil? Demetrius in his Men of the Same Name and Antisthenes in his Successions say that he traveled even to Egypt to the priests to learn geometry, and to the Chaldaeans in Persia, and went as far as the Red Sea. Some also say that he associated with the Gymnosophists in India and visited Ethiopia. Moreover, being the third brother, he divided the property; and most authorities say that he chose the smaller share in silver money, because he needed it for traveling, while his brothers craftily suspected his intentions.

​However, Demetrius says that his portion amounted to over a hundred talents, all of which he expended. He also relates that he was so industrious that he cut off a small room in the surrounding garden and shut himself up there; and once, when his father brought an ox for sacrifice and tied it up right there, Democritus did not notice it for a considerable time, until his father, having roused him on the pretext of the sacrifice, explained to him the matter of the ox. It seems also, he says, that he went to Athens and took no pains to become known, looking down upon fame. And while he knew Socrates, he was not known by him; “for,” he says, “I came to Athens and no one knew me.”

“If the Rivals is by Plato,” says Thrasylus, “this must be that anonymous person who arrived, distinct from the followers of Oenopides and Anaxagoras, conversing with Socrates about philosophy, according to whom, as he says, the philosopher resembles a pentathlete; and he was indeed truly a pentathlete in philosophy. For he had trained in physics and ethics, but also in mathematics and the liberal arts, and possessed all-around expertise in the arts.” To him also belongs the saying: “Speech is the shadow of action.” Demetrius of Phalerum, however, in his Apology of Socrates, says that he did not even go to Athens. And this is an even greater thing, if indeed he looked down upon so great a city, wishing not to receive fame from a place, but having chosen rather to confer fame upon a place.

​It is clear also from his writings what sort of man he was. It seems, says Thrasylus, that he became an emulator of the Pythagoreans; moreover, he mentions Pythagoras himself, expressing admiration for him in the treatise named after him. He appears to have derived everything from him, and would have been his pupil had chronology not stood in the way. At all events, Glaucus of Rhegium, who was his contemporary, says that he heard one of the Pythagoreans; and Apollodorus of Cyzicus also says that he associated with Philolaus. He also used to train himself, says Antisthenes, to test his impressions in various ways, sometimes living in solitude and lingering among tombs.

​He says that upon returning from his travels Democritus lived in the humblest manner, since he had consumed all his property; and on account of his poverty he was supported by his brother Damasus. But when he gained renown by foretelling some future events, he was thenceforth deemed worthy of divine reputation among most people. There being a law that one who had squandered his paternal estate should not be deemed worthy of burial in his native land, Antisthenes says that Democritus, perceiving this, lest he should become liable to prosecution by certain envious persons and slanderers, read aloud to them the Great World-System, which surpasses all his writings; and he was rewarded with five hundred talents, and not only that, but also with bronze statues; and when he died, having lived for over a hundred years, he was buried at public expense.