Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​However, Demetrius says that it was his relatives who read aloud the Great World-System, which alone was rewarded with a hundred talents. Hippobotus also states the same. Aristoxenus in his Historical Notes says that Plato wished to burn all the writings of Democritus that he was able to collect, but that Amyclas and Cleinias, the Pythagoreans, prevented him, on the ground that it would be of no avail, since the books were already in the hands of many people. And this is evident; for Plato, though mentioning almost all the ancient philosophers, nowhere mentions Democritus, not even where he ought to have contradicted him on some point, evidently knowing that his contest would be against the best of the philosophers. Timon also has praised him in this manner: “Such a Democritus, exceedingly wise, shepherd of tales, a deep-minded converser, did I read among the foremost.”

​In chronological terms, as he himself says in the Small World-System, he was a young man when Anaxagoras was old, being forty years younger than him. He also states that the Small World-System was composed seven hundred and thirty years after the capture of Troy. He would thus have been born, according to Apollodorus in his Chronology, in the eightieth Olympiad; but according to Thrasylus in his work entitled Preliminary Readings to the Books of Democritus, in the third year of the seventy-seventh Olympiad, being, as he says, one year older than Socrates. He would therefore have been a contemporary of Archelaus, the pupil of Anaxagoras, and of the circle of Oenopides; for he actually mentions the latter.

​He also mentions the doctrine of the One held by Parmenides and Zeno, as being particularly celebrated in his day, and Protagoras of Abdera, who is agreed to have been a contemporary of Socrates. Athenodorus in the eighth book of his Walks says that when Hippocrates came to him, Democritus ordered milk to be brought; and having inspected the milk, he said it was from a first-born, black goat; whereupon Hippocrates marveled at his precision. Moreover, when a girl was accompanying Hippocrates, on the first day Democritus greeted her thus: “Greetings, maiden!” and on the next day: “Greetings, woman!” And the girl had indeed been deflowered during the night.

​Hermippus says that Democritus died in the following manner. Being already extremely aged, he was near his end. His sister was therefore grieving that he was likely to die during the festival of the Thesmophoria and that she would not be able to perform her duty to the goddess; but he told her to be of good cheer and ordered warm loaves of bread to be brought to him every day. By applying these to his nostrils, he sustained himself through the festival; and when the days—which were three—had passed, he gave up his life with the least possible pain, as Hipparchus says, having lived a hundred and nine years. We too composed verses on him in our Pammetros in this manner: “And who was born so wise, who accomplished so great a deed as Democritus, all-knowing, achieved? Who held Death, though present, within his house for three days, and entertained him with the warm vapors of loaves.” Such was the life of the man.

​His doctrines are as follows: the first principles of the universe are atoms and void, while all other things are regarded as conventional; the worlds are infinite, generated, and perishable. Nothing comes into being from what is not, nor does it perish into what is not. The atoms are infinite in magnitude and in number, and they are carried along whirling in the universe, and thus generate all composite bodies: fire, water, air, earth; for even these are aggregates of certain atoms, which are impassive and unalterable on account of their solidity. The sun and the moon are composed of such smooth and spherical masses, and the soul likewise; and soul and mind are the same thing. We see by virtue of the impingement of images.