Part XL

a Laert. Suid.
b Laert. jElian 4* 20.
c Laert. Plin. 1 8. 'iS-
d In De- vtocr, e Laert. f Laert,
g Laert.
h Ltb.20. Cap. I.
i Li^. 17.
Cap.
Brother of Hercules. His Father is by (a) fome called Hegefifiratus ; by others Athemcritm ; by others ) Dama/lppm. Democritus was the youn- geft of three Sons j the other two, (c) Herodotus and Damafusy or (as (^d) Suidas) Dama^ees,
(e ) Democritus •tpos born ( uccordingto Apollo- dorus in his Chronology ^ in the ^otto. Olympiad ; which is confirmed by what(/jhe faith ot himfelf in his little Dlacofmus , that he was young when Anaxagoras was old, being forty Tears younger than be, Anaxagoras was born in the firfl: year of the 70th. Olympiad j the ysar after it, exclufively, falleth upon the firll of the 80th. Olympiad, Thrafyllus therefore is not to be fol¬ lowed, C^) who affirms, he was born in the third year of the yyth. Olympiad , being a year elder than Socrates.
(^b) Pliny and (i ) Agellius affirm he flounihed chiefly in the time of the Peloponnefian War; Pliny faith, after the building of Rome 500 years ; Agellms, 523 years; by which it appears, that he onas contemporary, as Agellius adds, with So¬ crates, and perhaps ( as Laertius ) with Achelaus the Dtjciple 0/ Socrates, and with Oenipodes, for [be mentions him , as Ukewife the opinion of Zeno and Parmenides concerning One, as Perjons mofi eminent in his time, and Protagoras the Abderite, whom all acknowledge (faith he ) to haw been in the time of Socrates. That he is faid to have written his little Diacofmus 730 years after the taking oitroy, agrees with this accompt. For , according to Eratoflhenes, from the taking of Troy to the firfl: Olympiad are 407 years, to which add 323. years (to make up 730.) and it falls upon the 84th. Olympiad.
k Lib.
1 Lib. 8.
m Laert.
n Laert. o Laert.
CHAP. II.
Hu fir Education and Mafiers,
DEmccritus , ( faith ( k) Valerius Maximus ) may well be reckoned amongfi the rich, for his E'ather was able to entertain the Army of Xerxes. Laertitis adds, from the teftimony of Herodotus, that the King in requital left with him fome Magi and Chaldseans, referring perhaps to (1) that Text o/Herodotus, where he relates, that Xerxes, in his return to Afia, came to Abdera, and was entertain^ ed by the Abderites, and befiowed on them a gol¬ den Scimiter, and the Tiara Embroidered with Gold ; and, as the People there affirm, this was the fir fi place where he untied his z,one, fince he fled from Athens (which I believe not ) fo great was his fear. Abdera is nearer to the Hellefpont Bay of
Strymon , fo that he took Shipping; from hence. Thus Herodotus. From thefe Magi and Caldse- ans; Democritus firft received Learning, (m) of whom, wbilfi yet a Boy, he learnt Theology and Afironomy.
(n ) He next applied himfelf to Leucippus, (a) Some affirm, he was Dijciple alfo to Anaxagoras ; but Phavorinus, in his various Hiftory , relates, that Democritus faid of Anaxagoras, that thofe opinions which he delivered concerning the Sun and Moon, were not his, but more Ancient, and that he fide them. He Ukewife undervalued bis Affiertions concerning the Fabrick of the Univerfe , and the Mmd', How then (faith PhaVOrinUS^ was he, as fome hold, his Dijciple
No lefs doubted is the report of his going to Athens, where (p ) Valerius Maximus {d\th, he p 8. dwelt many years, making ufe of every moment of "• time, towards the perception and exerctje of Learn¬ ing. He lived unknown in that City, as he himfelf attefis in one of his' Books. Laertius adds, he kept himfelf uvdij cover'd, cut of a contempt of Glory ; and knew Socrates, but was not known to him ; where- , upon he faid of himfelf, “ I went to Athens, and “ no man knew me. If the Rivals ( 'aith Thra¬ fyllus ) be a genuine Dialogue of Plato , tUs'is the Anonymous Perfon there, vdw , befides the two were bufied concerning Oenipodes and Anaxago¬ ras , dijcourjeth concerning Pbilojopby w'ltb Socra- tes, ( q) to whom he faid that a Phihfopher refembles g Reading a Pentathlus, ( a Perfon skilful in five exercifes and indeed he Was, ( continues* ) a Ptn- 'rcc.r-w.'^Kgi ,
tathlus in Philofophy, for he was skilful in Phyfick, 'Usi'fji oipi- Ethick, Mathematick, the liberal Sciences, and ail ;
Arts. But Demetrius Phalereus, in his Apology for Socrates, jaith, he never went to Athens ; and this (y dejptje fo eminent a City, dejiring father to give bo- makes ic nour to a place, than to receive u from a place. rnanifeft.
More certain it is, that he heard fome Pytha- gorean Philofopher.^ (r) Thrafyllus affirms, that be imitated the Pythagoreans, and mention’d even who re- Pythagoras himfelf admiring him in a Treatife latesthis bearing his Name. He feems to have taken aU from ^ fpoken him, and might be thought to have heard him, but that the times agree not. But Glaucus of Rhegi- crates of um^ who lived at the fame time, affirms, he beard Democritus one of the Pythagoreans. Apollodorus of Cyzi- cus conceives him to have been contemporary with Philolaus, (s) Duris, that he heard Khmnx^ns, know not.' Son of Pythagoras. ^ The
So ftudious was he even from his youth, that ( t ) Demetrius affirms , “ he retir’d to a little •
“ Summer-houfe belonging to the Orchard, and r La^t.
ffiut himfelf up ; and on a time his Father s Porgh. , “ bringing thither an Ox to be facrific’d, and " tying it there, he knew nothing of it a good ‘'while, until his Father roufed him up, and cold '
“ him the Bufinefs concerning the Ox.
CHAP. III.
His Travels.
His Father dying, the three Brothers divided the Effate. («J Democritus, theyomgefi, u made choice of that part which confined in Money, as being, though the leafi Jhare, yet the mofi conve¬ nient for Travel. And notw 'ithfian.ling it was the leafi, yet were they jealous of him, as if he had an 'intention to defraud them. , Demetrius affirms, bis Portion amounted to an hundred Talents, and that he fpent it all, not gave it ( as Valerius Maximus relates ) to his Country. H?nce is it that Cicero faith, he neglelled bis Patrimony , left his Fields unfilled, feeking nothing elfe but a happy Life.
(x) Laertius ( citing Demetrius, and Aniifi- x Seal/* henes ) relates, that he travelled to Egypt to the EUan. Lth. Priefks, to karn Geometry, to Perfia to the ChaldcE- 4- Cap. 10. ans, and went to the Red-Sea ; fome affirm, he eonverfed with the Gymnofophifts in India , and traveh’d to ^Ethiopia, and (y) learnt the feveral y Suid. TVifdoms of each of thefe Nations : (z>) With the ^ iAEgyptians he lived ( as he himfelf affirms ) 80 ^
years. For
f