Anaxarchus
Sign in to saveAlso known as Anaxarchus of Abdera
Anaxarchus (; ; c. 380 – c. 320 BC) was a Greek philosopher of the school of Democritus. Together with Pyrrho, he accompanied Alexander the Great into Asia. The reports of his philosophical views suggest that he was a forerunner of the Greek skeptics.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- male
- Place of birth
- Ancient Abdera
- Place of death
- Cyprus
- Occupation
- philosopher
- Languages spoken
- Ancient Greek
- Student of
- Metrodorus of Chios
- Field of work
- philosophy
- Movement
- Pre-Socratic philosophy
- Image
- Anaxarchus Abderites - Illustrium philosophorum et sapientum effigies ab eorum numistatibus extractae.png
Show 6 more facts
- date of death
- 0320-00-00
- student
- Pyrrho
- date of birth
- 0380-00-00
- writing language
- Ancient Greek
- name in native language
- Ἀνάξαρχος
- significant place
- Ancient Abdera
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
4 sectionsContents
- Life
- Philosophy
- References
- External links
Anaxarchus (; ; c. 380 – c. 320 BC) was a Greek philosopher of the school of Democritus. Together with Pyrrho, he accompanied Alexander the Great into Asia. The reports of his philosophical views suggest that he was a forerunner of the Greek skeptics.
==Life== Anaxarchus was born at Abdera in Thrace. He was the companion and friend of Alexander the Great in his Asiatic campaigns. His relationship with Alexander, however, was ambiguous, owing to contradictory sources. Some paint Anarxchus as a flatterer, among them Plutarch, who tells a story that at Bactra, in 327 BC in a debate with Callisthenes, Anaxarchus advised all to worship Alexander as a god even during his lifetime. In contrast, others paint Anaxarchus as scathingly ironic towards the monarch. According to Diogenes Laertius, in response to Alexander's claim to have been the son of Zeus-Ammon, Anaxarchus pointed to his bleeding wound and remarked, "See the blood of a mortal, not ichor, such as flows from the veins of the immortal gods."
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Anaxarchus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.