rocedure was at this time unprecedented, and contrasts
sharply with that of his immediate forerunner Herodotus, who constantly
lays stress on the intervention of the gods. That is hardly conceivable
except in a man who had altogether emancipated himself from the religious
views of his time. Now, Thucydides is not only a fellow-countryman and
younger contemporary of Pericles, but he also sees in Pericles his ideal
not only as a politician but evidently also as a man. Hence, when
everything is considered, it is not improbable that Pericles and his
friends went to all lengths in their criticism of popular belief,
although, of course, it remains impossible to state anything definite as
to particular persons' individual views. Curiously enough, even in
antiquity this connexion was observed; in a biography of Thucydides it is
said that he was a disciple of Anaxagoras and _accordingly_ was also
considered something of an atheist.

While Anaxagoras, his trial notwithstanding, is not generally designated
an atheist, probably because there was nothing in his writings to which he
might be pinned down, that fate befell two of his contemporaries, Hippo of
Rhegium and Diogenes of Apollonia. Very little, however, is known of them.
Hippo, who is said to have been a Pythagorean, taught that water and fire
were the origin of everything; as to the reason why he earned the nickname
_atheos_, it is said that he taught that Water was the primal cause of
all, as well as that he maintained that nothing existed but what could be
perceived by the senses. There is also quoted a (fictitious) inscription,
which he is said to have caused to be put on his tomb, to the effect that
Death has made him the equal of the immortal gods (in that he now exists
no more than they). Otherwise we know nothing special of Hippo; Aristotle
refers to him as shallow. As to Diogenes, we learn that he was influenced
by Anaximenes and Anaxagoras; in agreement with the former he regarded Air
as the primary substance, and like Anaxagoras he attributed reason to his
primary substance. Of his doctrine we have extensive accounts, and also
some not inconsiderable fragments of his treatise _On Nature_; but they
are almost all of them of purely scientific, mostly of an anatomical and
physiological character. In especial, as to his relation to popular
belief, it is recorded that he identified Zeus with the air. Indirectly,
however, we are able to demonstrate, by the aid of an almos