zomenae in Asia Minor about 500 B.C. He was
a man of noble family, and possessed considerable property. He
neglected his property in the search for knowledge and in the pursuit
of science and philosophy. Leaving his home at Clazomenae, he settled
down in Athens. We have not heard so far anything of Athens in the
history of Greek Philosophy. It was Anaxagoras who transplanted
philosophy to Athens, which from his time forward became the chief
centre of Greek thought. At Athens, Anaxagoras came into contact with
all the famous men of the time. He was an intimate friend of Pericles,
the statesman, and of Euripides, the poet. But his friendship with
Pericles cost him dear. There was a strong political faction opposed
to Pericles. So far as we know Anaxagoras never meddled in politics,
but he was a friend of the statesman Pericles, and that was quite
enough. The enemies of Pericles determined to teach Anaxagoras a
lesson, and a charge of atheism and blasphemy was accordingly brought
against him. The particulars of the charge were that Anaxagoras said
that the sun was a red-hot stone, and that the moon was made of earth.
This was quite true, as that is exactly what Anaxagoras did say of the
sun and the moon. But the Greeks {95} regarded the heavenly bodies as
gods; even Plato and Aristotle thought that the stars were divine
beings. To call the sun a red-hot stone, and to say that the moon was
made of earth, was therefore blasphemy according to Greek ideas.
Anaxagoras was charged, tried, and condemned. The details of the
trial, and of what followed, are not known with accuracy. But it
appears that Anaxagoras escaped, probably with the help of Pericles,
and from Athens went back to his native country in Asia Minor. He
settled at Lampsacus, and died there at the age of 72. He was the
author of a treatise in which he wrote down his philosophical ideas.
This treatise was well-known at the time of Socrates, but only
fragments now remain.

The foundation of the philosophy of Anaxagoras is the same as that of
Empedocles and the Atomists. He denied any absolute becoming in the
strict sense of the passing of being into not-being and not-being into
being. Matter is uncreated and indestructible, and all becoming must
be accounted for by the mixing and unmixing of its component parts.
This principle Anaxagoras himself expressed with great clearness, in a
fragment of his treatise which has come down to us. "The Greeks," he
says, "erroneous