Anaximĕnes
(
Ἀναξιμένης).
1.
A Greek philosopher of Miletus, a younger contemporary and pupil of Anaximander, who died
about B.C. 502. He supposed air to be the fundamental principle, out of which everything
arose by rarefaction and condensation. This doctrine he expounded in a work, now lost,
written in the Ionic dialect.
2.
A Greek sophist of Lampsacus, a favourite of Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great. He
composed orations and historical works, some treating of the actions of those two princes. Of
these but little remains. On the other hand, he is the author of the
Rhetoric
dedicated to Alexander, the earliest extant work of this kind, which was once included among
the works of Aristotle.