.ANAXARCHUS, a Grecian philosopher of the Elea tic sect. He was a native of Abdera, and flourished about the 110th Olympiad, or 340 years before Christ. The tenets of his, school inculcated scepticism concern ing the controul of the Gods, in regulating the affairs of the universe ; and Anaxarchus appears to have resolved to remain undisturbed by the ordinary vicissitudes of fortune, and to enjoy, as much as in his power, the bles sings that lay within his grasp. From his having adopt ed this temper of mind, and'the ease and tranquillity of his life, he obtained the surname of EuSat,E4ovry-oc, or the "Fortunate." He had the honour to be admitted into the confidence of Alexander the great, whom on some occa sions he treated with the freedom of a friend, but upon others with the servility of a sycophant. It is said that when the Macedonian hero aspired to the honours of di vinity, Anaxarchus seasonably checked his vain glory, by pointing to his finger while it bled, and exclaiming, " Behold the blood of a mortal, not of a God !" and that, while Alexander was indulging immoderately at a ban quet, the philosopher recited a verse of Euripides, in order to remind him of his mortality. Bin upon the
memorable occasion of the murder of Clytus, Anaxar chus, instead of duly admonishing the guilty monarch, en deavoured to sooth his agitated mind, and relieve him from the pangs of remorse, by saying, with the meanest " kings, like the gods, could do no wrong." Tie is said, but apparently without truth, to have expired by the cruel dcatn of being pounded in a mortar ; a tor ture inflicted upon him by Nicocreon, king of Cyprus, and which he is reported to have endured with the great est fortitude. Diog. Laert. tom. i. lib. 9. Plut. in Symp. vii. Cicero, in Tusc. ii. cap. 22. Brucher's and Enfield's Hist. of Phil. (in)