Anaxarchus

, a philosopher of Abdera, one of the followers of Demo crit us, and the friend of Alexander. When the monarch had been wounded in a battle, the philosopher pointed to the place, adding, “That is human blood, and not the blood of a god.” The freedom of Anaxarchus offended Nicocreon, and after Alexander’s death, the tyrant, in revenge, seized the philosopher, and pounded him in a stone mortar with iron hammers. He bore this with much resignation, and exclaimed, “Pound the body of Anaxarchus, for thou dost not pound his soul.” Upon this Nicocreon threatened to cut his tongue, and Anaxarchus bit it off with his teeth, and spit it out into the tyrant’s face. Ovid , Ibis , li. 571 .— Plutarch , Convivium Septem Sapientium , ch. 7 .— Diogenes Laërtius , Lives of Eminent Philosophers .— Cicero , Tusculanæ Dis put at i ones , bk. 2 , ch. 22 .――A Theban general. Thucydides , bk. 8 , ch. 100 .