Xenophănes

, a Greek philosopher of Colophon, disciple of Archelaus, B.C. 535. He wrote several poems and treatises, and founded a sect which was called the Eleatic, in Sicily. Wild in his opinions about astronomy, he supposed that the stars were extinguished every morning, and rekindled at night; that eclipses were occasioned by the temporary extinction of the sun; that the moon was inhabited, and 18 times bigger than the earth; and that there were several suns and moons for the convenience of the different climates of the earth. He further imagined that God and the world were the same, and he credited the eternity of the universe, but his incoherent opinion about the divinity raised the indignation of his countrymen, and he was banished. He died very poor, when about 100 years old. Cicero , Academic a Priora , bk. 4 , ch. 37 ; de Div in at i one , bk. 1 , ch. 3 ; De Natura Deorum , bk. 1 , ch. 11 .— Lac tanti us , Divinae institutiones , bk. 3 , ch. 23 .――A governor of Olbus, in the age of Marcus Antony. Strabo , bk. 14 .――One of the ministers of Philip, who went to Annibal’s camp, and made a treaty of alliance between Macedonia and Carthage.