[533]. R. P. ib. This was the story told by Herakleides of Pontos, at the end of his romance about the ἄπνους.
[534]. Timaios took the trouble to refute the common stories at some length (Diog. viii. 71 sqq.; R. P. ib.). He was quite positive that Empedokles never returned to Sicily. Nothing can be more likely than that, when wandering as an exile in the Peloponnese, he should have seized the opportunity of joining the colony at Thourioi, which was a harbour for many of the “sophists” of this time.
[536]. Lucr. i. 716 sqq.
[537]. Poet. 1. 1447 b 18; cf. Diog. viii. 57 (R. P. 162 i).
[538]. Diog. viii. 77 (R. P. 162); Souidas s.v. Ἐμπεδοκλῆς· καὶ ἔγραψε δι’ ἐπῶν Περὶ φύσεως τῶν ὄντων βιβλία βʹ, καὶ ἔστιν ἔπη ὡς δισχίλια. It hardly seems likely, however, that the Καθαρμοί extended to 3000 verses, so Diels proposes to read πάντα τρισχίλια for πεντακισχίλια in Diogenes. It is to be observed that there is no better authority than Tzetzes for dividing the Περὶ φύσεως into three books. See Diels, “Über die Gedichte des Empedokles” (Berl. Sitzb., 1898, pp. 396 sqq.).
[539]. Hieronymos of Rhodes declared (Diog. viii. 58) that he had met with forty-three of these tragedies; but see Stein, pp. 5 sqq. The poem on the Persian Wars, which Hieronymos also refers to (Diog. viii. 57), seems to have arisen from an old corruption in the text of Arist. Probl. 929 b 16, where Bekker still reads ἐν τοῖς Περσικοῖς. The same passage, however, is said to occur ἐν τοῖς φυσικοῖς, in Meteor. Δ, 4. 382 a 1, though there too E reads Περσικοῖς.
[540]. The MSS. of Sextus have ζωῆσι βίου. Diels reads ζωῆς ἰδίου. I still prefer Scaliger’s ζωῆς ἀβίου. Cf. fr. 15, τὸ δὴ βίοτον καλέουσι.
[541]. The person here addressed is still Pausanias, and the speaker Empedokles. Cf. fr. [111].
[542]. No doubt mainly Parmenides.