Anaxarchus

“ Such contentedness and change of view in regard to every kind of life does the infusion of reason bring about. When Alexander heard from Anaxarchus of the infinite number of worlds, he wept, and when his friends asked him what was the matter, he replied, "Is it not a matter for tears that, when the number of worlds is infinite, I have not conquered one?" ”

“ We must be conversant with the art of reasoning, for the purpose of confuting the deceitful opinions of the sophists. Well and felicitously, therefore, does Anaxarchus write in his book respecting “kingly rule:” “Erudition benefits greatly and hurts greatly him who possesses it; it helps him who is worthy, and injures him who utters readily every word, and before the whole people. ”

“ Much more justly then would the gods be indignant at those mortals who usurp divine honours or suffer themselves to be thrust into them by others. “Alexander not only seems to be, but is in reality beyond any competition the bravest of brave men, of kings the most kingly, and of generals the most worthy to command an army. O Anaxarchus, it was thy duty, rather than any other man’s, to become the special advocate of these arguments now adduced by me, and the opponent of those contrary to them, seeing that thou associatest with him for the purpose of imparting philosophy and instruction. ”

“ It is remarkable, however, that as in less remote days we meet with potentates who could not tolerate the free-spoken court fool, so in those earlier times we find “tyranni,” who were utterly unable to digest a joke or a reproach. Now the speech of Anaxarchus was utterly disgusting to the mind and feelings of Nicocreon of Salamis, who happened to be present when it was uttered. What the philosopher’s especial patron chose to take without discerning offence in it, it was not for Nicocreon to resent ”

“ And then there were chapels to be built and priesthoods endowed, for the oracle of Ammon had declared [316] that the dead man might be lawfully worshipped as a hero, though it had forbidden the divine honours which it was asked to sanction.
In April the king reached Babylon. The soothsayers had warned him not to enter the city. He might have heeded their advice but for the advice of his counsellor, the Greek sophist Anaxarchus, who had permanently secured his favour by his extravagant flatteries. ”

“ Of patience in enduring pain, that being too frequently the lot of our calamitous fate, we have innumerable instances related. One of the most remarkable instances among the female sex is that of the courtesan Leæna, who, although put to the torture, refused to betray the tyrant-slayers, Harmodius and Aristogiton.1083 Among those of men, we have that of Anaxarchus, who, when put to the torture for a similar reason, bit off his tongue and spit it into the face of the tyrant, thus destroying the only hope1084 of his making any betrayal. ”

“ But I assert that Anaxarchus did Alexander a great injury and one still greater than that by which he was then oppressed, if he really thought this to be the opinion of a wise man, that forsooth it is proper for a king to come to hasty conclusions and act unjustly, and that whatever is done by a king must be deemed just, no matter how it is done. There is also a current report that Alexander wished men to prostrate themselves before him as to a god, entertaining the notion that Ammon was his father, rather than Philip ”

“ Amyntas, son of Arrhabaeus, 40, 43-45, 59, 74, 95. Amyntas, son of Nicolaüs, 237, 238, 247. Amyntas the Theban, 25. Anaxagoras, 407. Anaxarchus, 222-226. Anaxippus, 191, 192. Anchialus, 87, 88. Ancyra, 84. Androcles, 129. Andromachus, 127, 150, 162, 192, 210, 213-215. Andronīcus, 189, 191. Androsthenes, 409. Anicētus, 134. Antaeus, 145. Antalcidas, 79, 80. Anteas, 363. Anthemūs, 98. Antibēlus, 182. Anticles, 230. Antigĕnes, 291, 344. Antigŏnē, 193. Antigŏnus, 76, 88, 305, 405. Anti-Libănus, 125, 156, 308. Antiochus, 97, 149, 263. ”

“ Are not the millions of Anahuac a match for a few hundred of their enemies, in whatever form they come? Be they gods, or be they demons, they belong not to this soil, nor this soil to them, and, by all our altars and all our gods, they must retire or perish, though we, and our wives, and our children perish with them.”
“Give us your hand, brave Axayatl,” exclaimed Cuitlahua and Guatimozin, at the same instant, “be that our vow in life and in death, and wo to the base Aztec, that abandons the standard of Montezuma, or whispers of submission to the haughty stranger.” ”

“ From this statement, taken in connection with the account of Herodotus that the Persians had learnt to sacrifice to Mylitta, [285] the conclusion has been drawn that Artaxerxes II. introduced the worship of Bilit among the Persians. But it was not necessary to teach this worship to the Damascenes and Lydians (I. 358, 563) , and even in the Avesta, Anahita as the goddess of the heavenly water is the goddess of fertility. Hence the statues made by Artaxerxes were, no doubt, images of Anahita the goddess, whom he invokes along with Auramazda and Mithra in his inscription at Susa. ”

“ As has been stated, the sixth century is the most remote period to which we are carried in the annals of Anáhuac by traditions sufficiently definite to be considered in a strict sense as historic records. Prior to the sixth century there were doubtless other periods of Nahua greatness, for there is little evidence to indicate that this was the first appearance in Mexico of this progressive people, but previous development cannot be definitely followed—in a historical sense—although affording occasional glimpses which supply interesting matter for antiquarian speculation. ”

“ We come lastly to a character, which Aeschylus has introduced into this play, although little connected with Prometheus—that of Io. The myth of Io had already become complicated with all sorts of alien elements before the time of Aeschylus: its nucleus, of course, was the local legend of the people of Argos. According to the belief of the Argives, the personality embodied in the Inachos, the river of the Argive plain, was that of the first king of the land. Like all rivers, Inachos was the son of Okeanos (l. 636, cf, Hesiod, Theog. 336) : from the great world-river all lesser ones sprang. ”

“ The people, seeing that their god was unable to defend himself against the wonderful strangers, now came and tendered their homage, and Hernando Pizarro, hearing that one of the Inca's two great generals, a chief named Challcuchima, was lying with a considerable force in the town of Xanxa, resolved to march there and attack him in his own quarters. The road across the mountains was even rougher and more difficult than the one by which he had come, and, to add to his troubles, the shoes of the horses were all worn out, and they suffered severely on the rough and stony ground. ”

“ The Acolhua monarch desiring by marriage to leave a legitimate heir to the throne, and becoming enamored of the young Azcaxochitl's charms, sent her husband away to the wars, and managed to have him killed. After her period of mourning was past, the fair Azcaxochitl was made queen of Tezcuco; the nuptial feasts lasted eighty days among great rejoicings of nobles and people; and within a year the queen gave birth to Nezahualpilli, the emperor's only legitimate son and his successor. ”

“ The totem had, in fact, become confounded with the sun-god, the deity of the older and more cultured races of Anahuac, who had been adopted by the Aztecs on their settlement there. The myth had, in fact, to be revised in the light of the later adoption of a solar cultus; so that here as in so many of the myths of other lands we find an amicable blending of rival beliefs which have been almost insensibly fused one into another. ”

“ THE reader would gather but an imperfect notion of the civilization of Anahuac, without some account of the Acolhuans, or Tezcucans, as they are usually called; a nation of the same great family with the Aztecs, whom they rivalled in power and surpassed in intellectual culture and the arts of social refinement. Fortunately, we have ample materials for this in the records left by Ixtlilxochitl, a lineal descendant of the royal line of Tezcuco, who flourished in the century of the Conquest. ”

“ No, it is not a storm like that, but one in which the passions of men shall sway them as the tempest sways the mighty tree; a storm in which blood shall flow and once more stain and soil the beautiful face of Anahuac; and sorrow shall find place in the hearts of many people, and lamentation shall ascend."
The voice of the hunter was like one inspired. The hermit felt it, and replied:
"The language of Tezcot is the language of a prophet. Whose hand is in the strifeful storm of which he foretells?"
"The hand of Maxtla, king at the royal city of Azcapozalco, is in it," answered the hunter. ”

“ So they are indifferent to the opinion which the Achaeans have of them, because they are aware that they are thoroughly known to them. It is for the king's representatives, and through them for the king himself, that he has uttered this bombast. If anyone did not know before what it was that led Antiochus to make common cause with the Aetolians, it came out clearly in their delegate's speech. By lying to one another and boasting of forces which neither of them possess they have filled each other with vain hopes. ”

“ For several centuries Anáhuac becomes the scene of intrigues and struggles between the different branches of the combination for the balance of power, during which a number of towns figure as dominating centres, and a number of tribes rise to prominence under the traditional term of conquerors and immigrants. Among these are the Aztecs, the representative nation of the Nahua civilization at the coming of the Spaniards. ”

“ No men of learning in Alexandria were more famous than the physicians. Erasistratus of Cos had the credit of having once cured Antiochus, afterwards King of Syria. He was the grandson of Aristotle, and may be called the father of the science of anatomy: his writings are often quoted by Dioscorides. Antiochus in his youth had fallen deeply in love with his young stepmother, and was pining away in silence and despair. Erasistratus found out the cause of his illness, which was straightway cured by Seleucus giving up his wife to his own son. ”

“ But before leaving the subject, it will be proper to call attention to the rôle that a god Anshar plays in the Babylonian-Assyrian cosmological system. Anshar and Kishar are the second pair of deities to be created, the first pair being Lakhmu and Lakhamu. In the great fight of the gods against the monster Tiâmat, it would appear that, according to one version at least, Anshar sends Anu, Ea, and finally Bel-Marduk, in turn to destroy the monster. He appears, therefore, to have exercised a kind of supremacy over the gods. ”

“ Subsequently, while Tlacaelel was the Tenochtitlan Cihuacoátl, ordered the destruction of the ancient Cem Anahuac history and created a new version, where the Aztecs occupied a central place, appropriating the Anahuac origin myths. As the famous pilgrimage that started at Chicomoztoc, [3] place of "the seven caves" in search of a promised land, guided by a messiah born of a Virgin Mother. Later the conquistadors and missionaries in the 16th century portrayed the Aztecs as cannibals and idolaters to justify their crimes "against humanity". ”

“ The cowardly Antiochus it was who stabbed him as he sprang from his sleep, encumbered and disabled by his night-clothes. Not a Roman has escaped with his life.
Antiochus is proclaimed king, and the streets of the city have resounded with the shouts of this deluded people, crying, 'long live Antiochus!' He has been borne in tumult to the great portico of the temple of the Sun, where, with the ceremonies prescribed for the occasion, he has been crowned king of Palmyra and of the East. ”

“ AMONG some of the tribes of Anahuac a farmer or a mechanic or a merchant might be counted as a man; not so was it with the fierce Aztecs. Every male in that tribe was born to be a warrior; it was only when he was maimed, sick, old, or, worse than all, an outcast from his clan, that he could not claim the privilege of going to the battlefield. Even the priests took a leading part in every conflict. It was not only their business to interpret the will of the gods, but they marched at the head of the Aztec troops bearing a little image, or talisman, of the most famous of the war-gods of Mexico. ”

“ For Antiochus, with his friends, came to the place as though he would marry her, and that he might receive great sums of money under the title of a dowry.
1:15. And when the priests of Nanea had set it forth, and he with a small company had entered into the compass of the temple, they shut the temple,
1:16. When Antiochus was come in: and opening a secret entrance of the temple, they cast stones and slew the leader, and them that were with him, and hewed them in pieces; and cutting off their heads, they threw them forth.
1:17. Blessed be God in all things, who hath delivered up the wicked. ”

“ Ah—but—could he dare to address a prayer to that god while Cuzco remained unpurged? By the great Inti, the fire should do its purifying work! From cottage, palace, and temple, the stench of the Viracocha should be burned! Should the last wall be levelled to the earth, the last stone of its streets upturned, no vestige of their defilement should remain. Cuzco would rise again, and the Viracochas be forgotten. Let the dead Incas look on whilst he wiped out the stain of the ancient city's dishonor and his own! ”

“ It must be remembered that we are not narrating the travels of a mighty nation, but of a battered tribe perhaps not large in number, and the petty fights and squabbles of insignificant clans, or bands; their greatness was of the future. The Aztecs have been justly called the pests of Anahuac, for they seemed unwilling to live at peace with any other tribe. Owing to their fierce character and their bloody religious rites they were hated by all. The King of the Colhuas was a follower of the prophet of peace, Quetzalcoatl, and could not agree with the priests of the god of the Mexicans. ”