anaximander's book. 2-11 



met. Tour of the Earth was one of the accepted names for a geo- 

 graphical treatise. On the Fixed Stars and Sphere would be suitable 

 titles for works dealing with astronomy. What account shall we take 

 of this bibliographical index? 



In the times of Anaximander and for long thereafter it was not 

 customary for authors to prefix titles to their writings. Such indi- 

 cation as the writer vouchsafed to give of the contents of his book 

 would ordinarily be contained, along with his name, in the intro- 

 ductory sentence, as was done, for example, by Herodotus, more than 

 a century after Anaximander. Ephorus was, apparently the first 

 geographer and historian who divided his work into ' books.' However 

 reasonable the earlier practice may have been for the writer, it was 

 extremely inconvenient for a librarian. The latter required a con- 

 venient ticket to attach to the scroll, and hence invented titles where 

 they were not furnished by use and wont. The librarians at Alex- 

 andria thus found in current use not only such genei*al titles as Iliad 

 and Odyssey, but also certain sub-titles referring to episodes or dis- 

 tinct divisions of larger wholes. It is obvious that in the catalogues 

 of the Alexandrian libraries these titles recognized by usage and 

 found in the tcstimonia, particularly regarding rare books or desiderata, 

 were duly listed. ^ Hence it might well happen, and demonstrably 

 did repeatedly happen, that one and the same book was represented 

 in the catalogues by various titles. 



Now as regards Anaximander we need not pause at present to inquire 

 whether, assuming the essential truth of the bibliographical data 

 furnished by Suidas, he is to be credited with more than one treatise. "^ 

 The title On Nature, though in no sense original or really authentic, 

 is admitted by all to apply to a genuine work of Anaximander from 

 which, it is assumed, derive in the last resort the reports of his ' philo- 

 sophical' opinions, excerpted by Theophrastus and preserved in the 

 form of tablets triturate in the doxographic tradition. Even the 

 most superficial knowledge of such things must suffice to justify the 

 application of such a title as On the Fixed Stars to at least a portion of 

 this treatise. As for Sphere, it is true that it is not strictly applicable, 

 because there is no adequate ground for thinking that Anaximander 

 spoke of celestial spheres, the luminaries being according to his teach- 

 ing annular bodies; but from Aristotle onwards the Pythagorean 



6 This was suggested by Diels, Herodot und Hekataios, Hermes, 22, p. 414, 

 n. 1, and is made so evident by a study of bibliographical data regarding 

 ancient authors that it cannot reasonably be denied. 



7 It was apparently the multiplicity of titles, assumed to imply an equal 

 number of treatises, that led Zeller, Phil, der Gr. P, p. 197 n., to suspect that 

 the bibhography of Suidas arose from a misunderstanding. 



