28 SCIENCE IN GRECO-ROMAN ANTIQUITY 



be matter spatially infinite, it is more natural to admit 

 that, in the universe, innumerable worlds can arise and 

 develop at the same time. The word innumerable then 

 signifies a co-existence in space, and not the simple 

 enumeration of worlds succeeding one another in time. 

 Thus, the cosmology of Anaximander can be con- 

 sistently interpreted in two opposite ways, and, con- 

 sidering the texts which have been preserved, it is 

 difficult to make a choice. The whole problem is 

 focussed on the following question : Was it possible 

 in the seventh century B.C. to conceive a universe, 

 which, without being infinite in the modern sense of the 

 term, was unlimited to such a degree that one region 

 alone of this universe could be subject to a general 

 movement of rotation ? 



There remains to mention the views of Anaximander 

 on the birth of living beings, for they are a very 

 singular anticipation of evolutionary doctrines. " The 

 first animals were produced in moisture, and were 

 each covered with a spiny integument ; in course of 

 time they reached dry land. When the integument 

 burst they modified in a short time their mode of 

 living." (Aetius: Diels, Dox 579, 17). "Living 

 creatures were born from the moist element when it 

 had been evaporated by the sun. Man, in the begin- 

 ning, resembled another animal, to wit, a fish." 

 (Hippolytus : Diels, Dox, 560, 6). 



Finally, a persistent tradition, reported by Strabo 

 on the authority of Eratosthenes (Diels, Vor. 1, 12, 41) 

 attributes to Anaximander the first geographical map. 

 He was also supposed to have introduced into Greece 

 the use of the gnomon and of the polos. 



Anaximenes, the successor and associate of 

 Anaximander, was the last representative of the School 

 of Miletus. We do not know the exact period at which 

 he lived, except that he was younger than Anaximander 



