[ 467 ] 
How early the Greeks had the ufe of the word 
apex, is not agreed on. The Babylonians, as we learn 
from the book of Daniel (43), ufed the equivalent 
word at lead; as early as the reign of Nebu- 
chadnezzar, or the year before Chrift 616. when Je- 
rufalem was firb taken by that prince, and 6 years 
before the birth of Anaximander. But that the divi- 
fions on his, or Pherecydes’s dial, were called flPAl, 
is not fo clear. 
Salmafius (44) fays, the word was unknown to the 
Greeks for more than two hundred years after the 
death of Anaximander : And farther, that it is never 
ufed by Plato, Aridotle, Theophrabus, nor any au- 
thor of that age ; nor even by Menander, or any other 
writer of the new Comedy after the time of Alexander 
the Great. 
But, with deference to this opinion of his, it may 
be obferved, that there is a padage in Xenophon (45-) 
where the word Qpct feems ufed in the fenfe con- 
tended for. Ovxvv Xj eTxxaS'ri 0 ydv (fays So- 
crates) (podl&VOS OJV TOCS T? flPAX $ h/JCSpcLS TiJJLlV Xj rccAAct 
7 ravlct actCpnviC^ei d j vvcp, 6 icc to axole-tvv en’cci acrcapec^epa. 
I 7 TI', a^pa. cv rip pux.1t a.vifprwa.V; cl yjuup ras D.PAS f 
piixIgs ejJLtpocvi^ei, xj S'ld. rM% ttoAAcc cov J'sof/.sS’cc tt^cltIg- 
(43) Dan. iii. 1 5. iv. 16. 
(44) Certe novae comediae fcriptores, quorum princeps Menan- 
der, qui poft Alexandrum magnum vixerat, nufquam T cxctf me- 
minere prodiei particula, ut grammatici nobis veteres teflantur. Sea 
nec ea vox hoc fenfu apud Platonem, Ariftotelem, Theophraftum, 
aut alios aequaevos fcriptores ufpiam legitur. Pitman, Excrcit. 
P- 6 33 - 
(45) Alemorabil . 1 . iv. cap. 3. fe£h 4. And fo Herodotus, be- 
fore him, ufeth the word, p. 529. 
N n n 2 fj.tr. 
