Life
Xenophanes was a native of Colophon, and was the son of Orthomenes, or according to others, of Dexius. He is said to have flourished during the 60th Olympiad (540–537 BC). He was mentioned in the writings of Heraclitus and Epicharmus, and had himself mentioned Thales, Epimenides, and Pythagoras. In a fragment of his elegies he mentions the Median invasion as an event that took place in his time, which may refer to the expedition of Harpagus against the Greek cities in Ionia (546/5 BC). He left his native land as a fugitive or exile, and went to the Ionian colonies in Sicily, Zancle and Catana. He may have lived for some time in Elea (founded by the Phocaeans in the 61st Olympiad 536-533 BC), for he wrote about the foundation of the colony. According to the fragments of one of his elegies, he had left his native land at the age of 25, and had already lived 67 years in the Greek lands, when, at the age of 92, he composed that elegy.
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