(Ξενοφάνης), of Colophon, was the son of Orthomenes, or according to others, of Dexius (D. L. 9.18, ib. Interp.). He was mentioned in the writings of Heracleitus and Epicharmus (ib. 9.1. &c; Arist. Met. 3.5. p. 1010. 6), and had himself made mention of Thales, Epimenides, and Pythagoras (D. L. 9.18, 1.111, 8.36), and is placed in connection with tire musician Lasus of Hermione in the time of the
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Athenian Hipparchus. (Plut. de vitioso pudore, p. 530.) On the other hand, his expression respecting Simonides (Schol. in Aristoph. Pac. 696 ; comp. S. Karsten, p. 81) is very doubtful. In a fragment of his elegies mention is made of the Median invasion as an event that took place in his time, by which we should probably understand the expedition of Harpagus against the Greek cities in Asia (Ol. 59), not the Persian invasion of Greece (Ol. 72 or 75; comp. Theol. Arithm. p. 40, and Cousin, Nouveaux Fragmens philosophiques, p. 12, &c). Yet the widely different significations of these lines may have given rise to the chronological statements of Apollodorus and Timaeus, the former of whom placed his birth (undoubtedly too early), in the 40th Olympiad, and made him live to the times of Dareius and Cyrus, while the latter made him a contemporary of Hiero (Ol. 75. 3) and Epicharmus (Clem. Al. Strom. i. p. 361; Sext. Emp. ad v. Math. 1.257). Other statements are still more uncertain (D. L. 9.18, 8.56, 20 ; Euseb. Chron. Ol. 60. 2. and 56. 4); but the first mentioned references are sufficient to fix the period when he flourished to between the 60th and 70th Olympiads. According to the fragments of one of his elegies (D. L. 9.19), he had left his native land at the age of 25, and had already lived 67 years in Hellas, when, at the age of 92, he composed that elegy. He left his native land as a fugitive or exile (ἐκπεσών), and betook himself to the Ionian colonies in Sicily, Zancle and Catana (D. L. 9.18). There can be no doubt that he, the founder of the Eleatic school (Plat. Soph. p. 224d.), lived at least for some time in Elea (Velia, founded by the Phocaeans in Ol. 61), the foundation of which he had sung (comp. Arist. Rhet. 2.23; D. L. 9.10).[Ch. A. B.]