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Xenophanes wasn’t the only ancient Greek to hold such a view: subsequent thinkers proposed similar theories, including the vegetarian Empedocles and the Stoics.

In the 5th century, over 100,000 people lived there and, according to the philosopher Empedocles, they would “party as if they’ll die tomorrow, and build as if they’ll live forever”.

Aristotle was not the first to conceptualize an elemental system: he borrowed from the fifth-century-bc pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles.

Ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles thought that the sun’s rays’ hitting clouds caused fires that would quickly drive out air, causing a noise — thunder — and a gleam — lightning.

Empedocles was, at least in part, a Pythagorean.