2. SUIDAS

Thales, son of Examyus and Cleobuline, a Milesian (or a Phoenician, as Herodotus [I 170] says), lived before Croesus in the 35th Olympiad [640–637 BCE], but according to Phlegon [cf. Mus. Rh. 31, 18²], he was already known in the 7th Olympiad [752–749 BCE]. He wrote on celestial bodies in verse, on the equinox, and many other things. He died as an old man while watching a gymnastic contest, crushed by the crowd and collapsed from the heat [from Hesychius].

He was the first to receive the name of "wise man," the first to say the soul is immortal, and he discovered solar eclipses and equinoxes. Many apophthegms of his are in circulation, including the famous "Know thyself." The saying "A pledge is a neighbor to ruin" belongs rather to Chilon, who claimed it as his own, as well as "Nothing in excess" [from Laertius cf. Cedren. I 275, 14].

Thales, the natural philosopher, who predicted the eclipse of the sun during the time of Darius (!).

3. SCHOLIA ON PLATO'S REPUBLIC 600 A

Thales, son of Examyus, a Milesian (or a Phoenician, according to Herodotus). He was the first to be called wise. For he discovered that the sun is eclipsed by the passing of the moon, and he himself recognized the Little Bear constellation, the turnings of the sun, and the nature and size of the sun; and he said that even inanimate things possess a soul in some way, based on the magnet and amber. He held water to be the first principle of the elements. He said the universe is ensouled and full of demons. He was educated in Egypt by the priests. To him belongs the "Know thyself." He died alone as an old man while watching a gymnastic contest, collapsed from heat [from Hesychius].

4. HERODOTUS I 170

The advice of Thales, a Milesian man—who in his ancestry was of Phoenician descent—was good even before Ionia was destroyed. He advised the Ionians to have one council-chamber, and that it should be in Teos (for Teos is in the middle of Ionia), and that the other cities, though inhabited, should be considered no less than if they were [districts of a single] state.

5. HERODOTUS I 74

They fought the war on equal terms, and in the sixth year, when a battle occurred, it happened that during the fighting the day suddenly turned into night. Thales the Milesian had predicted this change of day to the Ionians, setting as a limit this year in which the change actually occurred.