Anaximander, a Grecian philosopher of the Ionian school, born at Miletus in 610, died about 547 B. 0. He is said to have led a colony to Apollonia in Illyria, and many wonderful deeds and inventions are ascribed to him. Grecian philosophy is indebted to him for the word signifying origin or principle. His general doctrine, as stated by ancient writers, concerning the origin of nature, was that the first principle of all tilings is infinity ; that the universe, though variable in its parts, as a whole is fixed and unchangeable; that infinity is the beginning and end of all things. He was the first to commit philosophical doctrines to writing, He wrote a treatise on geometry, and made calculations on the distances and size of the heavenly bodies. He held that the stars are globes of air and fire animated by divinity, that the earth is a globe fixed in the centre of the universe, and that the sun is 28 times as large as the earth. He was the first to compose a treatise on geography, and also prepared a chart of such portions of land and sea as he was acquainted with. According to some, he invented the sun dial.