Anaxagoras of Clazomenae

400 PHOENIX passages and theirunderlyingcontexts. Moreover, few are likelyto findfault with the claim thatdiscussionsof thegrain supplyareoftencloaked indemocraticrhetoric. But his centralargumentthatthisrhetoric masks a "reality of elitecontrol"(324) is considerably more problematic, and not merely because, aside from Andocides, we have no evidence whatsoever, asMoreno freely admits, for even "a single politically prominent Athenian who isalso amerchantor shipowner"(278). In decodingAthenian "doublethink" Moreno employsmany of the same techniques as the oratorshe is analysing (oftenhelpfully signaledby theadditionof italicsor exclamation marks). The end resultforsomewill be a disquietingsensethatthisportrait of a classofAthenian elites somehowcontrollingthe grain supply, and somehowbenefiting politicallythereby, is more theproductof Moreno's considerable rhetorical gifts than sober analysis of the evidence. University of Toronto Ephraim Lytle Anaxagoras of Clazomenae: Fragments and Testimonm: A Text and Translation with Notes and Essays. By Patricia Curd. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2007. Pp. 279. The last in the Phoenix Presocratics series, this book presents the texts relating to Anaxagoras. The author provides a brief introduction, then the fragments of Anaxagoras in the Diels-Kranz ordering with translation on facing page, followed by a brief commentary on the fragments; next she offers a translation of the testimonies, following theDiels-Kranz ordering; finally, she appends five interpretive essays on the life and thought ofAnaxagoras. This work is awelcome addition to themeagre offerings availableon this important philosopher. There is a fine edition of the fragments of Anaxagoras (sans testimonies) by David Sider, newly reissued by Academia Verlag, and several valuable older monographs on special topics. But there has not been an accessible work presenting the whole range of Anaxagoras' thought. The books of the Phoenix series are designed to provide the ancient sources for the Presocratic philosophers with explanations, and Curd's book does an admirable job with Anaxagoras. The author provides a lucid translation of fragments and testimonies, helpful notes for the fragments, and thoughtful essays interpreting the challenging but rewarding theories of Anaxagoras. She makes use of the latest scholarship and provides an up-to-date bibliography. I have one bone topickwith her treatment of a couple of terms. She suggeststhat megasl mikros "large"/"small," which appear prominendy in several fragments concerning mixture, should sometimes be taken in an unusual sense, to denote, respectively, high and low concentrations of basic ingredients, which result in their being manifest ("emergent") or latent("submerged")inamixture (35, 38, 184,187). This isan interesting suggestion, and could solve certain problems. But it seems to me unnecessary. All occurrences of "large"/"small" can be read in a conventional way without undue strain. For instance, B3 reads (using Curd's translation): "Nor of the small is there a smallest, but always a smaller ... but also of the largethereis alwaysa larger. And [the large] is equal to the small in extent, but in relation to itself each thing is both large and small." Ifwe take the reference to the small as the context suggests, and the large correspondingly, we get this reading: "Nor of the small is there a smallest [portion], but always a smaller ... but also of the largethereis alwaysa larger[portion]." This sentence makes perfecdy good sense.The meaning could be explicatedby an example like this (usingdecimal fractions):0.1 is a BOOKREVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 401 small portion, but not the smallest: there could be a 0.01, and a 0.001, and so on; 0.9 is a large portion, but not the largest: there could be a 0.99, and a 0.999, and so on. The second sentence then might mean: to each small portion there corresponds a large, and to each smaller a larger: 0.1: 0.9; 0.01: 0.99, and so on. The final clause, "in relation to itself each thingisboth largeand small"canbe explicated bypreciselythesamecorrespondences among thereciprocalfractionsthatadd up to thesum totalof thethinginquestion.This interpretation can, I think, be applied toB6 to showthat"thesharesof thesmalland large are equal in number" and, with a littlemore work, to Bl. Concerning his life, there is a debate about when Anaxagoras sojourned inAthens: was itearlyinhis career,480-450, or later,say460-430 B.C.?Curd (131) favoursa laterdate, as arguedbyJ. Mansfeld (arriving 456/5 B.C.).Mansfeld also hasAnaxagoras publishing his book around440. The evidenceseems tome topoint to theearlierdate (favoured by

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