Ionʹic School or Ionic Philosophers

Thalēs, Anaximander, Anaximeʹnēs, Heracliʹtos, and Anaxagʹoras were all natives of Ionia, and were the earliest of the Greek philosophers. They tried to prove that all created things spring from one principle; Thalēs said it was water, Anaximenēs thought it was air or gas, Anaxagoras that it wasʹ atoms, Heraclitos maintained that it was fire or caloric, while Anaximander insisted that the elements of all things are eternal, for ex nihilo nihil fit.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.