Democritus

Democritus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Abdera on the coast of Thrace, who lived from about 460 to about 370 BC. He is remembered chiefly for an atomic theory of the universe that he developed with his teacher Leucippus, and in antiquity he was called the laughing philosopher because he stressed the value of cheerfulness. He was a polymath and prolific writer, credited with nearly eighty treatises on subjects such as poetry, harmony, military tactics and Babylonian theology, and later scholars arranged his writings in groups of four, as was done for Plato. None of his original work has survived, so what is known of it comes from second-hand references, many of them from Aristotle, who treated him as an important rival in natural philosophy. Cicero praised the poetical beauty and liveliness of the style that survives in reports of his writing. His place in literature rests on the lost treatises and on that reputation for style.