Simpl. _Phys._ p. 1121, 5 (R. P. 21 b). Zeller says (p. 234, n. 4) that Simplicius elsewhere (_de Caelo_, p. 273 b 43) makes the same statement more doubtfully. But the words ὡς δοκεῖ, on which he relies, are hardly an expression of doubt, and refer, in any case, to the derivation of the doctrine of “innumerable worlds” from that of the ἄπειρον, not to the doctrine itself. It is probable that this too comes from Theophrastos through Alexander. Simplicius does not invent such things. We come lastly to a very important statement which Cicero has copied from Philodemos, the author of the Epicurean treatise on Religion found at Herculaneum, or perhaps from the immediate source of that work. “Anaximander’s opinion was,” he makes Velleius say, “that there were gods who came into being, rising and passing away at long intervals, and that these were the innumerable worlds”;[124] and this must clearly be taken along with the statement of Aetios to the effect that, according to Anaximander, the “innumerable heavens” were gods.[125] Now it is very much more natural to understand the “long intervals” which Cicero mentions as intervals of space than as intervals of time;[126] and, if we take the passage in this way, we have a perfect agreement among all our authorities. Footnote 124: Cicero, _de Nat. D._ i. 25 (R. P. 21). Footnote 125: Aet. i. 7, 12 (R. P. 21 a). The reading of Stob., ἀπείρους οὐρανούς, is guaranteed by the ἀπείρους κόσμους of Cyril, and the ἀπείρους νοῦς (_i.e._ οὐνους) of the pseudo-Galen. See _Dox._ p. 11. It may be added that it is very unnatural to understand the statement that the Boundless “encompasses all the worlds” of worlds succeeding one another in time; for on this view there is at a given time only one world to “encompass.” Moreover, the argument mentioned by Aristotle that, if what is outside the heavens is infinite, body must be infinite, and there must be innumerable worlds, can only be understood in this sense, and is certainly intended to represent the reasoning of the Milesians; for they were the only cosmologists who held there was a boundless body outside the heavens.[127] Lastly, we happen to know that Petron, one of the earliest Pythagoreans, held there were just one hundred and eighty-three worlds arranged in a triangle,[128] which shows that views of this sort existed long before the Atomists, and looks like an attempt to introduce some order into Anaximander’s universe. Footnote 126: It is simplest to suppose that Cicero found διαστήμασιν in his Epicurean source, and that is a technical term for the _intermundia_. Footnote 127: