Son of Aristocles, of Lampsacus, rhetor; pupil of Diogenes the Cynic and the grammarian Zoilus of Amphipolis,[1] who abused Homer; teacher of Alexander of Macedon, and accompanied him on his campaigns.
When[2] king Alexander was angry with the people of Lampsacus, this man got round him by the following trick. The people of Lampsacus were pro-Persian; Alexander was furiously angry, and threatened to do them massive harm. They, trying to save their women, their children and their homeland, sent Anaximenes to intercede. Alexander knew why he had come, and swore by the gods that he would do the opposite of what he asked; so Anaximenes said, 'Please do this for me, your majesty: enslave the women and children of Lampsacus, burn their temples, and raze the city to the ground.' Alexander had no way round this clever trick, and because he was bound by his oath he reluctantly pardoned the people of Lampsacus. Anaximenes also retaliated against Theopompus,[3] son of Damostratus, in an ingenious though malicious way. Since he was a sophist and could imitate the style of the sophists, he wrote a book addressed to the Athenians and Spartans, a defamatory treatise, exactly imitating him. He attached Theopompus' name to it, and sent it to the cities. As a result, hostility to Theopompus was increased throughout Greece. Moreover, no one before Anaximenes had invented improvised speeches.