Subsequently Empedocles broke up the assembly of the Thousand three years after it had been set up, which proves not only that he was wealthy but that he favoured the popular cause. At all events Timaeus in Ins eleventh and twelfth books (for he mentions him more than once) states that he seems to have held opposite views when in public life and when writing poetry. In some passages one may see that he is boastful and selfish. At any rate these are his words : b All hail! I go about among you an immortal god, no more a mortal, etc. At the time when he visited Olympia he demanded an excessive deference, so that never was anyone so talked about in gatherings of friends as Empedocles. Subsequently, however, when Agrigentum came to regret him, the descendants of his personal enemies opposed his return home ; and this was why he went to Peloponnesus, where he died. Nor did Timon let even him alone, but fastens upon him in these words : c Empedocles, too, mouthing tawdry verses ; to all that had independent force, he gave a separate existence ; and the principles he chose need others to explain them. As to his death different accounts are given. a This emphasis on the political leanings of Empedocles, backed by the authority of Timaeus, looks strange after the anecdote, also from Timaeus, of §§ 64, 65, nor is it clear that the attack on the close oligarchical corporation of the Thousand really took place at a later date {varepov). That D. L. is working in two passages of Timaeus, in the second of which the first is not pre-supposed, is an obvious suggestion. 6 Fr. 112. 4 D. c Fr. 42 D.