(probably the image produced later derived from a sculpture of
Metrodorus) He was the first who said that the Earth shape is
spherical (Diogenes Laertius) Parmenides of Elea (Παρμενίδης),
the son of Peirethos (520/510 BC), founder of the Eleatic
school. A student of Anaximander, the Pythagorean Ameineias and
of Xenophanes according to Diogenes Laertius (there is some
doubt that he knew Anaximander). Parmenides was a teacher of
Empedocles and Zeno. Elea was founded around 540 BC by the
Phoceans. Around 545 BC the Ionian city of Phocea was attacked
by Harpagus the general of Cyrus the King of Persia. Many
Phoceans left their city and with their Pentekonteres ships
moved to the island of Chios and from there they went to Corsica
(Kyrnos). From there some went to Massalia (Marseille) and
Calabria a place called Hyele that later was called Elea (or
Velia by the Romans) The information about Parmenides is
limited. In 450 BC he visited Athens to meet Pericles. Except
the political visit Plato in his book Parmenides