among the ancients, a name given to that of the Stoics, because it was taught at 'Eλέας, (in Latin Velia), a town of Lucania.

The founder of this philosophy, or of the Eleatic sect, is supposed to have been Xenophanes, who flourished between B.C. 540 and 500. This sect was divided into two parties, which may be denominated metaphysical and physical, the one rejecting and the other approving the appeal to fact and experiment. Of the former persuasion were Xenophanes, Parmenides, Melissus, and Zeno of Elea. They are supposed to have maintained principles not very unlike those of Spinoza: they held the eternity and immutability of the world; that whatever existed was only one being; that there was neither generation nor corruption; that this one being was immoveable and immutable, and was God; and that whatever changes seemed to happen in the universe were to be looked upon as mere appearances and illusions of sense. However, it is supposed by some that Xenophanes and his followers, speaking metaphysically, understood by the universe, or the one being, not the material world, but the great originating principle of all things, or the true God, whom they expressly affirm to be incorporeal. Thus Simplicius represents them as merely metaphysical writers who distinguished between things natural and supernatural, and who supposed the former to be compounded of different principles. Accordingly, Xenophanes maintained that the earth consisted of air and fire; that all things were produced from the earth; that the sun and stars sprung from clouds; and that there were four elements. Parmenides also distinguished between the doctrine concerning metaphysical objects, called truth, and that concerning physical or corporeal things, called opinion. With respect to the former, there was one immoveable principle; but in the latter, two that were moveable, namely, fire and earth, or heat and cold: and in these particulars Zeno agreed with him. The other branch of the Eleatic sect, the Atomic philosophers, formed their system from observing the phenomena of nature: of these the most considerable were Leucippus, Democritus, and Protagoras.