Empedocles 
Empedocles, eulogized by Lucretius as "the most remarkable of the poet-philosophers of Antiquity…Pythagorean in his ethical principles…made their doctrines public by means of his poems". In the fragments that remain he "sings of the 'Golden Age'…exhorting the world to abandon the foul diet of blood" (Howard Williams, Ethics of Diet, "Empedoklês") he exclaims, "Will ye not cease from evil slaughter? See ye not that ye are devouring each other in heedlessness of mind?'" (Empedocles, Fragments "On Purification").
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 ca 450 BCE | Empedocles, Fragments: On Purifications [offsite] (ebook history).
369. There is an utterance of Necessity, an ancient decree of the gods, eternal, sealed fast with broad oaths whenever any one defiles his body sinfully with bloody gore or perjures himself in regard to wrong-doing, one of those spirits who are heir to long life, thrice ten thousand seasons shall he wander apart from the blessed, being born meantime in all sorts of mortal forms, changing one bitter path of life for another. For mighty Air pursues him Seaward, and Sea spews him forth on the threshold of Earth, and Earth casts him into the rays of the unwearying Sun, and Sun into the eddies of Air; one receives him from the other, and all hate him. One of these now am I too, a fugitive from the gods and a wanderer, at the mercy of raging Strife.
There are strong similarities between Empedocles and the teachings of Pythagoras on the transmigration of souls. Empedocles is clearly a follower of Pythagoras, in his ethics and psychology at least, and shares his vegetarianism and pacifism. (Internet Encyclopedia, "Empedocles on Meat Eating and Sin" [offsite article]
405. Nor had they any god Ares, nor Kydoimos (Uproar), nor king Zeus, nor Kronos, nor Poseidon, but queen Kypris. Her they worshipped with hallowed offerings, with painted figures, and perfumes of skilfully made odour, and sacrifices of unmixed myrrh and fragrant frankincense, casting on the ground libations from tawny bees. And her altar was not moistened with pure blood of bulls, but it was the greatest defilement among men, to deprive animals of life and to eat their goodly bodies.
415. And there was among them a man of unusual knowledge, and master especially of all sorts of wise deeds, who in truth possessed greatest wealth of mind for whenever he reached out with all his mind, easily he beheld each one of all the things that are, even for ten and twenty generations of men.
421. For all were gentle and obedient toward men, both animals and birds, and they burned with kindly love; and trees grew with leaves and fruit ever on them, burdened with abundant fruit all the year.
425. This is not lawful for some and unlawful for others, but what is lawful for all extends on continuously through the wide-ruling air and the boundless light.
427. Will ye not cease from evil slaughter? See ye not that ye are devouring each other in heedlessness of mind?
Slaughter and meat-eating are the most terrible of sins, indeed for [Empedocles] animal slaughter is murder and meat-eating is cannibalism as shown by [the following passage]. (Internet Encyclopedia, "Empedocles on Meat Eating and Sin" [offsite article]
430. A father takes up his dear son who has changed his form and slays him with a prayer, so great is his folly! They are borne along beseeching the sacrificer; but he does not hear their cries of reproach, but slays them and makes ready the evil feast. Then in the same manner son takes father and daughters their mother, and devour the dear flesh when they have deprived them of life.
436. Alas that no ruthless day destroyed me before I devised base deeds of devouring with the lips!
In terms reminiscent of Hesiod's description of the coming horrors of the Iron Age in Works and Days, we see the appalling consequences of meat-eating: murder, cannibalism, the destruction of whole families and, by extrapolation, of entire societies. This is a radical position in both political and religious terms. (Internet Encyclopedia, "Empedocles on Meat Eating and Sin" [offsite article])
384-322 BCE | Aristotle, Rhetoric [offsite] (ebook history).
And so Empedocles, when he bids us kill no living creature, says that doing this is not just for some people while unjust for others, "Nay, but, an all-embracing law, through the realms of the sky / Unbroken it stretcheth, and over the earth's immensity."
99-55 BCE | Lucretius, "Empedocles Eulogized" [offsite] in On the Nature of Things (ebook history).
With generous strength of heroes, she hath ne'er
Possessed within her aught of more renown,
Nor aught more holy, wonderful, and dear
Than this true man. Nay, ever so far and pure
The lofty music of his breast divine
Lifts up its voice and tells of glories found,
That scarce he seems of human stock create.
Sextus Empiricus, Against the Physicists, Book 1 [offsite-preview only] (ebook history).
Pythagoras and Empedocles and the whole crowd of the Italian philosophers declare that we have a certain community of interest not only with one another and with the gods but also with the irrational animals. For there is one spirit which pervades all the universe like a soul, and which also makes us one with those animals. Hence, if we kill them and eat their flesh we shall be doing wrong and committing a sacrilege, because we are destroying our kin. And it was for this reason that these philosophers recommended abstinence from animal food, and declared those men were impious who stain the altar of the Blessed with the warm blood of victims.
3rd c. CE | Laertius Diogenes, "Empedocles" [offsite ebook] in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (ebook history).
Timaeus, in his ninth book, relates that he was a pupil of Pythagoras, saying that he was afterwards convicted of having divulged his doctrines, in the same way as Plato was, and therefore that he was forbidden from thenceforth to attend his school. And they say that Pythagoras himself mentions him when he says:
And in that band there was a learned man,
Of wondrous wisdom; one, who of all men
Had the profoundest wealth of intellect.
But some say that when the philosopher says this, he is referring to Parmenides. Neanthes relates, that till the time of Philolaus and Empedocles, the Pythagoreans used to admit all persons indiscriminately into their school; but when Empedocles made their doctrines public by means of his poems, then they made a law to admit no Epic poet. And they say that the same thing happened to Plato; for that he too was excluded from the school.
1883 | Howard Williams, "Empedoklês" in "The Ethics of Diet (ebook history).
THE most remarkable of the poet-philosophers of Antiquity—the
highly eulogised of the greatest of Latin poets—Empedoklês…may fitly be regarded as Pythagorean in his ethical principles.
Only fragments of his philosophical poems On Nature, the Discourse on Medicine (some 470 verses), and the Lustral Precepts remain. It is thus that he sings of the "Golden Age":—"Then every animal was tame, and familiar with men—both mammals and birds; and mutual love prevailed…. Exhorting the world to abandon the foul diet of blood, he exclaims :—"Will you not put an end to this accursed slaughter? Will you not see that you are destroying yourselves in blind ignorance of soul ?"
 Transcriber's Notes
ca 450 BCE | Empedocles, Fragments and Commentary, edited and translated by Arthur Fairbanks, in The First Philosophersof Greece (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1898; Online Edition: Hanover Historical Texts Project, 2001).
384-322 BCE | Aristotle Rhetoric [Excerpts from Aristotle's Rhetoric, A Hypertextual Resource (Compiled by Lee Honeycutt, Transcribed from the 1954 Edition of the translation by W. Rhys Roberts).
99 - 55 BCE | Lucretius [Titus Lucretius Carus], "Confutation of Other Philosophers" Chap. 6 in Bk. 1 of De Rurum Natura (On the Nature of Things) translated by William Ellery Leonard (Print Basis: E. P. Dutton, 1916; Online Edition: Perseus Digital Library).
2nd or 3rd c. CE | Sextus Empiricus, Against the Physicists, Book 1 Selections from the Major Writings of Scepticism, Man and God, Edited by Philip P. Hallie, Translated by Sanford G. Etheridge (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1985).
[3rd c. CE] Laertius Diogenes, "Empedocles" [offsite ebook] in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, translated by C.D. Yonge (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853 [Notes on the history [offsite]]) .
1883 | Howard Williams, The Ethics of Diet ([First Edition: London & Manchester, 1883; Online Edition Transcribed from the Expanded and Revised 2nd Edition] London & Manchester, 1896; Animal Rights History, 2006).
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, s.v. "Empedocles"
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