Vitae philosophorum
Diogenes Laertius
Diogenes Laertius. Hicks, R. D., editor. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1925.
Strato is said to have grown so thin that he felt nothing when his end came. And I have written some lines upon him as follows[*](Anth. Pal. vii. 111.):
A thin, spare man in body, take my word for it, owing to his use of unguents,[*](Or if you attend to me, I am content, according to the alternative reading.) was this Strato, I at least affirm, toV1_515whom Lampsacus gave birth. For ever wrestling with diseases, he died unawares or ever he felt the hand of death.
There have been eight men who bore the name of Strato: (1) a pupil of Isocrates; (2) our subject; (3) a physician, a disciple, or, as some say, a fosterchild, of Erasistratus; (4) a historian, who treated of the struggle of Philip and Perseus against the Romans; (5) * *; (6) a poet who wrote epigrams; (7) a physician who lived in ancient times, mentioned by Aristotle; (8) a Peripatetic philosopher who lived in Alexandria.
But to return to Strato the physicist. His will is also extant and it runs as follows:
In case anything should happen to me I make these dispositions. All the goods in my house I give and bequeath to Lampyrio and Arcesilaus. From the money belonging to me in Athens, in the first place my executors shall provide for my funeral and for all that custom requires to be done after the funeral, without extravagance on the one hand or meanness on the other.