Vitae philosophorum

Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes Laertius. Hicks, R. D., editor. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1925.

For he was one of Conon’s household servants,[*](The first sentence is paralleled by Aelian, Var. Hist. xii. 43 Δημήτριον δὲ τὸν Φαληρέα οἰκότριβα γενέσθαι λέγουσιν ἐκ τῆς οἰκίας τῆς Τιμοθέου καὶ Κόνωνος. The insertion of this reference to the family of Conon has had the effect of separating two clauses which ought to be closely joined: καίπερ οὐκ εὐγενὴς ὤν(the last words of § 75) and ἀστῇ καὶ εὐγενεῖ(in § 76). Hesychius in Suidas emphasizes the beauty of Demetrius. In a modern book the statement that, according to Favorinus, Demetrius was in Conon’s family would find a more suitable place in a footnote.) according to Favorinus in the first book of his Memorabilia; yet Lamia, with whom he lived, was a citizen of noble family, as Favorinus also states in his first book. Further, in his second book Favorinus alleges that he suffered violence from Cleon, while Didymus in his Table-talk relates how a certain courtesan nicknamed him Charito-Blepharos (having the eyelids of the Graces), and Lampito (of shining eyes). He is said to have lost his sight when in Alexandria and to have recovered it by the gift of Sarapis; whereupon he composed the paeans which are sung to this day.

For all his popularity with the Athenians he nevertheless suffered eclipse through all-devouring envy.

Having been indicted by some persons on a capital charge, he let judgement go by default; and, when his accusers could not get hold of his person, they disgorged their venom on the bronze of his statues. These they tore down from their pedestals; some were sold, some cast into the sea, and others were even, it is said, broken up to make bedroom-utensils. Only one is preserved in the Acropolis. In his Miscellaneous History Favorinus tells us that the Athenians did this at the bidding of King Demetrius.

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And in the official list the year in which he was archon was styled the year of lawlessness, according to this same Favorinus.

Hermippus tells us that upon the death of Casander, being in fear of Antigonus, he fled to Ptolemy Soter. There he spent a considerable time and advised Ptolemy, among other things, to invest with sovereign power his children by Eurydice. To this Ptolemy would not agree, but bestowed the diadem on his son by Berenice, who, after Ptolemy’s death, thought fit to detain Demetrius as a prisoner in the country until some decision should be taken concerning him. There he lived in great dejection, and somehow, in his sleep, received an asp-bite on the hand which proved fatal. He is buried in the district of Busiris near Diospolis.

Here are my lines upon him[*](Anth. Pal. vii. 113.):

A venomous asp was the death of the wise Demetrius, an asp withal of sticky venom, darting, not light from its eyes, but black death.

Heraclides in his epitome of Sotion’s Successions of Philosophers says that Ptolemy himself wished to transmit the kingdom to Philadelphus, but that Demetrius tried to dissuade him, saying, If you give it to another, you will not have it yourself. At the time when he was being continually attacked in Athens, Menander, the Comic poet, as I have also learnt, was very nearly brought to trial for no other cause than that he was a friend of Demetrius. However, Telesphorus, the nephew of Demetrius, begged him off.

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In the number of his works and their total length in lines he has surpassed almost all contemporary Peripatetics. For in learning and versatility he has no equal. Some of these works are historical and others political; there are some dealing with poets, others with rhetoric. Then there are public speeches and reports of embassies, besides collections of Aesop’s fables and much else. He wrote:

Of Legislation at Athens, five books.

Of the Constitutions of Athens, two books.

Of Statesmanship, two books.

On Politics, two books.

Of Laws, one book.

On Rhetoric, two books.

On Military Matters, two books.

On the Iliad, two books.

On the Odyssey, four books.

And the following works, each in one book:

Ptolemy.

Concerning Love.

Phaedondas.

Maedon.

Cleon.

Socrates.

Artaxerxes.

Concerning Homer.

Aristides.

Aristomachus.

An Exhortation to Philosophy.

Of the Constitution.

On the ten years of his own Supremacy.

Of the Ionians.

Concerning Embassies.

Of Belief.

Of Favour.

Of Fortune.

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Of Magnanimity.

Of Marriage.

Of the Beam in the Sky.[*](Of the Beam in the Sky. Some render this Of Opinion, but the word used in this sense is δόκησις: cf. Schäf. Schol. Par. Ap. Rh. ii. 1088.)

Of Peace.

On Laws.

On Customs.

Of Opportunity.

Dionysius.

Concerning Chalcis.

A Denunciation of the Athenians.

On Antiphanes.

Historical Introduction.

Letters.

A Sworn Assembly.

Of Old Age.

Rights.

Aesop’s Fables.

Anecdotes.

His style is philosophical, with an admixture of rhetorical vigour and force. When he heard that the Athenians had destroyed his statues, That they may do, said he, but the merits which caused them to be erected they cannot destroy. He used to say that the eyebrows formed but a small part of the face, and yet they can darken the whole of life by the scorn they express. Again, he said that not only was Plutus blind, but his guide, Fortune, as well; that all that steel could achieve in war was won in politics by eloquence. On seeing a young dandy, There, quoth he, is a four-square Hermes for you, with trailing robe, belly, beard and

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all.[*](Since Herms at Athens show neither drapery nor belly, but archaic hair, this saying would seem either to be incorrectly reported or to need a fresh interpretation. It has been suggested that a long lock pendent over the shoulder may lurk under σύομα (cf. Anth. Pal. v. 12. 2 σύρμα μένει πλοκάμων, and Ael. Var. Hist. xii. 14 τὴν μὲν γὰρ κόμην ἀνασεσύρθαι), or that a Herm might sometimes have been made by cutting down a larger, draped, statue; or perhaps on festal days Herms were decked with robes. In Stobaeus, Flor. iv. 68, Philip is credited with a sneer to the same effect on Athenians at large.) When men are haughty and arrogant, he declared we should cut down their tall stature and leave them their spirit unimpaired. Children should honour their parents at home, out-of-doors everyone they meet, and in solitude themselves.

In prosperity friends do not leave you unless desired, whereas in adversity they stay away of their own accord. All these sayings seem to be set down to his credit.

There have been twenty noteworthy men called Demetrius: (1) a rhetorician of Chalcedon, older than Thrasymachus; (2) the subject of this notice; (3) a Peripatetic of Byzantium; (4) one called the graphic writer, clear in narrative; he was also a painter; (5) a native of Aspendus, a pupil of Apollonius of Soli; (6) a native of Callatis, who wrote a geography of Asia and Europe in twenty books; (7) a Byzantine, who wrote a history of the migration of the Gauls from Europe into Asia in thirteen books, and another work in eight books dealing with Antiochus and Ptolemy and their settlement of Libya;

(8) the sophist who lived at Alexandria, author of handbooks of rhetoric; (9) a grammarian of Adramyttium, surnamed Ixion because he was thought to be unjust to Hera; (10) a grammarian of Cyrene, surnamed Wine-jar, an eminent man; (11) a native of Scepsis, a man of wealth and good birth, ardently devoted to learning; he was also the means of bringing his countryman Metrodorus into prominence; (12) a grammarian of Erythrae enrolled as a citizen of

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Mnos; (13) a Bithynian, son of Diphilus the Stoic and pupil of Panaetius of Rhodes;

(14) a rhetorician of Smyrna. The foregoing were prose authors. Of poets bearing this name the first belonged to the Old Comedy; the second was an epic poet whose lines to the envious alone survive:

While he lives they scorn the man whom they regret when he is gone; yet, some day, for the honour of his tomb and lifeless image, contention seizes cities and the people set up strife;

the third of Tarsus, writer of satires; the fourth, a writer of lampoons, in a bitter style; the fifth, a sculptor mentioned by Polemo; the sixth, of Erythrae, a versatile man, who also wrote historical and rhetorical works.

Heraclides, son of Euthyphro, born at Heraclea in the Pontus, was a wealthy man. At Athens he first attached himself to Speusippus. He also attended the lectures of the Pythagoreans and admired the writings of Plato. Last of all he became a pupil of Aristotle, as Sotion says in his Successions of Philosophers.[*](That Heraclides was a member of the Academy is established beyond all doubt by the fact that he was a candidate for the headship of the School on the death of Speusippus: Index Acad. p. 38 Mekler. However, not only does Diogenes Laertius make him, on Sotion’s authority, a pupil of Aristotle, but Aëtius also seems, iii. 2. 5, to associate him with the Peripatetics (καθάπερ ἀμέλει πάντες οἱ Περιπατητικοί).) He wore fine soft clothes, and he was extremely corpulent, which made the Athenians call him Pompicus rather than Ponticus. He was mild and dignified of aspect. Works by him survive of great beauty and excellence. There are ethical dialogues:

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Of Justice, three books.

Of Temperance, one book.

Of Piety, five books.

Of Courage, one book.

Of Virtue in general, one book.

A second with the same title.

Of Happiness, one book.

Of Government, one book.

On Laws, one book, and on subjects kindred to these.

Of Names, one book.

Agreements, one book.

On the Involuntary, one book.

Concerning Love, and Clinias, one book.

Others are physical treatises:

Of Reason.

Of the Soul, and a separate treatise with the same title.

Of Nature.

Of Images.

Against Democritus.

Of Celestial Phenomena, one book

Of Things in the Under-world.

On Various Ways of Life, two books.

The Causes of Diseases, one book.

Of the Good, one book.

Against Zeno’s Doctrines, one book.

A Reply to Metron’s Doctrines, one book.

To grammar and criticism belong:

Of the Age of Homer and Hesiod, two books

Of Archilochus and Homer, two books.

Of a literary nature are:

A work on passages in Euripides and Sophocles, three books.

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On Music, two books.

Solutions of Homeric Problems, two books.

Of Theorems, one book.

On the Three Tragic Poets, one book.

Characters, one book.

Of Poetry and Poets, one book.

Of Conjecture, one book.

Concerning Prevision, one book.

Expositions of Heraclitus, four books.

Expositions in Reply to Democritus, one book.

Solutions of Eristic Problems, two books.

Logical Proposition, one book.

Of Species, one book.

Solutions, one book.

Admonitions, one book.

A Reply to Dionysius, one book.

To rhetoric belongs:

Of Public Speaking, or Protagoras.

To history:

On the Pythagoreans.

Of Discoveries.

Some of these works are in the style of comedy, for instance the tracts On Pleasure and On Temperance; others in the style of tragedy, as the books entitled Of those in Hades, Of Piety, and Of Authority.

Again, he has a sort of intermediate style of conversation which he employs when philosophers, generals and statesmen converse with each other. Furthermore, he wrote geometrical and dialectical works, and is, besides, everywhere versatile and lofty in diction, and a great adept at charming the reader’s mind.

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It seems that he delivered his native city from oppressions by assassinating its ruler, as is stated in his work on Men of the Same Name by Demetrius of Magnesia, who also tells the following story about him: As a boy, and when he grew up, he kept a pet snake, and, being at the point of death, he ordered a trusted attendant to conceal the corpse but to place the snake on his bier, that he might seem to have departed to the gods.

All this was done. But while the citizens were in the very midst of the procession and were loud in his praise, the snake, hearing the uproar, popped up out of the shroud, creating widespread confusion. Subsequently, however, all was revealed, and they saw Heraclides, not as he appeared, but as he really was.

I have written of him as follows[*](Anth. Pal. vii. 104.):

You wished, Heraclides, to leave to all mankind a reputation that after death you lived as a snake.[*](Or, reading ἄπαρτι for ἄπασι, wished to leave a report behind you that immediately after death you became a living snake.) But you were deceived, you sophist, for the snake was really a brute beast, and you were detected as more of a beast than a sage.

Hippobotus too has this tale.

Hermippus relates that, when their territory was visited by famine, the people of Heraclea besought the Pythian priestess for relief, but Heraclides bribed the sacred envoys as well as the aforesaid priestess to reply that they would be rid of the calamity if Heraclides, the son of Euthyphro, were crowned with a crown of gold in his lifetime and after his death received heroic honours. The pretended oracle was brought home, but its forgers got nothing by it. For directly Heraclides was crowned in the theatre,

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he was seized with apoplexy, whereupon the envoys to the oracle were stoned to death. Moreover, at the very same time the Pythian priestess, after she had gone down to the shrine and taken her seat, was bitten by one of the snakes and died instantly. Such are the tales told about his death.

Aristoxenus the musician asserts that Heraclides also composed tragedies, inscribing upon them the name of Thespis. Chamaeleon complains that Heraclides’ treatise on the works of Homer and Hesiod was plagiarized from his own. Furthermore, Autodorus the Epicurean criticizes him in a polemic against his tract Of Justice. Again, Dionysius the Renegade, or, as some people call him, the Spark, when he wrote the Parthenopaeus, entitled it a play of Sophocles; and Heraclides, such was his credulity, in one of his own works drew upon this forged play as Sophoclean evidence.

Dionysius, on perceiving this, confessed what he had done; and, when the other denied the fact and would not believe him, called his attention to the acrostic which gave the name of Pancalus, of whom Dionysius was very fond. Heraclides was still unconvinced. Such a thing, he said, might very well happen by chance. To this Dionysius, You will also find these lines:

a. An old monkey is not caught by a trap.[*](We should say, An old bird is not caught with chaff.)b. Oh yes, he’s caught at last, but it takes time.

And this besides: Heraclides is ignorant of letters and not ashamed of his ignorance.[*](Von Arnim’s emendation (ὁ δὲ) gives a different turn to the story, viz. And this besides: Heraclides is ignorant of letters. This made Heraclides blush.)

Fourteen persons have borne the name of Heraclides: (1) the subject of this notice; (2) a fellowcitizen of his, author of Pyrrhic verses and tales;

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(3) a native of Cyme, who wrote of Persia in five books; (4) another native of Cyme, who wrote rhetorical textbooks; (5) of Callatis or Alexandria, author of the Succession of Philosophers in six books and a work entitled Lembeuticus, from which he got the surname of Lembus (a fast boat or scout); (6) an Alexandrian who wrote on the Persian national character; (7) a dialectician of Bargylis, who wrote against Epicurus; (8) a physician of the school of Hicesius; (9) another physician of Tarentum, an empiric; (10) a poet who was the author of admonitions; (11) a sculptor of Phocaea; (12) a Ligurian poet, author of epigrams; (13) Heraclides of Magnesia, who wrote a history of Mithradates; (14) the compiler of an Astronomy.

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Antisthenes,[*](Cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 66.) the son of Antisthenes, was an Athenian. It was said, however, that he was not of pure Attic blood. Hence his reply to one who taunted him with this: The mother of the gods too is a Phrygian.[*](Cf. Plutarch, De exilio, 607 a; Sen. De const. sap. c. 18, 5.) For his mother was supposed to have been a Thracian. Hence it was that, when he had distinguished himself in the battle of Tanagra,[*](Probably the battle in 426 b.c. mentioned in Thuc. iii. 91.) he gave Socrates occasion to remark that, if both his parents had been Athenians, he would not have turned out so brave. He himself showed his contempt for the airs which the Athenians gave themselves on the strength of being sprung from the soil by the remark that this did not make them any better born than snails or wingless locusts.

To begin with, he became a pupil of Gorgias the rhetorician, and hence the rhetorical style that he introduces in his dialogues, and especially in his Truth and in his Exhortations.