Vitae philosophorum

Diogenes Laertius

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

The seventh volume contains the following:

On Education, or On Names, in five books.

On the Use of Names: a controversial work.

Of Questioning and Answering.

Of Opinion and Knowledge, in four books.

Of Dying.

Of Life and Death.

Of Those in the Underworld.

Of Nature, in two books.

A Problem concerning Nature, two books.

Opinions, or The Controversialist.

Problems about Learning.

In the eighth volume are:

On Music.

On Commentators.

On Homer.

On Wickedness and Impiety.

On Calchas.

On the Scout.

On Pleasure.

The ninth volume contains:

Of the Odyssey.

Of the Minstrel’s Staff.

Athena, or Of Telemachus.

Of Helen and Penelope.

Of Proteus.

Cyclops, or Of Odysseus.

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Of the Use of Wine, or Of Intoxication, or Of the Cyclops.

Of Circe.

Of Amphiaraus.

Of Odysseus, Penelope and the Dog.

The contents of the tenth volume are:

Heracles, or Midas.

Heracles, or Of Wisdom or Strength.

Cyrus, or The Beloved.

Cyrus, or The Scouts.

Menexenus, or On Ruling.

Alcibiades.

Archelaus, or Of Kingship.

This is the list of his writings.

Timon finds fault with him for writing so much and calls him a prolific trifler. He died of disease just as Diogenes, who had come in, inquired of him, Have you need of a friend? Once too Diogenes, when he came to him, brought a dagger. And when Antisthenes cried out, Who will release me from these pains? replied, This, showing him the dagger. I said, quoth the other, from my pains, not from life.

It was thought that he showed some weakness in bearing his malady through love of life. And here are my verses upon him[*](Anth. Pal. vii. 115.):

Such was your nature, Antisthenes, that in your lifetime you were a very bulldog to rend the heart with words, if not with teeth. Yet you died of consumption. Maybe some one will say, What of that? We must anyhow have some guide to the world below.

There have been three other men named Antisthenes: one a follower of Heraclitus, another a

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native of Ephesus, and the third of Rhodes, a historian.

And whereas we have enumerated the pupils of Aristippus and of Phaedo, we will now append an account of the Cynics and Stoics who derive from Antisthenes. And let it be in the following order.

Diogenes was a native of Sinope, son of Hicesius, a banker. Diocles relates that he went into exile because his father was entrusted with the money of the state and adulterated the coinage. But Eubulides in his book on Diogenes says that Diogenes himself did this and was forced to leave home along with his father. Moreover Diogenes himself actually confesses in his Pordalus that he adulterated the coinage. Some say that having been appointed to superintend the workmen he was persuaded by them, and that he went to Delphi or to the Delian oracle in his own city and inquired of Apollo whether he should do what he was urged to do. When the god gave him permission to alter the political currency, not understanding what this meant, he adulterated the state coinage, and when he was detected, according to some he was banished, while according to others he voluntarily quitted the city for fear of consequences.

One version is that his father entrusted him with the money and that he debased it, in consequence of which the father was imprisoned and died, while the son fled, came to Delphi, and inquired, not whether he should falsify the coinage, but what he should do to gain the greatest reputation; and that then it was that he received the oracle.

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On reaching Athens he fell in with Antisthenes. Being repulsed by him, because he never welcomed pupils, by sheer persistence Diogenes wore him out. Once when he stretched out his staff against him, the pupil offered his head with the words, Strike, for you will find no wood hard enough to keep me away from you, so long as I think you’ve something to say. From that time forward he was his pupil, and, exile as he was, set out upon a simple life.