Vitae philosophorum

Onesicritus some report to have been an Aeginetan, but Demetrius of Magnesia says that he was a native of Astypalaea. He too was one of the distinguished pupils of Diogenes. His career seems to have resembled that of Xenophon; for Xenophon joined the expedition of Cyrus, Onesicritus that of Alexander; and the former wrote the Cyropaedia, or Education of Cyrus, while the latter has described how Alexander was educated: the one a laudation of Cyrus, the other of Alexander. And in their diction they are not unlike: except that Onesicritus, as is to be expected in an imitator, falls short of his model.

Amongst other pupils of Diogenes were Menander, who was nicknamed Drymus or Oakwood, a great

Crates, son of Ascondas, was a Theban. He too was amongst the Cynic’s famous pupils. Hippobotus, however, alleges that he was a pupil not of Diogenes, but of Bryson[*](Not the same as Bryson of Heracleia, whom we know from the Platonic Epistles, from Aristotle, and from Athenaeus (xi. p. 508). He may, however, have been the disciple of Pythagoras mentioned by Iamblichus (Vita Pyth. c. 23).) the Achaean. The following playful lines are attributed to him[*](Anth. Plan. v. 13.):

There is a city Pera in the midst of wine-dark vapour,
1. Fair, fruitful, passing squalid, owning nought,
2. Into which sails nor fool nor parasite
3. Nor glutton, slave of sensual appetite,
4. But thyme it bears, garlic, and figs and loaves,
5. For which things’ sake men fight not each with other,
6. Nor stand to arms for money or for fame.