Vitae philosophorum

At last, however, he fell a victim to a plot, was robbed of all, and in despair ended his days by hanging himself. I have composed a trifle upon him[*](Anth. Plan. v. 41.):

1. May be, you know Menippus,
2. Phoenician by birth, but a Cretan hound:
3. A money-lender by the day—so he was called—
4. At Thebes when once on a time his house was broken into
5. And he lost his all, not understanding what it is to be a Cynic,
6. He hanged himself.

Some authorities question the genuineness of the books attributed to him, alleging them to be by Dionysius and Zopyrus of Colophon, who, writing them for a joke, made them over to Menippus as a person able to dispose of them advantageously.

There have been six men named Menippus: the first the man who wrote a History of the Lydians and abridged Xanthus; the second my present subject; the third a sophist of Stratonicea, a Carian by descent[*](Cf.Cic.Brut.91, § 315 post a me tota Asia peragrata est, [fuique]cum summis quidem oratoribus, quibus-cum exercebar ipsis lubentibus; quorum erat princeps Menippus Stratonicensis meo iudicio tota Asia illis temporibus disertissimus, and Strabo xvi. 660.); the fourth a sculptor; the fifth and sixth painters, both mentioned by Apollodorus.

However, the writings of Menippus the Cynic are thirteen in number:

Besides other works.