Vitae philosophorum

He was present in the theatre when the poet Sositheus uttered the verse—

Driven by Cleanthes’ folly like dumb herds,[*](Nauck, T.G.F.2, p. 823.)

and he remained unmoved in the same attitude. At which the audience were so astonished that they applauded him and drove Sositheus off the stage. Afterwards when the poet apologized for the insult, he accepted the apology, saying that, when Dionysus and Heracles were ridiculed by the poets without getting angry, it would be absurd for him to be annoyed at casual abuse. He used to say that the Peripatetics were in the same case as lyres which, although they give forth sweet sounds, never hear themselves. It is said that when he laid it down as Zeno’s opinion that a man’s character could be known from his looks, certain witty young men brought before him a rake with hands horny from toil in the country and requested him to state what the man’s character was. Cleanthes was perplexed and ordered the man to go away; but when, as he was making off, he sneezed, I have it, cried Cleanthes, he is effeminate.

To the solitary man who talked to himself he remarked, You are not talking to a bad man. When some one twitted him on his old age, his reply was, I too am ready to depart; but when again I consider that I am in all points in good health and that I can still write and read, I am content to wait. We are told that he wrote down Zeno’s lectures on oyster-shells and the blade-bones of oxen through lack of money to buy paper. Such was he; and yet, although Zeno

had many other eminent disciples, he was able to succeed him in the headship of the school.

He has left some very fine writings, which are as follows:

Of Time.

Of Zeno’s Natural Philosophy, two books.

Interpretations of Heraclitus, four books.

De Sensu.

Of Art.

A Reply to Democritus.

A Reply to Aristarchus.

A Reply to Herillus.

Of Impulse, two books.