Vitae philosophorum

There is a poem of our own upon him, which runs thus[*](Anth. Pal. vii. 744.):

It is said that at Memphis Eudoxus learned his coming fate from the bull with beautiful horns. No words did it utter; for whence comes speech to a bull? Nature did not

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provide the young bull Apis with a chattering tongue. But, standing sideways by him, it licked his robe, by which it plainly prophesied you shall soon die. Whereupon, soon after, this fate overtook him, when he had seen fifty-three risings of the Pleiades.

Eudoxus used to be called Endoxos (illustrious) instead of Eudoxus by reason of his brilliant reputation.

Having now dealt with the famous Pythagoreans, let us next discuss the so-called sporadic philosophers. And first we must speak of Heraclitus.

Heraclitus, son of Bloson or, according to some, of Heracon, was a native of Ephesus. He flourished in the 69th Olympiad.[*](504-500 b.c.) He was lofty-minded beyond all other men,[*](The biographers used by our author laid evident stress on this characteristic of the Ephesian, for §§ 1-3 (excepting two fragments cited in § 2) dwell on this single theme. As to the criticism of Pythagoras cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 129 s.f., who, dealing with chronology, says that Heraclitus was later than Pythagoras, for Pythagoras is mentioned by him.) and over-weening, as is clear from his book in which he says: Much learning does not teach understanding; else would it have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, or, again, Xenophanes and Hecataeus.[*](Fr. 40 D., 16 B.) For this one thing is wisdom, to understand thought, as that which guides all the world everywhere.[*](Fr. 41 D., 19 B.) And he used to say that Homer deserved to be chased out of the lists and beaten with rods, and Archilochus likewise.[*](Fr. 42 D., 119 B.)

Again he would say: There is more need to extinguish insolence than an outbreak of fire,[*](Fr. 43 D., 103 B.) and The people must fight for the law as for citywalls.[*](Fr. 44 D., 100 B.) He attacks the Ephesians, too, for banishing his friend Hermodorus: he says: The Ephesians

He would retire to the temple of Artemis and play at knuckle-bones with the boys; and when the Ephesians stood round him and looked on, Why, you rascals, he said, are you astonished? Is it not better to do this than to take part in your civil life?

Finally, he became a hater of his kind and wandered on the mountains, and there he continued to live, making his diet of grass and herbs. However, when this gave him dropsy, he made his way back to the city and put this riddle to the physicians, whether they were competent to create a drought after heavy rain. They could make nothing of this, whereupon he buried himself in a cowshed, expecting that the noxious damp humour would be drawn out of him by the warmth of the manure. But, as even this was of no avail, he died at the age of sixty.

There is a piece of my own about him as follows[*](Anth. Pal. vii. 127.):

Often have I wondered how it came about that Heraclitus endured to live in this miserable fashion and then to die. For a fell disease flooded his body with water, quenched the light in his eyes and brought on darkness.

Hermippus, too, says that he asked the doctors whether anyone could by emptying the intestines draw off the moisture; and when they said it was