TEXT: Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, Book 4: The Academics (tr C.D. Yonge)

Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, 

Book 4: The Academics (tr C.D. Yonge, 1895)

LIFE OF SPEUSIPPUS.

I. The long account which I have given of Plato was compiled to the best
of my power, and in it I collected with great zeal and industry all that
was reported of the man.

II. And he was succeeded by Speusippus, the son of Eurymedon, and a
citizen of Athens, of the Myrrhinusian burgh, and he was the son of
Plato’s sister Potone.

III. He presided over his school for eight years, beginning to do so in
the hundred and eighth olympiad. And he set up images of the Graces in
the temple of the Muses, which had been built in the Academy by Plato.

IV. And he always adhered to the doctrines which had been adopted by
Plato, though he was not of the same disposition as he. For he was a
passionate man, and a slave to pleasure. Accordingly, they say that
he once in a rage threw a puppy into a well; and that for the sake of
amusement, he went all the way to Macedonia to the marriage of Cassander.

V. The female pupils of Plato, Lasthenea of Mantinea, and Axiothea
of Phlius, are said to have become disciples of Speusippus also. And
Dionysius, writing to him in a petulant manner, says, “And one may learn
philosophy too from your female disciple from Arcadia; moreover, Plato
used to take his pupils without exacting any fee from them; but you
collect tribute from yours, whether willing or unwilling.”

VI. He was the first man, as Diodorus relates in the first book of his
Commentaries, who investigated in his school what was common to the
several sciences; and who endeavoured, as far as possible, to maintain
their connection with each other. He was also the first who published
those things which Isocrates called secrets, as Cæneus tells us. And the
first too who found out how to make light baskets of bundles of twigs.

VII. But he became afflicted with paralysis, and sent to Xenocrates
inviting him to come to him, and to become his successor in his school.

VIII. And they say that once, when he was being borne in a carriage into
the Academy, he met Diogenes, and said, “Hail;” and Diogenes replied, “I
will not say hail to you, who, though in such a state as you are, endure
to live.”

IX. And at last in despair he put an end to his life, being a man of a
great age. And we have written this epigram on him:—

    Had I not known Speusippus thus had died,
      No one would have persuaded me that he
    Was e’er akin to Plato; who would never
      Have died desponding for so slight a grief.

But Plutarch, in his Life of Lysander, and again in his Life of Sylla,
says that he was kept in a state of constant inflammation by lice. For
he was of a weak habit of body, as Timotheus relates in his treatise on
Lives.

X. Speusippus said to a rich man who was in love with an ugly woman,
“What do you want with her? I will find you a much prettier woman for ten
talents.”

XI. He left behind him a great number of commentaries, and many
dialogues; among which was one on Aristippus; one on Riches; one on
Pleasure; one on Justice; one on Philosophy; one on Friendship; one
on the Gods; one called the Philosopher; one addressed to Cephalus;
one called Cephalus; one called Clinomachus, or Lysias; one called
the Citizen; one on the Soul; one addressed to Gryllus; one called
Aristippus; one called the Test of Art. There were also Commentaries by
way of dialogues; one on Art; and ten about those things which are alike
in their treatment. There are also books of divisions and arguments
directed to similar things; Essays on the Genera and Species of Examples;
an Essay addressed to Amartyrus; a Panegyric on Plato; Letters to Dion,
and Dionysius, and Philip; an Essay on Legislation. There is also, the
Mathematician; the Mandrobulus; the Lysias; Definitions; and a series of
Commentaries. There are in all, forty-three thousand four hundred and
seventy-five lines.

Simonides dedicated to him the Histories, in which he had related the
actions of Dion and Bion. And in the second book of his Commentaries,
Phavorinus states that Aristotle purchased his books for three talents.

XII. There was also another person of the name of Speusippus, a physician
of the school of Herophilus,[34] a native of Alexandria.


LIFE OF XENOCRATES.

I. Xenocrates was the son of Agathenor, and a native of Chalcedon. From
his early youth he was a pupil of Plato, and also accompanied him in his
voyages to Sicily.

II. He was by nature of a lazy disposition, so that they say that Plato
said once, when comparing him to Aristotle,—“The one requires the spur,
and the other the bridle.” And on another occasion, he said, “What a
horse and what an ass am I dressing opposite to one another!”

III. In other respects Xenocrates was always of a solemn and grave
character, so that Plato was continually saying to him,—“Xenocrates,
sacrifice to the Graces.” And he spent the greater part of his time in
the Academy, and whenever he was about to go into the city, they say
all the turbulent and quarrelsome rabble in the city used to make way
for him to pass by. And once, Phryne the courtesan wished to try him
and pretending that she was pursued by some people, she fled and took
refuge in his house; and he admitted her indeed, because of what was
due to humanity; and as there was but one bed in the room, he, at her
entreaty, allowed her to share it with him; but at last, in spite of
all her entreaties, she got up and went away, without having been able
to succeed in her purpose; and told those who asked her, that she had
quitted a statue and not a man. But some say that the real story is, that
his pupils put Lais into his bed, and that he was so continent, that he
submitted to some severe operations of excision and cautery.

IV. And he was a very trustworthy man; so that, though it was not lawful
for men to give evidence except on oath, the Athenians made an exception
in his favour alone.

V. He was also a man of the most contented disposition; accordingly
they say that when Alexander sent him a large sum of money, he took
three thousand Attic drachmas, and sent back the rest, saying, that
Alexander wanted most, as he had the greatest number of mouths to feed.
And when some was sent him by Antipater, he would not accept any of it,
as Myronianus tells us in his Similitudes. And once, when he gained a
golden crown, in a contest as to who could drink most, which was offered
in the yearly festival of the Choes by Dionysius, he went out and placed
the crown at the feet of the statue of Mercury, which was at the gate,
where he was also accustomed to deposit his garlands of flowers. It is
said also, that he was once sent with some colleagues as an ambassador to
Philip; and that they were won over by gifts, and went to his banquets
and conversed with Philip; but that he would do none of these things,
nor could Philip propitiate him by these means; on which account, when
the other ambassadors arrived in Athens, they said that Xenocrates had
gone with them to no purpose; and the people were ready to punish him;
but when they had learnt from him that they had now more need than ever
to look to the welfare of their city, for that Philip had already bribed
all their counsellors, but that he had been unable to win him over by any
means, then they say that the people honoured him with redoubled honour.
They add also, that Philip said afterwards, that Xenocrates was the only
one of those who had come to him who was incorruptible. And when he went
as ambassador to Antipater on the subject of the Athenian captives at the
time of the Samian war, and was invited by him to a banquet, he addressed
him in the following lines:—

    I answer, Goddess human, is thy breast
    By justice sway’d, by tender pity prest?
    Ill fits it me, whose friends are sunk to beasts,
    To quaff thy bowls, or riot in thy feasts:
    Me would’st thou please, for them thy cares employ,
    And them to me restore, and me to joy?[35]

And Antipater, admiring the appropriateness of the quotation, immediately
released them.

VI. On one occasion, when a sparrow was pursued by a hawk, and flew into
his bosom, he caressed it, and let it go again, saying that we ought
not to betray a suppliant. And being ridiculed by Bion, he said that he
would not answer him, for that tragedy, when ridiculed by comedy, did
not condescend to make a reply. To one who had never learnt music, or
geometry, or astronomy, but who wished to become his disciple, he said,
“Be gone, for you have not yet the handles of philosophy.” But some say
that he said, “Be gone, for I do not card wool here.” And when Dionysius
said to Plato that some one would cut off his head, he, being present,
showed his own, and said, “Not before they have cut off mine.”

VII. They say too that once, when Antipater had come to Athens and
saluted him, he would not make him any reply before he had finished
quietly the discourse which he was delivering.

VIII. Being exceedingly devoid of every kind of pride, he often used to
meditate with himself several times a day; and always allotted one hour
of each day, it is said, to silence.

IX. And he left behind him a great number of writings, and books of
recommendation, and verses, which are these,—six books on Natural
Philosophy; six on Wisdom; one on Riches, the Arcadian; one volume on
the Indefinite; one on a Child; one on Temperance; one on the Useful;
one on the Free; one on Death; one on the Voluntary; two on Friendship;
one on Courtesy; two on Contraries; two on Happiness; one on Writing;
one on Memory; one on Falsehood; the Callicles one; two on Prudence; one
on Œconomy; one on Temperance; one on the Power of Law; one on Political
Constitutions; one on Piety; one to show that Virtue may be transmitted;
one about the Existent; one on Fate; one on the Passions; one on Lives;
one on Unanimity; two on Pupils; one on Justice; two on Virtue; one on
Species; two on Pleasure; one on Life; one on Manly Courage; one on The
One; one on Ideas; one on Art; two on the Gods; two on the Soul; one on
Knowledge; one on the Statesman; one on Science; one on Philosophy; one
on the School of Parmenides; one the Archedemus, or an essay on Justice;
one on the Good; eight of those things which concern the Intellect;
ten essays in solution of the difficulties which occur respecting
Orations; six books on the study of Natural Philosophy; the Principal,
one; one treatise on Genus and Species; one on the doctrines of the
Pythagoreans; two books of Solutions; seven of Divisions; several volumes
of Propositions; several also about the method of conducting Discussions.
Besides all this, there are one set of fifteen volumes, and another of
sixteen, on the subject of those studies which relate to Speaking; nine
more which treat of Ratiocination; six books on Mathematics; two more
books on subjects connected with the Intellect; five books on Geometry;
one book of Reminiscences; one of Contraries; one on Arithmetic; one on
the Contemplation of Numbers; one on Intervals; six on Astronomy; four of
elementary suggestions to Alexander, on the subject of Royal Power; one
addressed to Arybas; one addressed to Hephæstion; two on Geometry; seven
books of Verses.

X. But the Athenians, though he was such a great man, once sold him,
because he was unable to pay the tax to which the metics were liable.
And Demetrius Phalereus purchased him, and so assisted both parties,
Xenocrates by giving him his freedom, and the Athenians in respect of the
tax upon metics. This circumstance is mentioned by Myronianus of Amastra,
in the first book of his chapters of Historical Coincidences.

XI. He succeeded Speusippus, and presided over the school for twenty-five
years, beginning at the archonship of Lysimachides, in the second year of
the hundred and tenth olympiad.

XII. And he died in consequence of stumbling by night against a dish,
being more than eighty-two years of age. And in one of our epigrams we
speak thus of him:—

    He struck against a brazen pot,
      And cut his forehead deep,
    And crying cruel is my lot,
      In death he fell asleep.
    So thus Xenocrates did fall,
    The universal friend of all.

XIII. And there were five other people of the name of Xenocrates. One was
an ancient tactician, a fellow citizen, and very near relation of the
philosopher of whom we have been speaking; and there is extant an oration
of his which is scribed, On Arsinoe, and which was written on the death
of Arsinoe. A third was a philosopher who wrote some very indifferent
elegiac poetry; and that is not strange, for when poets take to writing
in prose, they succeed pretty well; but when prose writers try their hand
at poetry, they fail; from which it is plain, that the one is a gift of
nature, and the other a work of art. The fourth was a statuary; the fifth
a writer of songs, as we are told by Aristoxenus.


LIFE OF POLEMO.

I. Polemo was the son of Philostratus, an Athenian, of the burgh of Œa.
And when he was young, he was so very intemperate and profligate, that
he used always to carry money about with him, to procure the instant
gratification of his passions; and he used also to hide money in the
narrow alleys, for this purpose. And once there was found in the Academy
a piece of three obols, hidden against one of the columns, which he had
put there for some purpose like that which I have indicated; and on one
occasion he arranged beforehand with some young men, and rushed, adorned
with a garland, and drunk, into the school of Xenocrates. But he took no
notice of him, and continued his discourse as he had begun it, and it was
in praise of temperance; and the young man, hearing it, was gradually
charmed, and became so industrious, that he surpassed all the rest of the
disciples, and himself became the successor of Xenocrates, in his school
beginning in the hundred and sixteenth olympiad.

II. And Antigonus, of Carystus, says in his Lives, that his father had
been the chief man of the city, and had kept chariots for the Olympic
games.

III. He also asserts that Polemo was prosecuted by his wife, on the
charge of ill-treatment, because he indulged in illicit pleasures, and
despised her.

IV. But that when he began to devote himself to philosophy, he adopted
such a rigorous system of morals, that he for the future always continued
the same in appearance, and never even changed his voice, on which
account Crantor was charmed by him. Accordingly, on one occasion, when a
dog was mad and had bitten his leg, he was the only person who did not
turn pale; and once, when there was a great confusion in the city, he,
having heard the cause, remained where he was without fleeing. In the
theatres too he was quite immoveable; accordingly, when Nicostratus the
poet, who was surnamed Clytæmnestra, was once reading something to him
and Crates, the latter was excited to sympathy, he behaved as though he
heard nothing. And altogether, he was such as Melanthius, the painter,
describes in his treatise on Painting; for he says that some kind of
obstinacy and harshness ought to exist in works of art as in morals.

And Polemo used to say that a man ought to exercise himself in action,
and not in dialectic speculations, as if one had drunk in and dwelt
upon a harmonious kind of system of art, so as to be admired for one’s
shrewdness, in putting questions; but to be inconsistent with one’s self
in character. He was, then, a well-bred and high-spirited man, avoiding
what Aristophanes says of Euripides, speeches of vinegar and assafœtida,
such as he says himself:—

    Are base delights compared with better things?

V. And he did not use to lecture on the propositions before him while
sitting down; but he would walk about, it is said, and so discuss them.
And he was much honoured in the city because of his noble sentiments;
and after he had been walking about, he would rest in his garden; and
his pupils erected little cabins near it, and dwelt near his school and
corridor.

VI. And as it seems, Polemo imitated Xenocrates in everything; and
Aristippus, in the fourth book of his treatise on Ancient Luxury, says
that Xenocrates loved him; at all events, Polemo used to be always
speaking of him, and praising his guileless nature, and his rigorous
virtues, and his chaste severity, like that of a Doric building.

VII. He was also very fond of Sophocles, and especially of those passages
where, according to one of the comic poets, he seemed to have had a
Molossian hound for his colleague in composing his poems; and when there
was, to use the expression of Phrynichus:—

    No sweet or washy liquor, but purest Pramnian wine.

And he used to say that Homer was an epic Sophocles, and Sophocles a
tragic Homer.

VIII. And he died when he was very old, of decline, having left behind
him a great number of writings. And there is this epigram of ours upon
him:—

    Do you not hear, we’ve buried Polemo,
    Whom sickness, worst affliction of mankind
    Attacked, and bore off to the shades below;
    Yet Polemo lies not here, but Polemo’s body
    And that he did himself place here on earth,
    Prepared in soul to mount up to the skies.


LIFE OF CRATES.

I. Crates was the son of Antigenes, and of the Thriasian burgh, and
a pupil and attached friend of Polemo. He was also his successor as
president of his school.

II. And they benefited one another so much, that not only did they
delight while alive in the same pursuits, but almost to their latest
breath did they resemble one another, and even after they were both dead
they shared the same tomb. In reference to which circumstance Antagoras
has written an epigram on the pair, in which he expresses himself thus:—

    Stranger, who passest by, relate that here
      The God-like Crates lies, and Polemo;
    Two men of kindred nobleness of mind;
      Out of whose holy mouths pure wisdom flowed,
    And they with upright lives did well display,
      The strength of all their principles and teaching.

And they say too that it was in reference to this that Arcesilaus, when
he came over to them from Theophrastus, said that they were some gods,
or else a remnant of the golden race; for they were not very fond of
courting the people, but had a disposition in accordance with the saying
of Dionysodorus the flute player, who is reported to have said, with
great exultation and pride, that no one had ever heard his music in a
trireme or at a fountain as they had heard Ismenius.

III. Antigonus relates that he used to be a messmate of Crantor, and that
these philosophers and Arcesilaus lived together; and that Arcesilaus
lived in Crantor’s house, but that Polemo and Crates lived in the house
of one of the citizens, named Lysicles; and he says that Crates was,
as I have already mentioned, greatly attached to Polemo, and so was
Arcesilaus to Crantor.

IV. But when Crates died, as Apollodorus relates in the third book of
his Chronicles, he left behind him compositions, some on philosophical
subjects and some on comedy, and some which were speeches addressed to
assemblies of the people, or delivered on the occasion of embassies.

V. He also left behind him some eminent disciples, among whom were
Arcesilaus, about whom we shall speak presently, for he too was a
pupil of his, and Bion of the Borysthenes, who was afterwards called a
Theodorean, from the sect which he espoused, and we shall speak of him
immediately after Arcesilaus.

VI. But there were ten people of the name of Crates. The first was a
poet of the old comedy; the second was an orator of Tralles, a pupil of
Isocrates; the third was an engineer who served under Alexander; the
fourth a Cynic, whom we shall mention hereafter; the fifth a Peripatetic
philosopher; the sixth the Academic philosopher, of whom we are speaking;
the seventh a grammarian of Malos; the eighth a writer in geometry; the
ninth an epigrammatic poet; the tenth was an Academic philosopher, a
native of Tarsus.


LIFE OF CRANTOR.

I. Crantor, a native of Soli, being admired very greatly in his own
country, came to Athens and became a pupil of Xenocrates at the same time
with Polemo.

II. And he left behind him memorials, in the shape of writings, to the
number of 30,000 lines, some of which, however, are by some writers
attributed to Arcesilaus.

III. They say of him that when he was asked what it was that he was so
charmed with in Polemo, he replied, “That he had never heard him speak in
too high or too low a key.”

IV. When he was ill he retired to the temple of Æsculapius, and there
walked about, and people came to him from all quarters, thinking that he
had gone thither, not on account of any disease, but because he wished
to establish a school there.

V. And among those who came to him was Arcesilaus, wishing to be
recommended by him to Polemo, although he was much attached to him, as we
shall mention in the life of Arcesilaus. But when he got well he became a
pupil of Polemo, and was excessively admired on that account. It is said,
also, that he left his property to Arcesilaus, to the amount of twelve
talents; and that, being asked by him where he would like to be buried,
he said:—

    It is a happy fate to lie entombed
    In the recesses of a well-lov’d land.

VI. It is said also that he wrote poems, and that he sealed them up in
the temple of Minerva, in his own country; and Theætetus the poet wrote
thus about him:—

    Crantor pleased men; but greater pleasure still
      He to the Muses gave, ere he aged grew.
    Earth, tenderly embrace the holy man,
      And let him lie in quiet undisturb’d.

And of all writers, Crantor admired Homer and Euripides most; saying that
the hardest thing possible was to write tragically and in a manner to
excite sympathy, without departing from nature; and he used to quote this
line out of the Bellerophon:—

    Alas! why should I say alas! for we
    Have only borne the usual fate of man.

The following verses of Antagoras the poet are also attributed to
Crantor; the subject is love, and they run thus:—

    My mind is much perplexed; for what, O Love,
    Dare I pronounce your origin? May I
    Call you chiefest of the immortal Gods,
    Of all the children whom dark Erebus
    And Royal Night bore on the billowy waves
    Of widest Ocean? Or shall I bid you hail,
    As son of proudest Venus? or of Earth?
    Or of the untamed winds? so fierce you rove,
    Bringing mankind sad cares, yet not unmixed
    With happy good, so two-fold is your nature.

And he was very ingenious at devising new words and expressions;
accordingly, he said that one tragedian had an unhewn (ἀπελέκητος) voice,
all over bark; and he said that the verses of a certain poet were full
of moths; and that the propositions of Theophrastus had been written on
an oyster shell. But the work of his which is most admired is his book on
Mourning.

VII. And he died before Polemo and Crates, having been attacked by the
dropsy; and we have written this epigram on him:—

    The worst of sicknesses has overwhelmed you,
    O Crantor, and you thus did quit the earth,
    Descending to the dark abyss of Hell.
    Now you are happy there; but all the while
    The sad Academy, and your native land
    Of Soli mourn, bereaved of your eloquence.


LIFE OF ARCESILAUS.

I. Arcesilaus was the son of Seuthes or Scythes, as Apollodorus states in
the third book of his Chronicles, and a native of Pitane in Æolia.

II. He was the original founder of the Middle Academy, and the first man
who professed to suspend the declaration of his judgment, because of the
contrarieties of the reasons alleged on either side. He was likewise the
first who attempted to argue on both sides of a question, and who also
made the method of discussion, which had been handed down by Plato, by
means of question and answer, more contentious than before.

III. He met with Crantor in the following manner. He was one of four
brothers, two by the same father and two by the same mother. Of those
who were by the same mother the eldest was Pylades, and of those by the
same father the eldest was Mœreas, who was his guardian; and at first he
was a pupil of Autolycus the mathematician, who happened to be a fellow
citizen of his before he went to Athens; and with Autolycus he travelled
as far as Sardis. After that he became a pupil of Xanthus the musician,
and after that attended the lectures of Theophrastus, and subsequently
came over to the Academy to Crantor. For Mœreas his brother, whom I have
mentioned before, urged him to apply himself to rhetoric; but he himself
had a preference for philosophy, and when he became much attached to him
Crantor asked him, quoting a line out of the Andromeda of Euripides:—

    O virgin, if I save you, will you thank me?

And he replied by quoting the next line to it:—

    O take me to you, stranger, as your slave,
    Or wife, or what you please.

And ever after that they became very intimate, so that they say
Theophrastus was much annoyed, and said, “That a most ingenious and
well-disposed young man had deserted his school.”

IV. For he was not only very impressive in his discourse, and displayed
a great deal of learning in it, but he also tried his hand at poetry,
and there is extant an epigram which is attributed to him, addressed to
Attalus, which is as follows:—

    Pergamus is not famed for arms alone,
      But often hears its praise resound
    For its fine horses, at the holy Pisa.
      Yet, if a mortal may declare,
    Its fate as hidden in the breast of Jove,
      It will be famous for its woes.

There is another addressed to Menodorus the son of Eudamus, who was
attached to one of his fellow pupils:—

    Phrygia is a distant land, and so
    Is sacred Thyatira, and Cadanade,
    Your country Menodorus. But from all,
    As the unvaried song of bards relates,
    An equal road does lie to Acheron,
    That dark unmentioned river; so you lie
    Here far from home; and here Eudamus raises
    This tomb above your bones, for he did love you,
    Though you were poor, with an undying love.

But he admired Homer above all poets, and always used to read a portion
of his works before going to sleep; and in the morning he would say that
he was going to the object of his love, when he was going to read him.
He said, too, that Pindar was a wonderful man for filling the voice, and
pouring forth an abundant variety of words and expressions. He also,
when he was a young man, wrote a criticism on Ion.

V. And he was a pupil likewise of Hipponicus, the geometrican whom
he used to ridicule on other points as being lazy and gaping; but he
admitted that in his own profession he was clear sighted enough, and said
that geometry had flown into his mouth while he was yawning. And when he
went out of his mind, he took him to his own house, and took care of him
till he recovered his senses.

VI. And when Crates died, he succeeded him in the presidency of his
schools, a man of the name of Socrates willingly yielding to him.

VII. And as he suspended his judgment on every point, he never, as it is
said, wrote one single book. But others say that he was once detected
correcting some passages in a work of his; and some assert that he
published it, while others deny it, and affirm that he threw it into the
fire.

VIII. He seems to have been a great admirer of Plato, and he possessed
all his writings. He also, according to some authorities, had a very high
opinion of Pyrrho.

IX. He also studied dialectics, and the discussions of the Eretrian
school; on which account Ariston said of him:—

    First Plato comes, and Pyrrho last,
      And in the middle Diodorus.

And Timon speaks thus of him:—

    For having on this side the heavy load
    Of Menedemus plac’d beneath his breast,
    He’ll to stout Pyrrho run, or Diodorus.

And presently afterwards he represents him as saying:—

    I’ll swim to Pyrrho, or that crooked sophist
    Called Diodorus.

X. He was exceedingly fond of employing axioms, very concise in his
diction, and when speaking he laid an emphasis on each separate word.

XI. He was also very fond of attacking others, and very free spoken, on
which account Timon in another passage speaks of him thus:—

    You’ll not escape all notice while you thus
    Attack the young man with your biting sarcasm.

Once, when a young man was arguing against him with more boldness than
usual, he said, “Will no one stop his mouth with the knout?”[36] And to
a man who lay under the general imputation of low debauchery, and who
argued with him that one thing was not greater than another, he asked
him whether a cup holding two pints was not larger than one which held
only one. There was a certain Chian named Hemon, exceedingly ugly, but
who fancied himself good looking, and always went about in fine clothes;
this man asked him one day, “If he thought that a wise man could feel
attachment to him;” “Why should he not,” said he, “when they love even
those who are less handsome than you, and not so well-dressed either?”
and when the man, though one of the vilest characters possible, said to
Arcesilaus as if he were addressing a very rigid man:—

    O, noble man, may I a question put,
    Or must I hold my tongue?

Arcesilaus replied:—

    O wretched woman, why do you thus roughen
    Your voice, not speaking in your usual manner?

And once, when he was plagued by a chattering fellow of low extraction,
he said:—

    The sons of slaves are always talking vilely.[37]

Another time, when a talkative man was giving utterance to a great
deal of nonsense, he said, that “He had not had a nurse who was severe
enough.” And to some people he never gave any answer at all. On one
occasion a usurer, who made pretence to some learning, said in his
hearing that he did not know something or other, on which he rejoined:—

    For often times the passing winds do fill
    The female bird, except when big with young.[38]

And the lines come out of the Œnomaus of Sophocles. He once reminded a
certain dialectician, a pupil of Alexinus, who was unable to explain
correctly some saying of his master, of what had been done by Philoxenus
to some brick-makers. For when they were singing some of his songs very
badly he came upon them, and trampled their bricks under foot, saying,
“As you spoil my works so will I spoil yours.”

XII. And he used to be very indignant with those who neglected proper
opportunities of applying themselves to learning; and he had a peculiar
habit, while conversing, of using the expression, “I think,” and “So and
so,” naming the person, “will not agree to this.” And this was imitated
by several of his pupils, who copied also his style of expression and
everything about him. He was a man very ready at inventing new words, and
very quick at meeting objections, and at bringing round the conversation
to the subject before him, and at adapting it to every occasion, and he
was the most convincing speaker that could be found, on which account
numbers of people flocked to his school, in spite of being somewhat
alarmed at his severity, which however they bore with complacency, for
he was a very kind man, and one who inspired his hearers with abundant
hope, and in his manner of life he was very affable and liberal, always
ready to do any one a service without any parade, and shrinking from
any expression of gratitude on the part of those whom he had obliged.
Accordingly once, when he had gone to visit Ctesibius who was ill, seeing
him in great distress from want, he secretly slipped his purse under his
pillow; and when Ctesibius found it, “This,” said he, “is the amusement
of Arcesilaus.” And at another time he sent him a thousand drachmas.
He it was also who introduced Archias the Arcadian to Eumenes, and who
procured him many favours from him.

XIII. And being a very liberal man and utterly regardless of money, he
made the most splendid display of silver plate, and in his exhibition
of gold plate he vied with that of Archecrates and Callicrates; and he
was constantly assisting and contributing to the wants of others with
money; and once, when some one had borrowed from him some articles of
silver plate to help him entertain his friends, and did not offer to
return them, he never asked for them back or reclaimed them; but some say
that he lent them with the purpose that they should be kept, and that
when the man returned them, he made him a present of them as he was a
poor man. He had also property in Pitana, the revenues from which were
transmitted to him by his brother Pylades.

XIV. Moreover, Eumenes, the son of Philetærus, supplied him with many
things, on which account he was the only king to whom he addressed any of
his discourses. And when many philosophers paid court to Antigonus and
went out to meet him when he arrived, he himself kept quiet, not wishing
to make his acquaintance. But he was a great friend of Hierocles, the
governor of the harbours of Munychia and the Piræus; and at festivals he
always paid him a visit. And when he constantly endeavoured to persuade
him to pay his respects to Antigonus, he would not; but though he
accompanied him as far as his gates, he turned back himself. And after
the sea-fight of Antigonus, when many people went to him and wrote him
letters to comfort him for his defeat, he neither went nor wrote; but
still in the service of his country, he went to Demetrias as ambassador
to Antigonus, and succeeded in the object of his mission.

XV. And he spent all his time in the Academy, and avoided meddling with
public affairs, but at times he would spend some days in the Piræus of
Athens, discoursing on philosophical subjects, from his friendship for
Hierocles, which conduct of his gave rise to unfavourable reports being
raised against him by some people.

XVI. Being a man of very expensive habits, for he was in this respect a
sort of second Aristippus, he often went to dine with his friends. He
also lived openly with Theodote and Philæte, two courtesans of Elis;
and to those who reproached him for this conduct, he used to quote the
opinions of Aristippus. He was also very fond of the society of young
men, and of a very affectionate disposition, on which account Aristo, the
Chian, a Stoic philosopher, used to accuse him of being a corrupter of
the youth of the city, and a profligate man. He is said also to have been
greatly attached to Demetrius, who sailed to Cyrene, and to Cleochares of
Myrlea, of whom he said to his messmates, that he wished to open the door
to him, but that he prevented him.

XVII. Demochares the son of Laches, and Pythocles the son of Bugelus,
were also among his friends, and he said that he humoured them in all
their wishes because of his great patience. And, on this account, those
people to whom I have before alluded, used to attack him and ridicule him
as a popularity hunter and vain-glorious man. And they set upon him very
violently at an entertainment given by Hieronymus, the Peripatetic, when
he invited his friends on the birthday of Alcyoneus, the son of Antigonus,
on which occasion Antigonus sent him a large sum of money to promote the
conviviality. On this occasion, as he avoided all discussion during the
continuance of the banquet, when Aridelus proposed to him a question
which required some deliberation, and entreated him to discourse upon it,
it is said that he replied, “But this is more especially the business of
philosophy, to know the proper time for everything.” With reference to
the charge that was brought against him of being a popularity hunter,
Timon speaks, among other matters, mentioning it in the following manner:—

    He spoke and glided quick among the crowd,
    They gazed on him as finches who behold
    An owl among them. You then please the people!
    Alas, poor fool, ’tis no great matter that;
    Why give yourself such airs for such a trifle?

XVIII. However, in all other respects he was so free from vanity, that
he used to advise his pupils to become the disciples of other men; and
once, when a young man from Chios was not satisfied with his school, but
preferred that of Hieronymus, whom I have mentioned before, he himself
took him and introduced him to that philosopher, recommending him to
preserve his regularity of conduct. And there is a very witty saying of
his recorded. For when some one asked him once, why people left other
schools to go to the Epicureans, but no one left the Epicureans to join
other sects, he replied, “People sometimes make eunuchs of men, but no
one can ever make a man out of an eunuch.”

XIX. At last, when he was near his end, he left all his property to his
brother Pylades, because he, without the knowledge of Mæreas, had taken
him to Chios and had brought him from thence to Athens. He never married
a wife, and never had any children. He made three copies of his will, and
deposited one in Eretria with Amphicritus, and one at Athens with some
of his friends, and the third he sent to his own home to Thaumasias, one
of his relations, entreating him to keep it. And he also wrote him the
following letter:—

ARCESILAUS TO THAUMASIAS.

“I have given Diogenes a copy of my will to convey to you. For, because
I am frequently unwell and have got very infirm, I have thought it
right to make a will, that, if anything should happen to me I might not
depart with the feelings of having done you any injury, who have been
so constantly affectionate to me. And as you have been at all times the
most faithful to me of all my friends, I entreat you to preserve this
for me out of regard for my old age and your regard for me. Take care
then to behave justly towards me, remembering how much I entrust to your
integrity, so that I may appear to have managed my affairs well, as far
as depends on you; and there is another copy of this will at Athens, in
the care of some of my friends, and another at Eretria, in the hands of
Amphicritus.”

XX. He died, as Hermippus relates, after having drunk an excessive
quantity of wine, and then became delirious, when he was seventy-five
years old; and he was more beloved by the Athenians than any one else had
ever been. And we have written the following epigram on him:—

    O wise Arcesilaus, why didst thou drink
    So vast a quantity of unmixed wine,
    As to lose all your senses, and then die?
    I pity you not so much for your death,
    As for the insult that you thus did offer
    The Muses, by your sad excess in wine.

XXI. There were also three other persons of the name of Arcesilaus; one a
poet of the old Comedy; another an elegiac poet; the third a sculptor, on
whom Simonides wrote the following epigram:—

    This is a statue of chaste Dian’s self
    The price two hundred Parian drachmas fine,
    Stamp’d with the image of the wanton goat.
    It is the work of wise Arcesilaus,
    The son of Aristodicus: a man,
    Whose hands Minerva guided in his art.

The philosopher of whom we have been speaking flourished, as Apollodorus
tells us in his Chronicles, about the hundred and twentieth olympiad.


LIFE OF BION.

I. Bion was a native of the country around the Borysthenes; but as to who
his parents were, and to what circumstances it was owing that he applied
himself to the study of philosophy, we know no more than what he himself
told Antigonus. For when Antigonus asked him:—

    What art thou, say! from whence, from whom you came,
    Who are your parents? tell thy race, thy name;[39]

He, knowing that he had been misrepresented to the king, said to him, “My
father was a freedman, who used to wipe his mouth with his sleeve,” (by
which he meant that he used to sell salt fish). “As to his race, he was
a native of the district of the Borysthenes; having no countenance, but
only a brand in his face, a token of the bitter cruelty of his master.
My mother was such a woman as a man of that condition might marry, taken
out of a brothel. Then, my father being in arrears to the tax-gatherers,
was sold with all his family, and with me among them; and as I was young
and good looking, a certain orator purchased me, and when he died he left
me everything. And I, having burnt all his books, and torn up all his
papers, came to Athens and applied myself to the study of Philosophy:—

    Such was my father, and from him I came,
    The honoured author of my birth and name.[40]

This is all that I can tell you of myself: so that Persæus and Philonides
may give up telling these stories about me: and you may judge of me on my
own merits.”

II. And Bion was truly a man of great versatility, and a very subtle
philosopher, and a man who gave all who chose great opportunities of
practising philosophy. In some respects he was of a gentle disposition,
and very much inclined to indulge in vanity.

III. And he left behind him many memorials of himself in the way of
writings, and also many apophthegms full of useful sentiments. As for
instance, once when he was reproved for having failed to charm a young
man, he replied, “You cannot possibly draw up cheese with a hook before
it has got hard.” On another occasion he was asked who was the most
miserable of men, and replied, “He who has set his heart on the greatest
prosperity.” When he was asked whether it was advisable to marry (for
this answer also is attributed to him), he replied, “If you marry an ugly
woman you will have a punishment (ποινὴ), and if a handsome woman you
will have one who is common” (κοινή). He called old age a port to shelter
one from misfortune; and accordingly, he said that every one fled to it.
He said that glory was the mother of years; that beauty was a good which
concerned others rather than one’s self; that riches were the sinews of
business. To a man who had squandered his estate he said, “The earth
swallowed up Amphiaraus, but you have swallowed up the earth.” Another
saying of his was that it was a great evil not to be able to bear evil.
And he condemned those who burnt the dead as though they felt nothing,
and then mocked them as though they did feel. And he was always saying
that it was better to put one’s own beauty at the disposal of another,
than to covet the beauty of others; for that one who did so was injuring
both his body and his soul. And he used to blame Socrates saying, that if
he derived no advantage from Alcibiades he was foolish, and if he never
derived any advantage from him he then deserved no credit. He used to say
that the way to the shades below was easy; and accordingly, that people
went there with their eyes shut. He used to blame Alcibiades, saying that
while he was a boy he seduced husbands from their wives, and when he had
become a young man he seduced the wives from their husbands. While most
of the Athenians at Rhodes practised rhetoric, he himself used to give
lectures on philosophical subjects; and to one who blamed him for this he
said, “I have bought wheat, and I sell barley.”

It was a saying of his that the inhabitants of the shades below would be
more punished if they carried water in buckets that were whole, than in
such as were bored. To a chattering fellow who was soliciting him for
aid, he said, “I will do what is sufficient for you, if you will send
deputies to me, and forbear to come yourself.” Once when he was at sea
in the company of some wicked men, he fell into the hands of pirates;
and when the rest said, “We are undone, if we are known.” “But I,” said
he, “am undone if we are not known.” He used to say that self-conceit
was the enemy of progress. Of a rich man who was mean and niggardly, he
said, “That man does not possess his estate, but his estate possesses
him.” He used to say that stingy men took care of their property as if
it was their own, but derived no advantage from it as if it belonged to
other people. Another of his sayings was, that young men ought to display
courage, but that old men ought to be distinguished for prudence. And
that prudence was as much superior to the other virtues as sight was
to the other senses. And that it was not right to speak of old age, at
which every one is desirous to arrive. To an envious man who was looking
gloomy, he said, “I know not whether it is because some misfortune has
happened to you, or some good fortune to someone else.” One thing that he
used to say was, that a mean extraction was a bad companion to freedom of
speech. For:—

    It does enslave a man, however bold
    His speech may be.[41]

And another was that we ought to keep our friends, whatever sort of
people they may be, so that we may not seem to have been intimate with
wicked men, or to have abandoned good men.

IV. Very early in his career he abandoned the school of the Academy, and
at the same time became a disciple of Crates. Then he passed over to the
sect of the Cynics, taking their coarse cloak and wallet. For what else
could ever have changed his nature into one of such apathy? After that he
adopted the Theodorean principles, having become a disciple of Theodorus
the Atheist, who was used to employ every kind of reasoning in support
of his system of philosophy. After leaving him, he became a pupil of
Theophrastus, the Peripatetic.

V. He was very fond of theatrical entertainments, and very skilful in
distracting his hearers by exciting a laugh, giving things disparaging
names. And because he used to avail himself of every species of
reasoning, they relate that Eratosthenes said that Bion was the first
person who had clothed philosophy in a flowery robe.

VI. He was also very ingenious in parodying passages, and adapting
them to circumstances as they arose. As for instance, I may cite the
following:—

    Tender Archytas, born of tuneful lyre,
    Whom thoughts of happy vanity inspire;
    Most skilled of mortals in appeasing ire.[42]

And he jested on every part of music and geometry.

VII. He was a man of very expensive habits, and on this account he used
to go from city to city, and at times he would contrive the most amazing
devices.

VIII. Accordingly, in Rhodes, he persuaded the sailors to put on the
habiliments of philosophical students and follow him about; and then he
made himself conspicuous by entering the gymnasium with this train of
followers.

IX. He was accustomed also to adopt young men as his sons, in order to
derive assistance from them in his pleasures, and to be protected by
their affection for him. But he was a very selfish man, and very fond of
quoting the saying, “The property of friends is common;” owing to which
it is that no one is spoken of as a disciple of his, though so many
men attended his school. And he made some very shameless; accordingly,
Betion, one of his intimate acquaintances, is reported to have said once
to Menedemus, “So Menedemus constantly spends the evening with Bion, and
I see no harm in it.” He used also to talk with great impiety to those
who conversed with him, having derived his opinions on this subject from
Theodorus.

X. And when at a later period he became afflicted with disease, as the
people of Chalcis said, for he died there, he was persuaded to wear
amulets and charms, and to show his repentance for the insults that he
had offered to the Gods. But he suffered fearfully for want of proper
people to attend him, until Antigonus sent him two servants. And he
followed him in a litter, as Phavorinus relates in his Universal History.
And the circumstances of his death we have ourselves spoken of in the
following lines:—

    We hear that Bion the Borysthenite,
    Whom the ferocious Scythian land brought forth,
    Used to deny that there were Gods at all.
    Now, if he’d persevered in this opinion,
    One would have said he speaks just as he thinks;
    Though certainly his thoughts are quite mistaken.
    But when a lengthened sickness overtook him,
    And he began to fear lest he should die;
    This man who heretofore denied the Gods,
    And would not even look upon a temple,
    And mocked all those who e’er approached the Gods
    With prayer or sacrifice; who ne’er, not even
    For his own hearth, and home, and household table,
    Regaled the Gods with savoury fat and incense,
    Who never once said, “I have sinned, but spare me.”
    Then did this atheist shrink, and give his neck
    To an old woman to hang charms upon,
    And bound his arms with magic amulets,
    With laurel branches blocked his doors and windows,
    Ready to do and venture anything
    Rather than die. Fool that he was, who thought
    To win the Gods to come into existence,
    Whenever he might think he wanted them.
    So wise too late, when now mere dust and ashes,
    He put his hand forth, Hail, great Pluto, Hail!

XI. There were ten people of the name of Bion. First of all, the one
who flourished at the same time with Pherecydes of Syros, and who has
left two books behind him, which are still extant; he was a native
of Proconnesus. The second was a Syracusan, the author of a system of
rhetoric. The third was the man of whom we have been speaking. The fourth
was a pupil of Democritus, and a mathematician, a native of Abdera,
who wrote in both the Attic and Ionic dialect. He was the person who
first asserted that there were countries where there was night for six
months, and day for six months. The fifth was a native of Soli; who
wrote a history of Æthiopia. The sixth was a rhetorician, who has left
behind him nine books, inscribed with the names of the Muses, which are
still extant. The eighth was a Milesian statuary, who is mentioned by
Polemo. The ninth was a tragic poet of the number of those who are called
Tarsicans. The tenth was a statuary, a native of Clazomenæ or Chios, who
is mentioned by Hipponax.


LIFE OF LACYDES.

I. Lacydes, the son of Alexander, was a native of Cyrene. He it is who
was the founder of the New Academy, having succeeded Arcesilaus; and he
was a man of great gravity of character and demeanour, and one who had
many imitators.

II. He was industrious from his very childhood, and poor, but very
pleasing and sociable in his manners.

III. They say that he had a pleasant way of managing his house-keeping
affairs. For when he had taken anything out of his store-chest, he
would seal it up again, and throw in his seal through the hole, so
that it should be impossible for anything of what he had laid up there
to be stolen from him, or carried off. But his servants learning this
contrivance of his, broke the seal, and carried off as much as they
pleased, and then they put the ring back through the hole in the same
manner as before; and though they did this repeatedly, they were never
detected.

IV. Lacydes now used to hold his school in the Academy in the garden
which had been laid out by Attalus the king, and it was called the
Lacydeum, after him. And he was the only man, who, while alive, resigned
his school to a successor; but he resigned this to Telicles and Evander,
of Phocis; and Hegesinus, of Pergamus, succeeded Evander; and he himself
was in his turn succeeded by Carneades.

V. There is a witty saying, which is attributed to Lacydes. For they say
that when Attalus sent for him, he answered that statues ought to be seen
at a distance. On another occasion, as it is reported, he was studying
geometry very late in life, and some said to him, “Is it then a time for
you to be learning now?” “If it is not,” he replied, “when will it be?”

VI. And he died in the fourth year of the hundred and thirty-fourth
Olympiad, when he had presided over his school twenty-six years. And his
death was caused by paralysis, which was brought on by drinking. And we
ourselves have jested upon him in the following language.

    ’Tis an odd story that I heard of you—
    Lacydes, that you went with hasty steps,
    Spurred on by Bacchus, to the shades below.
    How then, if this be true, can it be said,
    That Bacchus e’er trips up his votaries’ feet
    ’Tis a _mistake his being_ named Lyæus.[43]


LIFE OF CARNEADES.

I. Carneades was the son of Epicomus, or Philocomus, as Alexander states
in his Successions; and a native of Cyrene.

II. He read all the books of the Stoics with great care, and especially
those of Chrysippus; and then he wrote replies to them, but did it at the
same time with such modesty that he used to say, “If Chrysippus had not
lived, I should never have existed.”

III. He was a man of as great industry as ever existed; not, however,
very much devoted to the investigation of subjects of natural philosophy,
but more fond of the discussion of ethical topics, on which account he
used to let his hair and his nails grow, from his entire devotion of
all his time to philosophical discussion. And he was so eminent as a
philosopher, that the orators would quit their own schools and come and
listen to his lectures.

IV. He was also a man of a very powerful voice, so that the president of
the Gymnasium sent to him once, to desire he would not shout so loudly.
And he replied, “Give me then, measure for my voice.” And the gymnasiarch
again rejoined with great wit, for he said, “You have a measure in your
pupils.”

V. He was a very vehement speaker, and one difficult to contend with in
the investigation of a point. And he used to decline all invitations to
entertainments, for the reasons I have already mentioned.

VI. On one occasion, when Mentor, the Bithynian, one of his pupils, came
to him to attend his school, observing that he was trying to seduce his
mistress (as Phavorinus relates in his Universal History), while he was
in the middle of his lecture, he made the following parody in allusion to
him:—

    A weak old man comes hither, like in voice,
    And gait, and figure, to the prudent Mentor
    I order him to be expelled this school.

And Mentor rising up, replied:—

    Thus did they speak, and straight the others rose.

VII. He appears to have been beset with fears of death; as he was
continually saying, “Nature, who has put this frame together, will also
dissolve it.” And learning that Antipater had died after having taken
poison, he felt a desire to imitate the boldness of his departure, and
said, “Give me some too.” And when they asked “What?” “Some mead,” said
he. And it is said that an eclipse of the moon happened when he died,
the most beautiful of all the stars, next to the sun, indicating (as any
one might say) its sympathy with the philosopher. And Apollodorus, in
his Chronicles, says that he died in the fourth year of the hundred and
sixty-second olympiad, being eighty-five years old.

VIII. There are some letters extant addressed by him to Ariarathes, the
king of the Cappadocians. All the other writings which are attributed to
him were written by his disciples, for he himself left nothing behind
him. And I have written on him the following lines in logaœdical
Archebulian metre.

    Why now, O Muse, do you wish me Carneades to confute?
    He was an ignoramus, as he did not understand
    Why he should stand in fear of death: so once, when he’d a cough,
    The worst of all diseases that affect the human frame,
    He cared not for a remedy; but when the news did reach him,
    That brave Antipater had ta’en some poison, and so died,
    “Give me, said he, some stuff to drink.” “Some what?”—“Some luscious
        mead.”
    Moreover, he’d this saying at all times upon his lips:
    “Nature did make me, and she does together keep me still;
    But soon the time will come when she will pull me all to pieces.”
    But still at last he yielded up the ghost: though long ago
    He might have died, and so escaped the evils that befell him.

IX. It is said that at night he was not aware when lights were brought
in; and that once he ordered his servant to light the candles, and when
he had brought them in and told him, “I have brought them;” “Well then,”
said he, “read by the light of them.”

X. He had a great many other disciples; but the most eminent of them was
Clitomachus, whom we must mention presently.

XI. There was also another man of the name of Carneades, a very
indifferent elegiac poet.


LIFE OF CLITOMACHUS.

I. Clitomachus was a Carthaginian. He was called Asdrubal, and used to
lecture on philosophy in his own country in his native language.

II. But when he came to Athens, at the age of forty years, he became
a pupil of Carneades; and, as he was pleased with his industry, he
caused him to be instructed in literature, and himself educated the
man carefully. And he carried his diligence to such a degree, that he
composed more than four hundred books.

III. And he succeeded Carneades in his schools; and he illustrated his
principles a great deal by his writings; as he himself had studied the
doctrines of their sects, the Academic, the Peripatetic, and the Stoic.
Timon attacks the whole school of Academics, as a body, in these lines:—

    Nor the unprofitable chattering
    Of all the Academics.

But now that we have gone through the philosophers of Plato’s school, let
us go to the Peripatetics, who also derived their doctrines from Plato;
and the founder of their sect was Aristotle. 

[34] Herophilus was one of the most celebrated physicians of antiquity,
who founded the Medical School at Alexandria, in the time of the first
Ptolemy.

[35] Hom. Od. x. 387. Pope’s Version, 450.

[36] Perhaps there is a pun here; ἀστράγαλος means not only a knout
composed of small bones strung together, but also a die.

[37] This is a quotation from some lost play of Euripides, slightly
altered, the line, as printed in the Variorum Edition, vol. vii., Mc.
Trag. cxxx. is—

    ἀκόλαστα πάντα γίνεται, δούλων τέκνα.

[38] There is a pun here which is untranslateable. The Greek is πλὴν ὅταν
τόκος παρῇ, meaning usury, and also offspring or delivery.

[39] Hom. Od. x. 335. Pope’s Version, 387.

[40] Hom. Il. vi. 211. Pope’s Version, 254.

[41] This is a quotation from the Hippolytus of Euripides, v. 424.

[42] I doubt if the wit of these parodies will be appreciated by the
modern reader. The lines of Homer, which they are intended to parody,
are:—

    Ὦ μάκαρ Ατρεΐδη, μοιρηγενὲς, ὀλβιοδαίμων.—_Il._ 3, 182.

    ἠέ συ Πηλεΐδη, πάντων ἐκπαγλότατ’ ἀνδρῶν.—_Il._ v. 146.

The first of which is translated by Pope:—

    Oh, blest Atrides, born of prosperous fate,
    Successful monarch of a mighty state!

The Greek parody in the text is:—

    Ὦ πέπον Ἀρχύτα, ψαλληγενὲς, ὀλβιότυφε
    Τῆς ὑπάτης ἔριδος πάντων ἐμπειρότατ’ ἀνδρῶν.

[43] From λύω, _solvo_, to relax or weaken the limbs.