BOOK IV.

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.