Vitae philosophorum

It is said that at Athens he so attracted the public that people would run together from the workshops to look at him. And when some one said, Stilpo, they stare at you as if you were some strange creature. No, indeed, said he, but as if I were a genuine man. And, being a consummate master of controversy, he used to demolish even the ideas, and say that he who asserted the existence of Man meant no individual; he did not mean this man or that. For why should he mean the one more than the other? Therefore neither does he mean this individual man. Again, vegetable is not what is shown to me, for vegetable existed ten thousand years ago. Therefore this is not vegetable. The story goes that while in the middle of an argument with Crates he hurried off to buy fish, and, when Crates tried to detain him and urged that he was leaving the argument, his answer was, Not I. I

keep the argument though I am leaving you; for the argument will remain, but the fish will soon be sold.

Nine dialogues of his are extant written in frigid style, Moschus, Aristippus or Callias, Ptolemy, Chaerecrates, Metrocles, Anaximenes, Epigenes, To his Daughter, Aristotle. Heraclides relates that Zeno, the founder of the Stoic school, was one of Stilpo’s pupils[*](Compare the anecdote in vii. 24 from Apollonius of Tyre.); Hermippus that Stilpo died at a great age after taking wine to hasten his end.

I have written an epitaph on him also[*](Anth Plan. v. 42.):

Surely you know Stilpo the Megarian; old age and then disease laid him low, a formidable pair. But he found in wine a charioteer too strong for that evil team; he quaffed it eagerly and was borne along.

He was also ridiculed by Sophilus the Comic poet in his drama The Wedding[*](Meineke, C.G.F. iv. 386, s.v. Diphilus.):

What Charinus says is just Stilpo’s stoppers.

Crito was a citizen of Athens. He was most affectionate in his disposition towards Socrates, and took such care of him that none of his wants were left unsupplied. Further, his sons Critobulus, Hermogenes, Epigenes and Ctesippus were pupils of Socrates. Crito too wrote seventeen dialogues which are extant in a single volume under the titles:

That men are not made good by instruction.

Concerning superfluity.

What is expedient, or The Statesman.

Of Beauty.

On Doing Ill.

On Tidiness.

On Law.

Of that which is Divine.

On Arts.

Of Society.

Of Wisdom.

Protagoras, or The Statesman.

On Letters.

Of Poetry.

Of Learning.

On Knowing, or On Science.

What is Knowledge.