Vitae philosophorum

Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes Laertius. Hicks, R. D., editor. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1925.

He said the world was his country. Theft, adultery, and sacrilege would be allowable upon occasion, since none of these acts is by nature base, if once you have removed the prejudice against them, which is kept up in order to hold the foolish multitude together. The wise man would indulge his passions openly without the least regard to circumstances. Hence he would use such arguments as this. Is a woman who is skilled in grammar useful in so far as she is skilled in grammar? Yes. And is a boy or a youth skilled in grammar useful in so far as he is skilled in grammar? Yes.

Again,

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is a woman who is beautiful useful in so far as she is beautiful? And the use of beauty is to be enjoyed?Yes. When this was admitted, he would press the argument to the conclusion, namely, that he who uses anything for the purpose for which it is useful does no wrong. And by some such interrogatories he would carry his point.

He appears to have been called θεός (god) in consequence of the following argument addressed to him by Stilpo. Are you, Theodorus, what you declare yourself to be? To this he assented, and Stilpo continued, And do you say you are god? To this he agreed. Then it follows that you are god. Theodorus accepted this, and Stilpo said with a smile, But, you rascal, at this rate you would allow yourself to be a jackdaw and ten thousand other things.

However, Theodorus, sitting on one occasion beside Euryclides, the hierophant, began, Tell me, Euryclides, who they are who violate the mysteries? Euryclides replied, Those who disclose them to the uninitiated. Then you violate them, said Theodorus, when you explain them to the uninitiated. Yet he would hardly have escaped from being brought before the Areopagus if Demetrius of Phalerum had not rescued him. And Amphicrates in his book Upon Illustrious Men says he was condemned to drink the hemlock.

For a while he stayed at the court of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, and was once sent by him as ambassador to Lysimachus. And on this occasion his language was so bold that Lysimachus said, Tell me, are you not the Theodorus who was banished from Athens? To which he replied, Your information

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is correct, for, when Athens could not bear me any more than Semele could Dionysus, she cast me out. And upon Lysimachus adding, Take care you do not come here again, I never will, said he, unless Ptolemy sends me. Mithras, the king’s minister, standing by and saying, It seems that you can ignore not only gods but kings as well, Theodorus replied, How can you say that I ignore the gods when I regard you as hateful to the gods? He is said on one occasion in Corinth to have walked abroad with a numerous train of pupils, and Metrocles the Cynic, who was washing chervil, remarked, You, sophist that you are, would not have wanted all these pupils if you had washed vegetables. Thereupon Theodorus retorted, And you, if you had known how to associate with men, would have had no use for these vegetables.

A similar anecdote is told of Diogenes and Aristippus, as mentioned above.[*](See §68.)

Such was the character of Theodorus and his surroundings. At last he retired to Cyrene, where he lived with Magas and continued to be held in high honour. The first time that he was expelled from Cyrene he is credited with a witty remark: Many thanks,[*](Or, if κακῶς is the right reading, It is unkind of you. καλῶς is Stephanus’s conjecture.) men of Cyrene, said he, for driving me from Libya into Greece.

Some twenty persons have borne the name of Theodorus: (1) a Samian, the son of Rhoecus. He it was who advised laying charcoal embers under the foundations of the temple in Ephesus; for, as the ground was very damp, the ashes, being free from woody fibre, would retain a solidity which is actually proof against moisture. (2) A Cyrenaean geometer,

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whose lectures Plato attended. (3) The philosopher above referred to. (4) The author of a fine work on practising the voice.

(5) An authority upon musical composers from Terpander onwards. (6) A Stoic. (7) A writer upon the Romans. (8) A Syracusan who wrote upon Tactics. (9) A Byzantine, famous for his political speeches. (10) Another, equally famous, mentioned by Aristotle in his Epitome of Orators. (11) A Theban sculptor. (12) A painter, mentioned by Polemo. (13) An Athenian painter, of whom Menodotus writes. (14) An Ephesian painter, who is mentioned by Theophanes in his work upon painting. (15) A poet who wrote epigrams. (16) A writer on poets. (17) A physician, pupil of Athenaeus. (18) A Stoic philosopher of Chios. (19) A Milesian, also a Stoic philosopher (20) A tragic poet.

Phaedo was a native of Elis, of noble family, who on the fall of that city was taken captive and forcibly consigned to a house of ill-fame. But he would close the door and so contrive to join Socrates’ circle, and in the end Socrates induced Alcibiades or Crito with their friends to ransom him; from that time onwards he studied philosophy as became a free man. Hieronymus in his work On Suspense of Judgement attacks him and calls him a slave. Of the dialogues which bear his name the Zopyrus and Simon are genuine; the Nicias is doubtful; the Medius is said by some to be the work of Aeschines, while

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others ascribe it to Polyaenus; the Antimachus or The Elders is also doubted; the Cobblers’ Tales are also by some attributed to Aeschines.

He was succeeded by Plistanus of Elis, and a generation later by Menedemus of Eretria and Asclepiades of Phlius, who came over from Stilpo’s school. Till then the school was known as that of Elis, but from Menedemus onward it was called the Eretrian school. Of Menedemus we shall have to speak hereafter, because he too started a new school.