Vitae philosophorum

Diogenes Laertius

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

When Dionysius told Plato that he would lose his head, Xenocrates, who was present, pointed to his own and added, No man shall touch it till he cut off mine. They say too that, when Antipater came to Athens and greeted him, he did not address him in return until he had finished what he was saying. He was singularly free from pride; more than once

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a day he would retire into himself, and he assigned, it is said, a whole hour to silence.

He left a very large number of treatises, poems and addresses, of which I append a list:

  • On Nature, six books.
  • On Wisdom, six books.
  • On Wealth, one book.
  • The Arcadian, one book.
  • On the Indeterminate, one book.

  • On the Child, one book.
  • On Continence, one book.
  • On Utility, one book.
  • On Freedom, one book.
  • On Death, one book.[*](Supposed by Marsilius Ficinus to be the extant dialogue Axiochus attributed to Plato (cf. supra, iii. 62).)
  • On the Voluntary, one book.
  • On Friendship, two books.
  • On Equity, one book.
  • On that which is Contrary, two books.
  • On Happiness, two books.
  • On Writing, one book.
  • On Memory, one book.
  • On Falsehood, one book.
  • Callicles, one book.
  • On Prudence, two books.
  • The Householder, one book.
  • On Temperance, one book.
  • On the Influence of Law, one book.
  • On the State, one book.
  • On Holiness, one book.
  • That Virtue can be taught, one book.
  • On Being, one book.
  • On Fate, one book.
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  • On the Emotions, one book.
  • On Modes of Life, one book.
  • On Concord, one book.
  • On Students, two books.
  • On Justice, one book.
  • On Virtue, two books.
  • On Forms, one book.
  • On Pleasure, two books.
  • On Life, one book.
  • On Bravery, one book.
  • On the One, one book.
  • On Ideas, one book.

  • On Art, one book.
  • On the Gods, two books.
  • On the Soul, two books.
  • On Science, one book.
  • The Statesman, one book.
  • On Cognition, one book.
  • On Philosophy, one book.
  • On the Writings of Parmenides, one book.
  • Archedemus or Concerning Justice, one book.
  • On the Good, one book.
  • Things relating to the Understanding, eight books.
  • Solution of Logical Problems, ten books.
  • Physical Lectures, six books.
  • Summary, one book.
  • On Genera and Species, one book.
  • Things Pythagorean, one book.
  • Solutions, two books.
  • Divisions, eight books.
  • Theses, in twenty books, 30,000 lines.
  • The Study of Dialectic, in fourteen books, 12,740 lines.
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  • After this come fifteen books, and then sixteen books of Studies relating to Style.
  • Nine books on Ratiocination.
  • Six books concerned with Mathematics.
  • Two other books entitled Things relating to the Intellect.
  • On Geometers, five books.
  • Commentaries, one book.
  • Contraries, one book.
  • On Numbers, one book.
  • Theory of Numbers, one book.
  • On Dimensions, one book.
  • On Astronomy, six books.

  • Elementary Principles of Monarchy, in four books, dedicated to Alexander.
  • To Arybas.
  • To Hephaestion.
  • On Geometry, two books.

    • These works comprise in all 224,239 lines.

    Such was his character, and yet, when he was unable to pay the tax levied on resident aliens, the Athenians put him up for sale. And Demetrius of Phalerum purchased him, thereby making twofold restitution, to Xenocrates of his liberty, and to the Athenians of their tax. This we learn from Myronianus of Amastris in the first book of his Chapters on Historical Parallels. He succeeded Speusippus and was head of the school for twenty-five years from the archonship of Lysimachides, beginning in the second year of the 110th Olympiad.[*](339-338 b.c.) He died in his 82nd year from the effects of a fall over some utensil in the night.

    Upon him I have expressed myself as follows[*](Anth. Pal. vii. 102.):

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    Xenocrates, that type of perfect manliness, stumbled over a vessel of bronze and broke his head, and, with a loud cry, expired.

    There have been six other men named Xenocrates: (1) a tactician in very ancient times; (2) the kinsman and fellow-citizen of the philosopher: a speech by him is extant entitled the Arsinoëtic, treating of a certain deceased Arsinoë[*](In the enumeration of the first three one has accidentally dropped out.); (4) a philosopher and not very successful writer of elegies; it is a remarkable fact that poets succeed when they undertake to write prose, but prose-writers who essay poetry come to grief; whereby it is clear that the one is a gift of nature and the other of art; (5) a sculptor; (6) a writer of songs mentioned by Aristoxenus.