Vitae philosophorum

Menippus,[*](Menippus ille, nobilis quidem canis, Varro apud Nonium 333. Cf. Lucian, Icaromenippus 15, Bis Accusatus 33. Varro’s Saturae Menippeae, a mixture of prose and verse, were an imitation of the style of Menippus, although their subject matter was original and genuinely Roman.) also a Cynic, was by descent a Phoenician—a slave, as Achaïcus in his treatise on Ethics says. Diocles further informs us that his master was a citizen of Pontus and was named Baton. But as avarice made him very resolute in begging, he succeeded in becoming a Theban.

There is no seriousness[*](Strabo, however (xvi. p. 759), speaks of him as σπουδογέλοιος.) in him; but his books overflow with laughter, much the same as those of his contemporary Meleager.[*](For a fragment from his Banquet see Athenaeus 502 c.)

Hermippus says that he lent out money by the day and got a nickname from doing so. For he used to make loans on bottomry and take security, thus accumulating a large fortune.

At last, however, he fell a victim to a plot, was robbed of all, and in despair ended his days by hanging himself. I have composed a trifle upon him[*](Anth. Plan. v. 41.):

1. May be, you know Menippus,
2. Phoenician by birth, but a Cretan hound:
3. A money-lender by the day—so he was called—
4. At Thebes when once on a time his house was broken into
5. And he lost his all, not understanding what it is to be a Cynic,
6. He hanged himself.

Some authorities question the genuineness of the books attributed to him, alleging them to be by Dionysius and Zopyrus of Colophon, who, writing them for a joke, made them over to Menippus as a person able to dispose of them advantageously.

There have been six men named Menippus: the first the man who wrote a History of the Lydians and abridged Xanthus; the second my present subject; the third a sophist of Stratonicea, a Carian by descent[*](Cf.Cic.Brut.91, § 315 post a me tota Asia peragrata est, [fuique]cum summis quidem oratoribus, quibus-cum exercebar ipsis lubentibus; quorum erat princeps Menippus Stratonicensis meo iudicio tota Asia illis temporibus disertissimus, and Strabo xvi. 660.); the fourth a sculptor; the fifth and sixth painters, both mentioned by Apollodorus.

However, the writings of Menippus the Cynic are thirteen in number:

Besides other works.