A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

3. Of Aegina. It is doubtful whether there was one or two cynic philosophers of this name from Aegina. Suidas has two, of one of whom he says that he was the disciple of Diogenes the Cynic, or, according to Hermippus, of Stilpon, that he was the teacher of Alexander in grammar, and that he wrote dialogues, one of which was entitled Κόδρος ; of the other, Suidas says that, having gone from Aegina to Athens, in order to see the city, he heard Diogenes, and addicted himself to philosophy : and that his brother, having been sent by his father to Athens to fetch him home, also staid there, and became a philosopher; and lastly, the father himself, having gone to Athens in search of his sons, became infected with the philosophical mania : the rest of the article refers to Diogenes himself. The latter article is taken from Diogenes Laertius (6.75, 76), who mentions the name of the father, Onesicritus, and who evidently only speaks of one cynic philosopher of the name of Philiscus (comp. 6.73, 80, 84). This is, therefore, very probably one of the many cases in which Suidas makes two articles out of the same name, by copying statements from two different authors. We do not see the force of Naeke's argument (Sched. Crit. p. 25), that the Philiscus of whom the tale in Diogenes and Suidas is told, could hardly, for chronological reasons, be the same person as the teacher of Alexander. Some ancient writers ascribed to Philiscus some, or even all, of the tragedies of Diogenes the Cynic, probably through confounding him with the celebrated tragic poet of the same name. (D. L. 6.73 ; Julian. Oral. vi. vii.; Naeke, l.c. ; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. p. 505, n.) Aelian has preserved a short exhortation of Philiscus, addressed to Alexander (V. H. 14.11).