Vitae philosophorum

But these people are stark mad. For our philosopher has abundance of witnesses to attest his unsurpassed goodwill to all men—his native land, which honoured him with statues in bronze; his friends, so many in number that they could hardly be counted by whole cities, and indeed all who knew him, held fast as they were by the siren-charms of his doctrine, save Metrodorus[*](This man (not to be confounded with the more famous Metrodorus of Lampsacus, cf.§ 22) must belong to the second century b.c., if he was a contemporary of Carneades (c. 215-130 b.c.).) of Stratonicea, who

went over to Carneades, being perhaps burdened by his master’s excessive goodness; the School itself which, while nearly all the others have died out, continues for ever without interruption through numberless reigns of one scholarch after another[*](So Aristocles; cf. Euseb. Praep. Ev. xiv. 21. 1, and Numenius, ib. xiv. 5. 3. The indications of time are so vague that this defence of Epicurus might be ascribed to D. L. himself. If, however, we compare the list of calum-niators of Epicurus cited in §§ 3, 4, we see that none of them is later than the Augustan age. To the same date belongs a passage in the article of Suidas on Epicurus—καὶ διέμεινεν ἡ αὐτοῦ σχόλη ἕως Καίσαρος τοῦ πρώτου ἔτη σκζʼ, ἐν οἶς διάδοχ οι αὐτῆς ἐγένον το ιδʼ. As Usener has shown (Epicurea, 373), the interval of 227 years is reckoned from 270 to 44 b.c.);

his gratitude to his parents, his generosity to his brothers, his gentleness to his servants, as evidenced by the terms of his will and by the fact that they were members of the School, the most eminent of them being the aforesaid Mys; and in general, his benevolence to all mankind. His piety towards the gods and his affection for his country no words can describe. He carried deference to others to such excess that he did not even enter public life. He spent all his life in Greece, notwithstanding the calamities which had befallen her in that age[*](In the siege of Athens he is said to have maintained his disciples, counting out to each his ration of beans (Plut. Demetr. 34).); when he did once or twice take a trip to Ionia, it was to visit his friends there.[*](Cf.Epist. 32 (Fr. 176 Usener). This celebrated letter to a child was written from Lampsacus on such a journey.) Friends indeed came to him from all parts and lived with him in his garden. This is stated by Apollodorus, who also says that he purchased the garden for eighty minae;