Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers

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§ 4.23 According to Apollodorus in the third book of his Chronology, Crates at his death left behind him works, some of a philosophical kind, others on comedy, others again speeches delivered in the assembly or when he was envoy. He also left distinguished pupils; among them Arcesilaus, of whom we shall speak presently – for he was also a pupil of Crates; another was Bion of Borysthenes, who was afterwards known as the Theodorean, from the school which he joined; of him too we shall have occasion to speak next after Arcesilaus. There have been ten men who bore the name of Crates: (1) the poet of the Old Comedy; (2) a rhetorician of Tralles, a pupil of Isocrates; (3) a sapper and miner who accompanied Alexander; (4) the Cynic, of whom more hereafter; (5) a Peripatetic philosopher; (6) the Academic philosopher described above; (7) a grammarian of Malos; (8) the author of a geometrical work; (9) a composer of epigrams; (10) an Academic philosopher of Tarsus.
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§ 4.24 5. CRANTOR Crantor of Soli, though he was much esteemed in his native country, left it for Athens and attended the lectures of Xenocrates at the same time as Polemo. He left memoirs extending to 30,000 lines, some of which are by some critics attributed to Arcesilaus. He is said to have been asked what it was in Polemo that attracted him, and to have replied, “The fact that I never heard him raise or lower his voice in speaking.” He happened to fall ill, and retired to the Asklepeion, where he proceeded to walk about. At once people flocked round him in the belief that he had retired thither, not on account of illness, but in order to open a school. Among them was Arcesilaus, who wished to be introduced by his means to Polemo, notwithstanding the affection which united the two, as will be related in the Life of Arcesilaus.
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§ 4.25 However, when he recovered, he continued to attend Polemo's lectures, and for this he was universally praised. He is also said to have left Arcesilaus his property, to the value of twelve talents. And when asked by him where he wished to be buried, he answered: Sweet in some nook of native soil to rest. It is also said that he wrote poems and deposited them under seal in the sanctuary of Athena in his native place. And Theaetetus the poet writes thus of him: Pleasing to men, more pleasing to the Muses, lived Crantor, and never saw old age. Receive, O earth, the hallowed dead; gently may he live and thrive even in the world below.
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§ 4.26 Crantor admired Homer and Euripides above all other poets; it is hard, he said, at once to write tragedy and to stir the emotions in the language of everyday life. And he would quote the line from the story of Bellerophon: Alas! But why Alas? We have suffered the lot of mortals. And it is said that there are extant these lines of the poet Antagoras, spoken by Crantor on Love: My mind is in doubt, since thy birth is disputed, whether I am to call thee, Love, the first of the immortal gods, the eldest of all the children whom old Erebus and queenly Night brought to birth in the depths beneath wide Ocean;
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§ 4.27 or art thou the child of wise Cypris, or of Earth, or of the Winds? So many are the goods and ills thou devisest for men in thy wanderings. Therefore hast thou a body of double form. He was also clever at inventing terms. For instance, he said of a tragic player's voice that it was unpolished and unpeeled. And of a certain poet that his verses abounded in miserliness. And that the disquisitions of Theophrastus were written with an oyster-shell. His most highly esteemed work is the treatise On Grief. He died before Polemo and Crates, his end being hastened by dropsy. I have composed upon him the following epigram: The worst of maladies overwhelmed you, Crantor, and thus did you descend the black abyss of Pluto. While you fare well even in the world below, the Academy and your country of Soli are bereft of your discourses.
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§ 4.28 6. ARCESILAUS Arcesilaus, the son of Seuthes, according to Apollodorus in the third book of his Chronology, came from Pitane in Aeolis. With him begins the Middle Academy; he was the first to suspend his judgement owing to the contradictions of opposing arguments. He was also the first to argue on both sides of a question, and the first to meddle with the system handed down by Plato and, by means of question and answer, to make it more closely resemble eristic. He came across Crantor in this way. He was the youngest of four brothers, two of them being his brothers by the same father, and two by the same mother. Of the last two Pylades was the elder, and of the former two Moereas, and Moereas was his guardian.
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§ 4.29 At first, before he left Pitane for Athens, he was a pupil of the mathematician Autolycus, his fellow-countryman, and with him he also travelled to Sardis. Next he studied under Xanthus, the musician, of Athens; then he was a pupil of Theophrastus. Lastly, he crossed over to the Academy and joined Crantor. For while his brother Moereas, who has already been mentioned, wanted to make him a rhetorician, he was himself devoted to philosophy, and Crantor, being enamoured of him, cited the line from the Andromeda of Euripides: O maiden, if I save thee, wilt thou be grateful to me? and was answered with the next line: Take me, stranger, whether for maidservant or for wife.
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§ 4.30 After that they lived together. Whereupon Theophrastus, nettled at his loss, is said to have remarked, “What a quick-witted and ready pupil has left my school!” For, besides being most effective in argument and decidedly fond of writing books, he also took up poetry. And there is extant an epigram of his upon Attalus which runs thus: Pergamos, not famous in arms alone, is often celebrated for its steeds in divine Pisa. And if a mortal may make bold to utter the will of heaven, it will be much more sung by bards in days to come. And again upon Menodorus, the favourite of Eugamus, one of his fellow-students:
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§ 4.31 Far, far away are Phrygia and sacred Thyatira, thy native land, Menodorus, son of Cadanus. But to unspeakable Acheron the ways are equal, from whatever place they be measured, as the proverb saith. To thee Eugamus raised this far-seen monument, for thou wert dearest to him of all who for him toiled. He esteemed Homer above all the poets and would always read a passage from him before going to sleep. And in the morning he would say, whenever he wanted to read Homer, that he would pay a visit to his dear love. Pindar too he declared matchless for imparting fullness of diction and for affording a copious store of words and phrases. And in his youth he made a special study of Ion.
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§ 4.32 He also attended the lectures of the geometer Hipponicus, at whom he pointed a jest as one who was in all besides a listless, yawning sluggard but yet proficient in his subject. “Geometry,” he said, “must have flown into his mouth while it was agape.” When this man's mind gave way, Arcesilaus took him to his house and nursed him until he was completely restored. He took over the school on the death of Crates, a certain Socratides having retired in his favour. According to some, one result of his suspending judgement on all matters was that he never so much as wrote a book. Others relate that he was caught revising some works of Crantor, which according to some he published, according to others he burnt. He would seem to have held Plato in admiration, and he possessed a copy of his works.
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§ 4.33 Some represent him as emulous of Pyrrho as well. He was devoted to dialectic and adopted the methods of argument introduced by the Eretrian school. On account of this Ariston said of him: Plato the head of him, Pyrrho the tail, midway Diodorus. And Timon speaks of him thus: Having the lead of Menedemus at his heart, he will run either to that mass of flesh, Pyrrho, or to Diodorus. And a little farther on he introduces him as saying: I shall swim to Pyrrho and to crooked Diodorus. He was highly axiomatic and concise, and in his discourse fond of distinguishing the meaning of terms. He was satirical enough, and outspoken.
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§ 4.34 This is why Timon speaks of him again as follows: And mixing sound sense with wily cavils. Hence, when a young man talked more boldly than was becoming, Arcesilaus exclaimed, “Will no one beat him at a game of knuckle-bone?” Again, when some one of immodest life denied that one thing seemed to him greater than another, he rejoined, “Then six inches and ten inches are all the same to you?” There was a certain Hemon, a Chian, who, though ugly, fancied himself to be handsome, and always went about in fine clothes. He having propounded as his opinion that the wise man will never fall in love, Arcesilaus replied, “What, not with one so handsome as you and so handsomely dressed?” And when one of loose life, to imply that Arcesilaus was arrogant, addressed him thus:
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§ 4.35 Queen, may I speak, or must I silence keep? his reply was: Woman, why talk so harshly, not as thou art wont? When some talkative person of no family caused him considerable trouble, he cited the line: Right ill to live with are the sons of slaves. Of another who talked much nonsense he said that he could not have had even a nurse to scold him. And some persons he would not so much as answer. To a money-lending student, upon his confessing ignorance of something or other, Arcesilaus replied with two lines from the Oenomaus of Sophocles: Be sure the hen-bird knows not from what quarter the wind blows until she looks for a new brood in the nest.
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§ 4.36 A certain dialectic, a follower of Alexinus, was unable to repeat properly some argument of his teacher, whereupon Arcesilaus reminded him of the story of Philoxenus and the brickmakers. He found them singing some of his melodies out of tune; so he retaliated by trampling on the bricks they were making, saying, “If you spoil my work, I'll spoil yours.” He was, moreover, genuinely annoyed with any who took up their studies too late. By some natural impulse he was betrayed into using such phrases as “I assert,” and “So-and-so” (mentioning the name) “will not assent to this.” And this trait many of his pupils imitated, as they did also his style of speaking and his whole address.
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§ 4.37 Very fertile in invention, he could meet objection acutely or bring the course of discussion back to the point at issue, and fit it to every occasion. In persuasiveness he had no equal, and this all the more drew pupils to the school, although they were in terror of his pungent wit. But they willingly put up with that; for his goodness was extraordinary, and he inspired his pupils with hopes. He showed the greatest generosity in private life, being ever ready to confer benefits, yet most modestly anxious to conceal the favour. For instance, he once called upon Ctesibius when he was ill and, seeing in what straits he was, quietly put a purse under his pillow. He, when he found it, said, “This is the joke of Arcesilaus.” Moreover, on another occasion, he sent him 1000 drachmas.
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§ 4.38 Again, by introducing Archias the Arcadian to Eumenes, he caused him to be advanced to great dignity. And, as he was very liberal, caring very little for money, so he was the first to attend performances where seats were paid for, and he was above all eager to go to those of Archecrates and Callicrates, for which the fee was a gold piece. And he helped many people and collected subscriptions for them. Some one once borrowed his silver plate in order to entertain friends and never brought it back, but Arcesilaus did not ask him for it and pretended it had not been borrowed. Another version of the story is that he lent it on purpose, and, when it was returned, made the borrower a present of it because he was poor. He had property in Pitane from which his brother Pylades sent him supplies. Furthermore, Eumenes, the son of Philetaerus, furnished him with large sums, and for this reason Eumenes was the only one of the contemporary kings to whom he dedicated any of his works.
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§ 4.39 And whereas many persons courted Antigonus and went to meet him whenever he came to Athens, Arcesilaus remained at home, not wishing to thrust himself upon his acquaintance. He was on the best of terms with Hierocles, the commandant in Munichia and Piraeus, and at every festival would go down to see him. And though Hierocles joined in urging him to pay his respects to Antigonus, he was not prevailed upon, but, after going as far as the gates, turned back. And after the battle at sea, when many went to Antigonus or wrote him flattering letters, he held his peace. However, on behalf of his native city, he did go to Demetrias as envoy to Antigonus, but failed in his mission. He spent his time wholly in the Academy, shunning politics.
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§ 4.40 Once indeed, when at Athens, he stopped too long in the Piraeus, discussing themes, out of friendship for Hierocles, and for this he was censured by certain persons. He was very lavish, in short another Aristippus, and he was fond of dining well, but only with those who shared his tastes. He lived openly with Theodete and Phila, the Elean courtesans, and to those who censured him he quoted the maxims of Aristippus. He was also fond of boys and very susceptible. Hence he was accused by Ariston of Chios, the Stoic, and his followers, who called him a corrupter of youth and a shameless teacher of immorality.
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§ 4.41 He is said to have been particularly enamoured of Demetrius who sailed to Cyrene, and of Cleochares of Myrlea; of him the story is told that, when a band of revellers came to the door, he told them that for his part he was willing to admit them but that Cleochares would not let him. This same youth had amongst his admirers Demochares the son of Laches, and Pythocles the son of Bugelus, and once when Arcesilaus had caught them, with great forbearance he ordered them off. For all this he was assailed and ridiculed by the critics abovementioned, as a friend of the mob who courted popularity. The most virulent attacks were made upon him in the circle of Hieronymus the Peripatetic, whenever he collected his friends to keep the birthday of Halcyoneus, son of Antigonus, an occasion for which Antigonus used to send large sums of money to be spent in merrymaking.
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§ 4.42 There he had always shunned discussion over the wine; and when Aridices, proposing a certain question, requested him to speak upon it, he replied, “The peculiar province of philosophy is just this, to know that there is a time for all things.” As to the charge brought against him that he was the friend of the mob, Timon, among many other things, has the following: So saying, he plunged into the surrounding crowd. And they were amazed at him, like chaffinches about an owl, pointing him out as vain, because he was a flatterer of the mob. And why, insignificant thing that you are, do you puff yourself out like a simpleton? And yet for all that he was modest enough to recommend his pupils to hear other philosophers. And when a certain youth from Chios was not well pleased with his lectures and preferred those of the above-mentioned Hieronymus, Arcesilaus himself took him and introduced him to that philosopher, with an injunction to behave well.
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§ 4.43 Another pleasant story told of him is this. Some one had inquired why it was that pupils from all the other schools went over to Epicurus, but converts were never made from the Epicureans: “Because men may become eunuchs, but a eunuch never becomes a man,” was his answer. At last, being near his end, he left all his property to his brother Pylades, because, unknown to Moereas, he had taken him to Chios and thence brought him to Athens. In all his life he never married nor had any children. He made three wills: the first he left at Eretria in the charge of Amphicritus, the second at Athens in the charge of certain friends, while the third he dispatched to his home to Thaumasias, one of his relatives, with the request that he would keep it safe. To this man he also wrote as follows: “ Arcesilaus to Thaumasias greeting.
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§ 4.44 ”I have given Diogenes my will to be conveyed to you. For, owing to my frequent illnesses and the weak state of my body, I decided to make a will, in order that, if anything untoward should happen, you, who have been so devotedly attached to me, should not suffer by my decease. You are the most deserving of all those in this place to be entrusted with the will, on the score both of age and of relationship to me. Remember then that I have reposed the most absolute confidence in you, and strive to deal justly by me, in order that, so far as you are concerned, the provisions I have made may be carried out with fitting dignity. A copy is deposited at Athens with some of my acquaintance, and another in Eretria with Amphicritus." He died, according to Hermippus, through drinking too freely of unmixed wine which affected his reason; he was already seventy-five and regarded by the Athenians with unparalleled good-will.
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§ 4.45 I have written upon him as follows: Why, pray, Arcesilaus, didst thou quaff so unsparingly unmixed wine as to go out of thy mind? I pity thee not so much for thy death as because thou didst insult the Muses by immoderate potations. Three other men have borne the name of Arcesilaus: a poet of the Old Comedy, another poet who wrote elegies, and a sculptor besides, on whom Simonides composed this epigram: This is a statue of Artemis and its cost two hundred Parian drachmas, which bear a goat for their device. It was made by Arcesilaus, the worthy son of Aristodicus, well practised in the arts of Athena. According to Apollodorus in his Chronology, the philosopher described in the foregoing flourished about the 120th Olympiad.
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§ 4.46 7. BION Bion was by birth a citizen of Borysthenes [ Olbia ]; who his parents were, and what his circumstances before he took to philosophy, he himself told Antigonus in plain terms. For, when Antigonus inquired: Who among men, and whence, are you? What is your city and your parents? he, knowing that he had already been maligned to the king, replied, “My father was a freedman, who wiped his nose on his sleeve” – meaning that he was a dealer in salt fish – “a native of Borysthenes, with no face to show, but only the writing on his face, a token of his master's severity. My mother was such as a man like my father would marry, from a brothel. Afterwards my father, who had cheated the revenue in some way, was sold with all his family. And I, then a not ungraceful youngster, was bought by a certain rhetorician, who on his death left me all he had.
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§ 4.47 And I burnt his books, scraped everything together, came to Athens and turned philosopher. This is the stock and this the blood from which I boast to have sprung. Such is my story. It is high time, then, that Persaeus and Philonides left off recounting it. Judge me by myself.” In truth Bion was in other respects a shifty character, a subtle sophist, and one who had given the enemies of philosophy many an occasion to blaspheme, while in certain respects he was even pompous and able to indulge in arrogance. He left very many memoirs, and also sayings of useful application. For example, when he was reproached for not paying court to a youth, his excuse was, “You can't get hold of a soft cheese with a hook.”
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§ 4.48 Being once asked who suffers most from anxiety, he replied, “He who is ambitious of the greatest prosperity.” Being consulted by some one as to whether he should marry – for this story is also told of Bion – he made answer, “If the wife you marry be ugly, she will be your bane; if beautiful, you will not keep her to yourself.” He called old age the harbour of all ills; at least they all take refuge there. Renown he called the mother of virtues; beauty another's good; wealth the sinews of success. To some one who had devoured his patrimony he said, “The earth swallowed Amphiaraus, but you have swallowed your land.” To be unable to bear an ill is itself a great ill. He used to condemn those who burnt men alive as if they could not feel, and yet cauterized them as if they could.
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§ 4.49 He used repeatedly to say that to grant favours to another was preferable to enjoying the favours of others. For the latter means ruin to both body and soul. He even abused Socrates, declaring that, if he felt desire for Alcibiades and abstained, he was a fool; if he did not, his conduct was in no way remarkable. The road to Hades, he used to say, was easy to travel; at any rate men passed away with their eyes shut. He said in censure of Alcibiades that in his boyhood he drew away the husbands from their wives, and as a young man the wives from their husbands. When the Athenians were absorbed in the practice of rhetoric, he taught philosophy at Rhodes. To some one who found fault with him for this he replied, “How can I sell barley when what I brought to market is wheat?”
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§ 4.50 He used to say that those in Hades would be more severely punished if the vessels in which they drew water were whole instead of being pierced with holes. To an importunate talker who wanted his help he said, “I will satisfy your demand, if you will only get others to plead your cause and stay away yourself.” On a voyage in bad company he fell in with pirates. When his companions said, “We are lost if we are discovered,” “And I too,” he replied, “unless I am discovered.” Conceit he styled a hindrance to progress. Referring to a wealthy miser he said, “He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him.” Misers, he said, took care of property as if it belonged to them, but derived no more benefit from it than if it belonged to others. “When we are young,” said he, “we are courageous, but it is only in old age that prudence is at its height.”
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§ 4.51 Prudence, he said, excels the other virtues as much as sight excels the other senses. He used to say that we ought not to heap reproaches on old age, seeing that, as he said, we all hope to reach it. To a slanderer who showed a grave face his words were, “I don't know whether you have met with ill luck, or your neighbour with good.” He used to say that low birth made a bad partner for free speech, for – It cows a man, however bold his heart. We ought, he remarked, to watch our friends and see what manner of men they are, in order that we may not be thought to associate with the bad or to decline the friendship of the good. Bion at the outset used to deprecate the Academic doctrines, even at the time when he was a pupil of Crates. Then he adopted the Cynic discipline, donning cloak and wallet.
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§ 4.52 For little else was needed to convert him to the doctrine of entire insensibility. Next he went over to Theodorean views, after he had heard the lectures of Theodorus the Atheist, who used every kind of sophistical argument. And after Theodorus he attended the lectures of Theophrastus the Peripatetic. He was fond of display and great at cutting up anything with a jest, using vulgar names for things. Because he employed every style of speech in combination, Eratosthenes, we hear, said of him that he was the first to deck philosophy with bright-flowered robes. He was clever also at parody. Here is a specimen of his style: O gentle Archytas, musician-born, blessed in thine own conceit, most skilled of men to stir the bass of strife.
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§ 4.53 And in general he made sport of music and geometry. He lived extravagantly, and for this reason he would move from one city to another, sometimes contriving to make a great show. Thus at Rhodes he persuaded the sailors to put on students' garb and follow in his train. And when, attended by them, he made his way into the gymnasium, all eyes were fixed on him. It was his custom also to adopt certain young men for the gratification of his appetite and in order that he might be protected by their goodwill. He was extremely selfish and insisted strongly on the maxim that “friends share in common.” And hence it came about that he is not credited with a single disciple, out of all the crowds who attended his lectures. And yet there were some who followed his lead in shamelessness.
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§ 4.54 For instance, Betion, one of his intimates, is said once to have addressed Menedemus in these words: “For my part, Menedemus, I pass the night with Bion, and I don't think I am any the worse for it.” In his familiar talk he would often vehemently assail belief in the gods, a taste which he had derived from Theodorus. Afterwards, when he fell ill (so it was said by the people of Chalcis where he died), he was persuaded to wear an amulet and to repent of his offences against religion. And even for want of nurses he was in a sad plight, until Antigonus sent him two servants. And it is stated by Favorinus in his Miscellaneous History that the king himself followed in a litter. Even so he died, and in these lines I have taken him to task:
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§ 4.55 We hear that Bion, to whom the Scythian land of Borysthenes gave birth, denied that the gods really exist. Had he persisted in holding this opinion, it would have been right to say, “He thinks as he pleases: wrongly, to be sure, but still he does think so.” But in fact, when he fell ill of a lingering disease and feared death, he who denied the existence of the gods, and would not even look at a temple,
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§ 4.56 who often mocked at mortals for sacrificing to deities, not only over hearth and high altars and table, with sweet savour and fat and incense did he gladden the nostrils of the gods; nor was he content to say “I have sinned, forgive the past,”
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§ 4.57 but he cheerfully allowed an old woman to put a charm round his neck, and in full faith bound his arms with leather and placed the rhamnus and the laurel-branch over the door, being ready to submit to anything sooner than die. Fool for wishing that the divine favour might be purchased at a certain price, as if the gods existed just when Bion chose to recognize them! It was then with vain wisdom that, when the driveller was all ashes, he stretched out his hand and said “Hail, Pluto, hail!”
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§ 4.58 Ten men have borne the name of Bion: (1) the contemporary of Pherecydes of Syria, to whom are assigned two books in the Ionic dialect; he was of Proconnesus; (2) a Syracusan, who wrote rhetorical handbooks; (3) our philosopher; (4) a follower of Democritus and mathematician of Abdera, who wrote both in Attic and in Ionic: he was the first to affirm that there are places where the night lasts for six months and the day for six months; (5) a native of Soli, who wrote a work on Aethiopia; (6) a rhetorician, the author of nine books called after the Muses; (7) a lyric poet; (8) a Milesian sculptor, mentioned by Polemo; (9) a tragic poet, one of the poets of Tarsus, as they are called; (10) a sculptor of Clazomenae or Chios, mentioned by Hipponax.
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§ 4.59 8. LACYDES Lacydes, son of Alexander, was a native of Cyrene He was the founder of the New Academy and the successor of Arcesilaus: a man of very serious character who found numerous admirers; industrious from his youth up and, though poor, of pleasant manners and pleasant conversation. A most amusing story is told of his housekeeping. Whenever he brought anything out of the store-room, he would seal the door up again and throw his signet-ring inside through the opening, to ensure that nothing laid up there should be stolen or carried off. So soon, then, as his rogues of servants got to know this, they broke the seal and carried off what they pleased, afterwards throwing the ring in the same way through the opening into the store-room. Nor were they ever detected in this.
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§ 4.60 Lacydes used to lecture in the Academy, in the garden which had been laid out by King Attalus, and from him it derived its name of Lacydeum. He did what none of his predecessors had ever done; in his lifetime he handed over the school to Telecles and Evander, both of Phocaea. Evander was succeeded by Hegesinus of Pergamum, and he again by Carneades. A good saying is attributed to Lacydes. When Attalus sent for him, he is said to have remarked that statues are best seen from a distance. He studied geometry late, and some one said to him, “Is this a proper time?” To which he replied, “Nay, is it not even yet the proper time?”
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§ 4.61 He assumed the headship of the school in the fourth year of the 134th Olympiad, and at his death he had been head for twenty-six years. His end was a palsy brought on by drinking too freely. And here is a quip of my own upon the fact: Of thee too, O Lacydes, I have heard a tale, that Bacchus seized thee and dragged thee on tip-toe to the underworld. Nay, was it not clear that when the wine-god comes in force into the frame, he loosens our limbs? Perhaps this is why he gets his name of the Loosener.
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§ 4.62 9. CARNEADES Carneades, the son of Epicomus or (according to Alexander in his Successions of Philosophers) of Philocomus, was a native of Cyrene. He studied carefully the writings of the Stoics and particularly those of Chrysippus, and by combating these successfully he became so famous that he would often say: Without Chrysippus where should I have been? The man's industry was unparalleled, although in physics he was not so strong as in ethics. Hence he would let his hair and nails grow long from intense devotion to study. Such was his predominance in philosophy that even the rhetoricians would dismiss their classes and repair to him to hear him lecture.
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§ 4.63 His voice was extremely powerful, so that the keeper of the gymnasium sent to him and requested him not to shout so loud. To which he replied, “Then give me something by which to regulate my voice.” Thereupon by a happy hit the man replied in the words, “You have a regulator in your audience.” His talent for criticizing opponents was remarkable, and he was a formidable controversialist. And for the reasons already given he further declined invitations to dine out. One of his pupils was Mentor the Bithynian, who tried to ingratiate himself with a concubine of Carneades; so on one occasion (according to Favorinus in his Miscellaneous History), when Mentor came to lecture, Carneades in the course of his remarks let fall these lines by way of parody at his expense:
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§ 4.64 Hither comes an Old Man of the Sea, infallible, like to Mentor in person and in voice. Him I proclaim to have been banished from this school. Thereupon the other got up and replied: Those on their part made proclamation, and these speedily assembled. He seems to have shown some want of courage in the face of death, repeating often the words, “Nature which framed this whole will also destroy it.” When he learnt that Antipater committed suicide by drinking a potion, he was greatly moved by the constancy with which he met his end, and exclaimed, “Give it then to me also.” And when those about him asked “What?” “A honeyed draught,” said he. At the time he died the moon is said to have been eclipsed, and one might well say that the brightest luminary in heaven next to the sun thereby gave token of her sympathy.
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§ 4.65 According to Apollodorus in his Chronology, he departed this life in the fourth year of the 162nd Olympiad at the age of eighty-five years. Letters of his to Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, are extant. Everything else was compiled by his pupils; he himself left nothing in writing. I have written upon him in logaoedic metre as follows: Why, Muse, oh why wouldst thou have me censure Carneades? For he is ignorant who knoweth not how he feared death. When wasting away with the worst of diseases, he would not find release. But when he heard that Antipater's life was quenched by drinking a potion,
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§ 4.66 “Give me too,” he cried, “a draught to drink.” “What? pray what?” “Give me a draught of honeyed wine.” He had often on his lips the words, “Nature which holds this frame together will surely dissolve it.” None the less he too went down to the grave, and he might have got there sooner by cutting short his tale of woes. It is said that his eyes went blind at night without his knowing it, and he ordered the slave to light the lamp. The latter brought it and said, “Here it is.” “Then,” said Carneades, “read.” He had many other disciples, but the most illustrious of them all was Clitomachus, of whom we have next to speak. There was another Carneades, a frigid elegiac poet.
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§ 4.10 10. CLITOMACHUS Clitomachus was a Carthaginian, his real name being Hasdrubal, and he taught philosophy at Carthage in his native tongue. He had reached his fortieth year when he went to Athens and became a pupil of Carneades. And Carneades, recognizing his industry, caused him to be educated and took part in training him. And to such lengths did his diligence go that he composed more than four hundred treatises. He succeeded Carneades in the headship of the school, and by his writings did much to elucidate his opinions. He was eminently well acquainted with the three sects – the Academy, the Peripatetics, and the Stoics. The Academics in general are assailed by Timon in the line: The prolixity of the Academics unseasoned by salt. Having thus reviewed the Academics who derived from Plato, we will now pass on to the Peripatetics, who also derived from Plato. They begin with Aristotle.
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§ 5.1 BOOK 5: 1. ARISTOTLE Aristotle, son of Nicomachus and Phaestis, was a native of Stagira. His father, Nicomachus, as Hermippus relates in his book On Aristotle, traced his descent from Nicomachus who was the son of Machaon and grandson of Asclepius; and he resided with Amyntas, the king of Macedon, in the capacity of physician and friend. Aristotle was Plato's most genuine disciple; he spoke with a lisp, as we learn from Timotheus the Athenian in his book On Lives; further, his calves were slender (so they say), his eyes small, and he was conspicuous by his attire, his rings, and the cut of his hair. According to Timaeus, he had a son by Herpyllis, his concubine, who was also called Nicomachus.
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§ 5.2 He seceded from the Academy while Plato was still alive. Hence the remark attributed to the latter: “ Aristotle spurns me, as colts kick out at the mother who bore them.” Hermippus in his Lives mentions that he was absent as Athenian envoy at the court of Philip when Xenocrates became head of the Academy, and that on his return, when he saw the school under a new head, he made choice of a public walk in the Lyceum where he would walk up and down discussing philosophy with his pupils until it was time to rub themselves with oil. Hence the name “ Peripatetic.” But others say that it was given to him because, when Alexander was recovering from an illness and taking daily walks, Aristotle joined him and talked with him on certain matters.
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§ 5.3 In time the circle about him grew larger; he then sat down to lecture, remarking: It were base to keep silence and let Xenocrates speak. He also taught his pupils to discourse upon a set theme, besides practising them in oratory. Afterwards, however, he departed to Hermias the eunuch, who was tyrant of Atarneus, and there is one story that he was on very affectionate terms with Hermias; according to another, Hermias bound him by ties of kinship, giving him his daughter or his niece in marriage, and so Demetrius of Magnesia narrates in his work on Poets and Writers of the Same Name. The same author tells us that Hermias had been the slave of Eubulus, and that he was of Bithynian origin and had murdered his master. Aristippus in his first book On the Luxury of the Ancients says that Aristotle fell in love with a concubine of Hermias,
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§ 5.4 and married her with his consent, and in an excess of delight sacrificed to a weak woman as the Athenians did to Demeter of Eleusis; and that he composed a paean in honour of Hermias, which is given below; next that he stayed in Macedonia at Philip's court and received from him his son Alexander as his pupil; that he petitioned Alexander to restore his native city which had been destroyed by Philip and obtained his request; and that he also drew up a code of laws for the inhabitants. We learn further that, following the example of Xenocrates, he made it a rule in his school that every ten days a new president should be appointed. When he thought that he had stayed long enough with Alexander, he departed to Athens, having first presented to Alexander his kinsman Callisthenes of Olynthus.
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§ 5.5 But when Callisthenes talked with too much freedom to the king and disregarded his own advice, Aristotle is said to have rebuked him by citing the line: Short-lived, I ween, wilt thou be, my child, by what thou sayest. And so indeed it fell out. For he, being suspected of complicity in the plot of Hermolaus against the life of Alexander, was confined in an iron cage and carried about until he became infested with vermin through lack of proper attention; and finally he was thrown to a lion and so met his end. To return to Aristotle: he came to Athens, was head of his school for thirteen years, and then withdrew to Chalcis because he was indicted for impiety by Eurymedon the hierophant, or, according to Favorinus in his Miscellaneous History, by Demophilus, the ground of the charge being the hymn he composed to the aforesaid Hermias,
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§ 5.6 as well as the following inscription for his statue at Delphi: This man in violation of the hallowed law of the immortals was unrighteously slain by the king of the bow-bearing Persians, who overcame him, not openly with a spear in murderous combat, but by treachery with the aid of one in whom he trusted. At Chalcis he died, according to Eumelus in the fifth book of his Histories, by drinking aconite, at the age of seventy. The same authority makes him thirty years old when he came to Plato; but here he is mistaken. For Aristotle lived to be sixty-three, and he was seventeen when he became Plato's pupil. The hymn in question runs as follows:
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§ 5.7 O virtue, toilsome for the generation of mortals to achieve, the fairest prize that life can win, for thy beauty, O virgin, it were a doom glorious in Hellas even to die and to endure fierce, untiring labours. Such courage dost thou implant in the mind, imperishable, better than gold, dearer than parents or soft-eyed sleep. For thy sake Heracles, son of Zeus, and the sons of Leda endured much in the tasks whereby they pursued thy might.
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§ 5.8 And yearning after thee came Achilles and Ajax to the house of Hades, and for the sake of thy dear form the nursling of Atarneus too was bereft of the light of the sun. Therefore shall his deeds be sung, and the Muses, the daughters of Memory, shall make him immortal, exalting the majesty of Zeus, guardian of strangers, and the grace of lasting friendship. There is, too, something of my own upon the philosopher which I will quote: Eurymedon, the priest of Deo's mysteries, was once about to indict Aristotle for impiety, but he, by a draught of poison, escaped prosecution. This then was an easy way of vanquishing unjust calumnies.
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§ 5.9 Favorinus in his Miscellaneous History affirms that Aristotle was the first to compose a forensic speech in his own defence written for this very suit; and he cites him as saying that at Athens Pear upon pear grows old and fig upon fig. According to Apollodorus in his Chronology he was born in the first year of the 99th Olympiad [384 BCE]. He attached himself to Plato and resided with him twenty years, having become his pupil at the age of seventeen. He went to Mitylene in the archonship of Eubulus [345 BCE] in the fourth year of the 108th Olympiad. When Plato died in the first year of that Olympiad, during the archonship of Theophilus [348 BCE], he went to Hermias and stayed with him three years.
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§ 5.10 In the archonship of Pythodotus, in the second year of the 109th Olympiad, he went to the court of Philip, Alexander being then in his fifteenth year. His arrival at Athens was in the second year of the 111th Olympiad, and he lectured in the Lyceum for thirteen years; then he retired to Chalcis in the third year of the 114th Olympiad [326 BCE]and died a natural death, at the age of about sixty-three, in the archonship of Philocles [321 BCE], in the same year in which Demosthenes died at Calauria. It is said that he incurred the king's displeasure because he had introduced Callisthenes to him, and that Alexander, in order to cause him annoyance, honoured Anaximenes and sent presents to Xenocrates.
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§ 5.11 Theocritus of Chios, according to Ambryon in his book On Theocritus, ridiculed him in an epigram which runs as follows: To Hermias the eunuch, the slave withal of Eubulus, an empty monument was raised by empty-witted Aristotle, who by constraint of a lawless appetite chose to dwell at the mouth of the Borborus [muddy stream] rather than in the Academy. Timon again attacked him in the line: No, nor yet Aristotle's painful futility. Such then was the life of the philosopher. I have also come across his will, which is worded thus: “All will be well; but, in case anything should happen, Aristotle has made these dispositions. Antipater is to be executor in all matters and in general;
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§ 5.12 but, until Nicanor shall arrive, Aristomenes, Timarchus, Hipparchus, Dioteles and (if he consent and if circumstances permit him) Theophrastus shall take charge as well of Herpyllis and the children as of the property. And when the girl shall be grown up she shall be given in marriage to Nicanor; but if anything happen to the girl (which heaven forbid and no such thing will happen) before her marriage, or when she is married but before there are children, Nicanor shall have full powers, both with regard to the child and with regard to everything else, to administer in a manner worthy both of himself and of us. Nicanor shall take charge of the girl and of the boy Nicomachus as he shall think fit in all that concerns them as if he were father and brother. And if anything should happen to Nicanor (which heaven forbid!) either before he marries the girl, or when he has married her but before there are children, any arrangements that he may make shall be valid.
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§ 5.13 And if Theophrastus is willing to live with her, he shall have the same rights as Nicanor. Otherwise the executors in consultation with Antipater shall administer as regards the daughter and the boy as seems to them to be best. The executors and Nicanor, in memory of me and of the steady affection which Herpyllis has borne towards me, shall take care of her in every other respect and, if she desires to be married, shall see that she be given to one not unworthy; and besides what she has already received they shall give her a talent of silver out of the estate and three handmaids whomsoever she shall choose besides the maid she has at present and the man-servant Pyrrhaeus;
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§ 5.14 and if she chooses to remain at Chalcis, the lodge by the garden, if in Stagira, my father's house. Whichever of these two houses she chooses, the executors shall furnish with such furniture as they think proper and as Herpyllis herself may approve. Nicanor shall take charge of the boy Myrmex, that he be taken to his own friends in a manner worthy of me with the property of his which we received. Ambracis shall be given her freedom, and on my daughter's marriage shall receive 500 drachmas and the maid whom she now has. And to Thale shall be given, in addition to the maid whom she has and who was bought, a thousand drachmas and a maid.
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§ 5.15 And Simon, in addition to the money before paid to him towards another servant, shall either have a servant purchased for him or receive a further sum of money. And Tycho, Philo, Olympius and his child shall have their freedom when my daughter is married. None of the servants who waited upon me shall be sold but they shall continue to be employed; and when they arrive at the proper age they shall have their freedom if they deserve it. My executors shall see to it, when the images which Gryllion has been commissioned to execute are finished, that they be set up, namely that of Nicanor, that of Proxenus, which it was my intention to have executed, and that of Nicanor's mother; also they shall set up the bust which has been executed of Arimnestus, to be a memorial of him seeing that he died childless,
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§ 5.16 and shall dedicate my mother's statue to Demeter at Nemea or wherever they think best. And wherever they bury me, there the bones of Pythias shall be laid, in accordance with her own instructions. And to commemorate Nicanor's safe return, as I vowed on his behalf, they shall set up in Stagira stone statues of life size to Zeus and Athena the Saviours.” Such is the tenor of Aristotle's will. It is said that a very large number of dishes belonging to him were found, and that Lyco mentioned his bathing in a bath of warm oil and then selling the oil. Some relate that he placed a skin of warm oil on his stomach, and that, when he went to sleep, a bronze ball was placed in his hand with a vessel under it, in order that, when the ball dropped from his hand into the vessel, he might be waked up by the sound.
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§ 5.17 Some exceedingly happy sayings are attributed to him, which I proceed to quote. To the question, “What do people gain by telling lies?” his answer was, “Just this, that when they speak the truth they are not believed.” Being once reproached for giving alms to a bad man, he rejoined, “It was the man and not his character that I pitied.” He used constantly to say to his friends and pupils, whenever or wherever he happened to be lecturing, “As sight takes in light from the surrounding air, so does the soul from mathematics.” Frequently and at some length he would say that the Athenians were the discoverers of wheat and of laws; but, though they used wheat, they had no use for laws.
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§ 5.18 “The roots of education,” he said, “are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” Being asked, “What is it that soon grows old?” he answered, “Gratitude.” He was asked to define hope, and he replied, “It is a waking dream.” When Diogenes offered him dried figs, he saw that he had prepared something caustic to say if he did not take them; so he took them and said Diogenes had lost his figs and his jest into the bargain. And on another occasion he took them when they were offered, lifted them up aloft, as you do babies, and returned them with the exclamation, “Great is Diogenes.” Three things he declared to be indispensable for education: natural endowment, study, and constant practice. On hearing that some one abused him, he rejoined, “He may even scourge me so it be in my absence.” Beauty he declared to be a greater recommendation than any letter of introduction.
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§ 5.19 Others attribute this definition to Diogenes; Aristotle, they say, defined good looks as the gift of god, Socrates as a short-lived reign, Plato as natural superiority, Theophrastus as a mute deception, Theocritus as an evil in an ivory setting, Carneades as a monarchy that needs no bodyguard. Being asked how the educated differ from the uneducated, “As much,” he said, “as the living from the dead.” He used to declare education to be an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity. Teachers who educated children deserved, he said, more honour than parents who merely gave them birth; for bare life is furnished by the one, the other ensures a good life. To one who boasted that he belonged to a great city his reply was, “That is not the point to consider, but who it is that is worthy of a great country.”
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§ 5.20 To the query, “What is a friend?” his reply was, “A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” Mankind, he used to say, were divided into those who were as thrifty as if they would live for ever, and those who were as extravagant as if they were going to die the next day. When some one inquired why we spend much time with the beautiful, “That,” he said, “is a blind man's question.” When asked what advantage he had ever gained from philosophy, he replied, “This, that I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law.” The question being put, how can students make progress, he replied, “By pressing hard on those in front and not waiting for those behind.” To the chatterbox who poured out a flood of talk upon him and then inquired, “Have I bored you to death with my chatter?” he replied, “No, indeed; for I was not attending to you.”
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§ 5.21 When some one accused him of having given a subscription to a dishonest man – for the story is also told in this form – “It was not the man,” said he, “that I assisted, but humanity.” To the question how we should behave to friends, he answered, “As we should wish them to behave to us.” Justice he defined as a virtue of soul which distributes according to merit. Education he declared to be the best provision for old age. Favorinus in the second book of his Memorabilia mentions as one of his habitual sayings that “He who has friends can have no true friend.” Further, this is found in the seventh book of the Ethics. These then are the sayings attributed to him. His writings are very numerous and, considering the man's all-round excellence, I deemed it incumbent on me to catalogue them:
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§ 5.22 Of Justice, four books. On Poets, three books. On Philosophy, three books. Of the Statesman, two books. On Rhetoric, or Grylus, one book. Nerinthus, one book. The Sophist, one book. Menexenus, one book. Concerning Love, one book. Symposium, one book. Of Wealth, one book. Exhortation to Philosophy, one book. Of the Soul, one book. Of Prayer, one book. On Noble Birth, one book. On Pleasure, one book. Alexander, or a Plea for Colonies, one book. On Kingship, one book. On Education, one book. Of the Good, three books. Extracts from Plato's Laws, three books. Extracts from the Republic, two books. Of Household Management, one book. Of Friendship, one book. On being or having been affected, one book. Of Sciences, one book. On Controversial Questions, two books. Solutions of Controversial Questions, four books. Sophistical Divisions, four books. On Contraries, one book. On Genera and Species, one book. On Essential Attributes, one book.
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§ 5.23 Three note-books on Arguments for Purposes of Refutation. Propositions concerning Virtue, two books. Objections, one book. On the Various Meanings of Terms or Expressions where a Determinant is added, one book. Of Passions or of Anger, one book. Five books of Ethics. On Elements, three books. Of Science, one book. Of Logical Principle, one book. Logical Divisions, seventeen books. Concerning Division, one book. On Dialectical Questioning and Answering, two books. Of Motion, one book. Propositions, one book. Controversial Propositions, one book. Syllogisms, one book. Eight books of Prior Analytics. Two books of Greater Posterior Analytics. Of Problems, one book. Eight books of Methodics. Of the Greater Good, one book. On the Idea, one book. Definitions prefixed to the Topics, seven books. Two books of Syllogisms.
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§ 5.24 Concerning Syllogism with Definitions, one book. Of the Desirable and the Contingent, one book. Preface to Commonplaces, one book. Two books of Topics criticizing the Definitions. Affections or Qualities, one book. Concerning Logical Division, one book. Concerning Mathematics, one book. Definitions, thirteen books. Two books of Refutations. Of Pleasure, one book. Propositions, one book. On the Voluntary, one book. On the Beautiful, one book. Theses for Refutation, twenty-five books. Theses concerning Love, four books. Theses concerning Friendship, two books. Theses concerning the Soul, one book. Politics, two books. Eight books of a course of lectures on Politics like that of Theophrastus. Of Just Actions, two books. A Collection of Arts [that is, Handbooks], two books. Two books of the Art of Rhetoric. Art, a Handbook, one book. Another Collection of Handbooks, two books. Concerning Method, one book. Compendium of the “Art” of Theodectes, one book. A Treatise on the Art of Poetry, two books. Rhetorical Enthymemes, one book. Of Degree, one book. Divisions of Enthymemes, one book. On Diction, two books. Of Taking Counsel, one book.
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§ 5.25 A Collection or Compendium, two books. On Nature, three books. Concerning Nature, one book. On the Philosophy of Archytas, three books. On the Philosophy of Speusippus and Xenocrates, one book. Extracts from the Timaeus and from the Works of Archytas, one book. A Reply to the Writings of Melissus, one book. A Reply to the Writings of Alcmaeon, one book. A Reply to the Pythagoreans, one book. A Reply to the Writings of Gorgias, one book. A Reply to the Writings of Xenophanes, one book. A Reply to the Writings of Zeno, one book. On the Pythagoreans, one book. On Animals, nine books. Eight books of Dissections. A selection of Dissections, one book. On Composite Animals, one book. On the Animals of Fable, one book. On Sterility, one book. On Plants, two books. Concerning Physiognomy, one book. Two books concerning Medicine. On the Unit, one book.
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§ 5.26 Prognostics of Storms, one book. Concerning Astronomy, one book. Concerning Optics, one book. On Motion, one book. On Music, one book. Concerning Memory, one book. Six books of Homeric Problems. Poetics, one book. Thirty-eight books of Physics according to the lettering. Two books of Problems which have been examined. Two books of Routine Instruction. Mechanics, one book. Problems taken from the works of Democritus, two books. On the Magnet, one book. Analogies, one book. Miscellaneous Notes, twelve books. Descriptions of Genera, fourteen books. Claims advanced, one book. Victors at Olympia, one book. Victors at the Pythian games, one book. On Music, one book. Concerning Delphi, one book. Criticism of the List of Pythian Victors, one book. Dramatic Victories at the Dionysia, one book. Of Tragedies, one book. Dramatic Records, one book. Proverbs, one book. Laws of the Mess-table, one book. Four books of Laws. Categories, one book. De Interpretatione, one book.
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§ 5.27 Constitutions of 158 Cities, in general and in particular, democratic, oligarchic, aristocratic, tyrannical. Letters to Philip. Letters of Selymbrians. Letters to Alexander, four books. Letters to Antipater, nine books. To Mentor, one book. To Ariston, one book. To Olympias, one book. To Hephaestion, one book. To Themistagoras, one book. To Philoxenus, one book. In reply to Democritus, one book. Verses beginning Ἁγνὲ θεῶν πρέσβισθ᾽ ἑκατηβόλε ("Holy One and Chiefest of Gods, far-darting"). Elegiac verses beginning Καλλιτέκνου μητρὸς θύγατερ ("Daughter of a Mother blessed with fair offspring"). In all 445,270 lines.
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§ 5.28 Such is the number of the works written by him. And in them he puts forward the following views. There are two divisions of philosophy, the practical and the theoretical. The practical part includes ethics and politics, and in the latter not only the doctrine of the state but also that of the household is sketched. The theoretical part includes physics and logic, although logic is not an independent science, but is elaborated as an instrument to the rest of science. And he clearly laid down that it has a twofold aim, probability and truth. For each of these he employed two faculties, dialectic and rhetoric where probability is aimed at, analytic and philosophy where the end is truth; he neglects nothing which makes either for discovery or for judgement or for utility.
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§ 5.29 As making for discovery he left in the Topics and Methodics a number of propositions, whereby the student can be well supplied with probable arguments for the solution of problems. As an aid to judgement he left the Prior and Posterior Analytics. By the Prior Analytics the premisses are judged, by the Posterior the process of inference is tested. For practical use there are the precepts on controversy and the works dealing with question and answer, with sophistical fallacies, syllogisms and the like. The test of truth which he put forward was sensation in the sphere of objects actually presented, but in the sphere of morals dealing with the state, the household and the laws, it was reason.
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§ 5.30 The one ethical end he held to be the exercise of virtue in a completed life. And happiness he maintained to be made up of goods of three sorts: goods of the soul, which indeed he designates as of the highest value; in the second place bodily goods, health and strength, beauty and the like; and thirdly external goods, such as wealth, good birth, reputation and the like. And he regarded virtue as not of itself sufficient to ensure happiness; bodily goods and external goods were also necessary, for the wise man would be miserable if he lived in the midst of pains, poverty, and similar circumstances. Vice, however, is sufficient in itself to secure misery, even if it be ever so abundantly furnished with corporeal and external goods.
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§ 5.31 He held that the virtues are not mutually interdependent. For a man might be prudent, or again just, and at the same time profligate and unable to control his passions. He said too that the wise man was not exempt from all passions, but indulged them in moderation. He defined friendship as an equality of reciprocal good-will, including under the term as one species the friendship of kinsmen, as another that of lovers, and as a third that of host and guest. The end of love was not merely intercourse but also philosophy. According to him the wise man would fall in love and take part in politics; furthermore he would marry and reside at a king's court. Of three kinds of life, the contemplative, the practical, and the pleasure-loving life, he gave the preference to the contemplative. He held that the studies which make up the ordinary education are of service for the attainment of virtue.
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§ 5.32 In the sphere of natural science he surpassed all other philosophers in the investigation of causes, so that even the most insignificant phenomena were explained by him. Hence the unusual number of scientific notebooks which he compiled. Like Plato he held that God was incorporeal; that his providence extended to the heavenly bodies, that he is unmoved, and that earthly events are regulated by their affinity with them (the heavenly bodies). Besides the four elements he held that there is a fifth, of which the celestial bodies are composed. Its motion is of a different kind from that of the other elements, being circular. Further, he maintained the soul to be incorporeal, defining it as the first entelechy [i.e. realization] of a natural organic body potentially possessed of life.
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§ 5.33 By the term realization he means that which has an incorporeal form. This realization, according to him, is twofold. Either it is potential, as that of Hermes in the wax, provided the wax be adapted to receive the proper mouldings, or as that of the statue implicit in the bronze; or again it is determinate, which is the case with the completed figure of Hermes or the finished statue. The soul is the realization “of a natural body,” since bodies may be divided into (a) artificial bodies made by the hands of craftsmen, as a tower or a ship, and (b) natural bodies which are the work of nature, such as plants and the bodies of animals. And when he said “organic” he meant constructed as means to an end, as sight is adapted for seeing and the ear for hearing. Of a body “potentially possessed of life,” that is, in itself.
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§ 5.34 There are two senses of “potential,” one answering to a formed state and the other to its exercise in act. In the latter sense of the term he who is awake is said to have soul, in the former he who is asleep. It was then in order to include the sleeper that Aristotle added the word “potential.” He held many other opinions on a variety of subjects which it would be tedious to enumerate. For altogether his industry and invention were remarkable, as is shown by the catalogue of his writings given above, which come to nearly 400 in number, i.e. counting those only the genuineness of which is not disputed. For many other written works and pointed oral sayings are attributed to him.
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§ 5.35 There were in all eight Aristotles: (1) our philosopher himself; (2) an Athenian statesman, the author of graceful forensic speeches; (3) a scholar who commented on the Iliad; (4) a Sicilian rhetorician, who wrote a reply to the Panegyric of Isocrates; (5) a disciple of Aeschines the Socratic philosopher, surnamed Myth; (6) a native of Cyrene, who wrote upon the art of poetry; (7) a trainer of boys, mentioned by Aristoxenus in his Life of Plato; (8) an obscure grammarian, whose handbook On Redundancy is still extant. Aristotle of Stagira had many disciples; the most distinguished was Theophrastus, of whom we have next to speak.
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§ 5.36 2. THEOPHRASTUS Theophrastus was a native of Eresus, the son of Melantes, a fuller, as stated by Athenodorus in the eighth book of his Walks. He first heard his countryman Alcippus lecture in his native town and afterwards he heard Plato, whom he left for Aristotle. And when the latter withdrew to Chalcis he took over the school himself in the 114th Olympiad. A slave of his named Pompylus is also said to have been a philosopher, according to Myronianus of Amastris in the first book of his Historical Parallels. Theophrastus was a man of remarkable intelligence and industry and, as Pamphila says in the thirty-second book of her Memorabilia, he taught Menander the comic poet.
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§ 5.37 Furthermore, he was ever ready to do a kindness and fond of discussion. Casander certainly granted him audience and Ptolemy made overtures to him. And so highly was he valued at Athens that, when Agnonides ventured to prosecute him for impiety, the prosecutor himself narrowly escaped punishment. About 2000 pupils used to attend his lectures. In a letter to Phanias the Peripatetic, among other topics, he speaks of a tribunal as follows: “To get a public or even a select circle such as one desires is not easy. If an author reads his work, he must re-write it. Always to shirk revision and ignore criticism is a course which the present generation of pupils will no longer tolerate.” And in this letter he has called some one “pedant.”
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§ 5.38 Although his reputation stood so high, nevertheless for a short time he had to leave the country with all the other philosophers, when Sophocles the son of Amphiclides proposed a law that no philosopher should preside over a school except by permission of the Senate and the people, under penalty of death. The next year, however, the philosophers returned, as Philo had prosecuted Sophocles for making an illegal proposal. Whereupon the Athenians repealed the law, fined Sophocles five talents, and voted the recall of the philosophers, in order that Theophrastus also might return and live there as before. He bore the name of Tyrtamus, and it was Aristotle who re-named him Theophrastus on account of his graceful style.
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§ 5.39 And Aristippus, in his fourth book On the Luxury of the Ancients, asserts that he was enamoured of Aristotle's son Nicomachus, although he was his teacher. It is said that Aristotle applied to him and Callisthenes what Plato had said of Xenocrates and himself (as already related), namely, that the one needed a bridle and the other a goad; for Theophrastus interpreted all his meaning with an excess of cleverness, whereas the other was naturally backward. He is said to have become the owner of a garden of his own after Aristotle's death, through the intervention of his friend Demetrius of Phalerum. There are pithy sayings of his in circulation as follows: “An unbridled horse,” he said, “ought to be trusted sooner than a badly-arranged discourse.”
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§ 5.40 To some one who never opened his lips at a banquet he remarked: “Yours is a wise course for an ignoramus, but in an educated man it is sheer folly.” He used constantly to say that in our expenditure the item that costs most is time. He died at the age of eighty-five, not long after he had relinquished his labours. My verses upon him are these: Not in vain was the word spoken to one of human kind, “Slacken the bow of wisdom and it breaks.” Of a truth, so long as Theophrastus laboured he was sound of limb, but when released from toil his limbs failed him and he died. It is said that his disciples asked him if he had any last message for them, to which he replied: “Nothing else but this, that many of the pleasures which life boasts are but in the seeming.
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§ 5.41 For when we are just beginning to live, lo! we die. Nothing then is so unprofitable as the love of glory. Farewell, and may you be happy. Either drop my doctrine, which involves a world of labour, or stand forth its worthy champions, for you will win great glory. Life holds more disappointment than advantage. But, as I can no longer discuss what we ought to do, do you go on with the inquiry into right conduct.” With these words, they say, he breathed his last. And according to the story all the Athenians, out of respect for the man, escorted his bier on foot. And Favorinus tells that he had in his old age to be carried about in a litter; and this he says on the authority of Hermippus, whose account is taken from a remark of Arcesilaus of Pitane to Lacydes of Cyrene.
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§ 5.42 He too has left a very large number of writings. I think it right to catalogue them also because they abound in excellence of every kind. They are as follows: Three books of Prior Analytics. Seven books of Posterior Analytics. On the Analysis of Syllogisms, one book. Epitome of Analytics, one book. Two books of Classified Topics. Polemical discussion on the Theory of Eristic Argument. Of the Senses, one book. A Reply to Anaxagoras, one book. On the Writings of Anaxagoras, one book. On the Writings of Anaximenes, one book. On the Writings of Archelaus, one book. Of Salt, Nitre and Alum, one book. Of Petrifactions, two books. On Indivisible Lines, one book. Two books of Lectures. Of the Winds, one book. Characteristics of Virtues, one book. Of Kingship, one book. Of the Education of Kings, one book. Of Various Schemes of Life, three books.
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§ 5.43 Of Old Age, one book. On the Astronomy of Democritus, one book. On Meteorology, one book. On Visual Images or Emanations, one book. On Flavours, Colours and Flesh, one book. Of the Order of the World, one book. Of Mankind, one book. Compendium of the Writings of Diogenes, one book. Three books of Definitions. Concerning Love, one book. Another Treatise on Love, one book. Of Happiness, one book. On Species or Forms, two books. On Epilepsy, one book. On Frenzy, one book. Concerning Empedocles, one book. Eighteen books of Refutative Arguments. Three books of Polemical Objections. Of the Voluntary, one book. Epitome of Plato's Republic, two books. On the Diversity of Sounds uttered by Animals of the same Species, one book. Of Sudden Appearances, one book. Of Animals which bite or gore, one book. Of Animals reputed to be spiteful, one book. Of the Animals which are confined to Dry Land, one book.
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§ 5.44 Of those which change their Colours, one book. Of Animals that burrow, one book. Of Animals, seven books. Of Pleasure according to Aristotle, one book. Another treatise on Pleasure, one book. Theses, twenty-four books. On Hot and Cold, one book. On Vertigo and Dizziness, one book. On Sweating Sickness, one book. On Affirmation and Negation, one book. Callisthenes, or On Bereavement, one book. On Fatigues, one book. On Motion, three books. On Precious Stones, one book. On Pestilences, one book. On Fainting, one book. Megarian Treatise, one book. Of Melancholy, one book. On Mines, two books. On Honey, one book. Compendium on the Doctrines of Metrodorus, one book. Two books of Meteorology. On Intoxication, one book. Twenty-four books of Laws distinguished by the letters of the alphabet. Ten books of an Epitome of Laws.
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§ 5.45 Remarks upon Definitions, one book. On Smells, one book. On Wine and Oil. Introduction to Propositions, eighteen books. Of Legislators, three books. Of Politics, six books. A Political Treatise dealing with important Crises, four books. Of Social Customs, four books. Of the Best Constitution, one book. A Collection of Problems, five books. On Proverbs, one book. On Coagulation and Liquefaction, one book. On Fire, two books. On Winds, one book. Of Paralysis, one book. Of Suffocation, one book. Of Mental Derangement, one book. On the Passions, one book. On Symptoms, one book. Two books of Sophisms. On the solution of Syllogisms, one book. Two books of Topics. Of Punishment, two books. On Hair, one book. Of Tyranny, one book. On Water, three books. On Sleep and Dreams, one book. Of Friendship, three books. Of Ambition, two books.
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§ 5.46 On Nature, three books. On Physics, eighteen books. An Epitome of Physics, two books. Eight books of Physics. A Reply to the Physical Philosophers, one book Of Botanical Researches, ten books. Of Botanical Causes, eight books. On Juices, five books. Of False Pleasure, one book. One Dissertation on the Soul. On Unscientific Proofs, one book. On Simple Problems, one book. Harmonics, one book. Of Virtue, one book. Materials for Argument, or Contrarieties, one book. On Negation, one book. On Judgement, one book. Of the Ludicrous, one book. Afternoon Essays, two books. Divisions, two books. On Differences, one book. On Crimes, one book. On Calumny, one book. Of Praise, one book. Of Experience, one book. Three books of Letters. On Animals produced spontaneously, one book. Of Secretion, one book.
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§ 5.47 Panegyrics on the Gods, one book. On Festivals, one book. Of Good Fortune, one book. On Enthymemes, one book. Of Discoveries, two books. Lectures on Ethics, one book. Character Sketches, one book. On Tumult or Riot, one book. On Research, one book. On Judging of Syllogisms, one book. Of Flattery, one book. Of the Sea, one book. To Casander on Kingship, one book. Of Comedy, one book. [Of Metres, one book.] Of Diction, one book. A Compendium of Arguments, one book. Solutions, one book. On Music, three books. On Measures, one book. Megacles, one book. On Laws, one book. On Illegalities, one book. A Compendium of the Writings of Xenocrates, one book. Concerning Conversation, one book. On Taking an Oath, one book. Rhetorical Precepts, one book. Of Wealth, one book. On the Art of Poetry, one book. Problems in Politics, Ethics, Physics, and in the Art of Love, one book.
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§ 5.48 Preludes, one book. A Collection of Problems, one book. On Physical Problems, one book. On Example, one book. On Introduction and Narrative, one book. Another tract on the Art of Poetry, one book. Of the Wise, one book. On Consultation, one book. On Solecisms, one book. On the Art of Rhetoric, one book. The Special Commonplaces of the Treatises on Rhetoric, seventeen books. On Acting, one book. Lecture Notes of Aristotle or Theophrastus, six books. Sixteen books of Physical Opinions. Epitome of Physical Opinions, one book. On Gratitude, one book. [Character Sketches, one book.] On Truth and Falsehood, one book. The History of Theological Inquiry, six books. Of the Gods, three books. Geometrical Researches, four books.
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§ 5.49 Epitomes of Aristotle's work on Animals, six books. Two books of Refutative Arguments. Theses, three books. Of Kingship, two books. Of Causes, one book. On Democritus, one book. [Of Calumny, one book.] Of Becoming, one book. Of the Intelligence and Character of Animals, one book. On Motion, two books. On Vision, four books. Relating to Definitions, two books. On Data, one book. On Greater and Less, one book. On the Musicians, one book. Of the Happiness of the Gods, one book. A Reply to the Academics, one book. Exhortation to Philosophy, one book. How States can best be governed, one book. Lecture-Notes, one book. On the Eruption in Sicily, one book. On Things generally admitted, one book. [On Problems in Physics, one book.] What are the methods of attaining Knowledge, one book. On the Fallacy known as the Liar, three books.
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§ 5.50 Prolegomena to Topics, one book. Relating to Aeschylus, one book. Astronomical Research, six books. Arithmetical Researches on Growth, one book. Acicharus, one book. On Forensic Speeches, one book. [Of Calumny, one book.] Correspondence with Astycreon, Phanias and Nicanor. Of Piety, one book. Evias, one book. On Times of Crisis, two books. On Relevant Arguments, one book. On the Education of Children, one book. Another treatise with the same title, one book. Of Education or of the Virtues or of Temperance, one book. [An Exhortation to Philosophy, one book.] On Numbers, one book. Definitions concerning the Diction of Syllogisms, one book. Of the Heavens, one book. Concerning Politics, two books. On Nature. On Fruits. On Animals. In all 232,808 lines. So much for his writings.
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§ 5.51 I have also come across his will, couched in the following terms: “All will be well; but in case anything should happen, I make these dispositions. I give and bequeath all my property at home to Melantes and Pancreon, the sons of Leon. It is my wish that out of the trust funds at the disposal of Hipparchus the following appropriations should be made. First, they should be applied to finish the rebuilding of the Museum with the statues of the goddesses, and to add any improvements which seem practicable to beautify them. Secondly, to replace in the sanctuary the bust of Aristotle with the rest of the dedicated offerings which formerly were in the sanctuary. Next, to rebuild the small stoa adjoining the Museum at least as handsomely as before, and to replace in the lower stoa the tablets containing maps of the countries traversed by explorers.
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§ 5.52 Further, to repair the altar so that it may be perfect and elegant. It is also my wish that the statue of Nicomachus should be completed of life size. The price agreed upon for the making of the statue itself has been paid to Praxiteles, but the rest of the cost should be defrayed from the source above mentioned. The statue should be set up in whatever place seems desirable to the executors entrusted with carrying out my other testamentary dispositions. Let all that concerns the sanctuary and the offerings set up be arranged in this manner. The estate at Stagira belonging to me I give and bequeath to Callinus. All the books I give to Neleus. The garden and the walk and the houses adjoining the garden, all and sundry, I give and bequeath to such of my friends hereinafter named as may wish to study literature and philosophy there in common,
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§ 5.53 since it is not possible for all men to be always in residence, on condition that no one alienates the property or devotes it to his private use, but so that they hold it like a sanctuary in joint possession and live, as is right and proper, on terms of familiarity and friendship. Let the community consist of Hipparchus, Neleus, Strato, Callinus, Demotimus, Demaratus, Callisthenes, Melantes, Pancreon, Nicippus. Aristotle, the son of Metrodorus and Pythias, shall also have the right to study and associate with them if he so desire. And the oldest of them shall pay every attention to him, in order to ensure for him the utmost proficiency in philosophy. Let me be buried in any spot in the garden which seems most suitable, without unnecessary outlay upon my funeral or upon my monument.
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§ 5.54 And according to previous agreement let the charge of attending, after my decease, to the sanctuary and the monument and the garden and the walk be shared by Pompylus in person, living close by as he does, and exercising the same supervision over all other matters as before; and those who hold the property shall watch over his interests. Pompylus and Threpta have long been emancipated and have done me much service; and I think that 2000 drachmas certainly ought to belong to them from previous payments made to them by me, from their own earnings, and my present bequest to them to be paid by Hipparchus, as I stated many times in conversation with Melantes and Pancreon themselves, who agreed with me. I give and bequeath to them the maidservant Somatale.
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§ 5.55 And of my slaves I at once emancipate Molon and Timon and Parmeno; to Manes and Callias I give their freedom on condition that they stay four years in the garden and work there together and that their conduct is free from blame. Of my household furniture let so much as the executors think right be given to Pompylus and let the rest be sold. I also devise Carion to Demotimus, and Donax to Neleus. But Euboeus must be sold. Let Hipparchus pay to Callinus 3000 drachmas. And if I had not seen that Hipparchus had done great service to Melantes and Pancreon and formerly to me, and that now in his private affairs he has made shipwreck, I would have appointed him jointly with Melantes and Pancreon to carry out my wishes.

Via ToposText (topostext.org), a project of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation created by Brady Kiesling. Translated by Robert Drew Hicks (1850-1929). Composed ca. 240 CE. Licence: public domain. Source.