The Lives And Opinions Of Eminent Philosophers on Superphysics

Introduction

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DIOGENES LAËRTIUS.

1915

Number,Philosopher 1,Aeschines 2,Alcmaeon 3,Anacharsis 4,Anaxagoras 5,Anaxarchus 6,Anaximander 7,Anaximenes 8,Antisthenes 9,Apollonia, Diogenes of 10,Archelaus 11,Archytas 12,Arcesilaus 13,Ariston 14,Aristippus 15,Aristotle 16,Bias 17,Bion 18,Carneades 19,Cebes 20,Chilo 21,Chrysippus 22,Cleanthes 23,Cleobulus 24,Clitomachus 25,Crantor 26,Crates (Academy) 27,Crates (Cynic) 28,Crito 29,Demetrius 30,Democritus 31,Diogenes (Sinope) 32,Diogenes (Apollonia) 33,Dionysius 34,Empedocles 35,Epicharmus 36,Epimenides 37,Epicurus 38,Eudoxus 39,Euclides 40,Glauco 41,Heraclides 42,Heraclitus 43,Herillus 44,Hipparchia 45,Hippasus 46,Lacydes 47,Leucippus 48,Lycon 49,Melissus 50,Menedemus (Book II) 51,Menedemus (Book VI) 52,Menippus 53,Metrocles 54,Monimus 55,Myson 56,Onesicritus 57,Parmenides 58,Periander 59,Phaedo 60,Pherecydes 61,Philolaus 62,Pittacus 63,Plato 64,Polemo 65,Protagoras 66,Pyrrho 67 Pythagoras 67,Simon 68,Simias 69,Simmias 70,Socrates 71,Solon 72,Speusippus 73,Sphaerus 74,Stilpo 75,Strato 76,Thales 77,Theophrastus 78,Timon 79,Xenocrates 80,Xenophon 81,Xenophanes 82,Zeno of Citium 83,Zeno of Elea

Aeschines: Socrates

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¹ Æschines was:

the son of Charinus, the sausage-maker

a citizen of Athens
industrious from his boyhood upwards

This is why he never quitted Socrates.

Glauco: Socrates

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¹ Glauco was an Athenian.

He has 9 dialogues contained in 1 volume.

The Phidylus
The Euripides
The Amyntichias
The Euthias
The Lysithides
The Aristophanes
The Cephalus
The Anaxiphemus
The Menexenus

There are 32 others which go under his name, but they are spurious.

Hipparchia: Crates the Cynic

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¹ Hipparchia, the sister of Metrocles, was charmed among others, by the doctrines of this school.

² She and Metrocles were natives of Maronea.

She:

fell in love with the doctrines and manners of Crates.
could not be diverted from her regard for him by either the wealth, high birth, or personal beauty, of any of her suitors

Crates was everything to her.

Alcmaeon: Pythagorean

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¹ Alcmæon was:

a citizen of Crotona
a pupil of Pythagoras

The chief part of his writings are on medical subjects.

But he also at times discusses points of natural philosophy, and asserts that the greater part of human affairs have two sides.

Anacharsis: Scythian

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¹ Anacharsis was:

the son of Gnurus
the brother of Caduides the king of the Scythians

But his mother was a Grecian woman; owing to which circumstance he understood both languages.

Anaxagoras: Astronomer

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¹ Anaxagoras was:

the son of Hegesibulus, or Eubulus
a citizen of Clazomenæ
a pupil of Anaximenes
the first philosopher who attributed mind to matter, beginning his treatise on the subject in the following manner (and the whole treatise is written in a most beautiful and magnificent style):

“All things were mixed up together; then Mind came and arranged them all in distinct order.”

Anaxarchus: Alexander the Great

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¹ Anaxarchus was:

a native of Abdera
a pupil of Diogenes, of Smyrna

But, as some say, of Metrodorus, of Chios; who said that he was not even sure that he knew nothing; and Metrodorus was a pupil of Nessus, of Chios; though others assert that he was a disciple of Democritus.

Anaximander: Sundial Inventor

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¹ Anaximander was:

the son of Praxiadas
a citizen of Miletus

² He used to assert that the principle and primary element of all things was the Infinity.

He gave no exact definition as to whether he meant air or water, or anything else.

Anaximenes: Thales, Anaximander

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¹ Anaximenes was:

the son of Eurystratus, a Milesian
a pupil of Anaximander

Some say that he was also a pupil of Parmenides.

He said that:

the principles of everything were the air, and the Infinite.
the stars moved not under the earth, but around the earth.

He wrote in the pure unmixed Ionian dialect.

Antisthenes: Socratic Founder of Cynics

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¹ Antisthenes was:

an Athenian
the son of Antisthenes
a pupil of Gorgias the rhetorician

² Hermippus says, that he had originally intended in his address at the assembly, on account of the Isthmian games, to attack and also to praise the Athenians, and Thebans, and Lacedæmonians; but that he afterwards abandoned the design, when he saw that there were a great many spectators come from those cities.

Archelaus: between Anaxagoras and Socrates

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¹ Archelaus was:

a citizen of either Athens or Miletus
the son of Apollodorus; but, as some say, Mydon
a pupil of Anaxagoras
the master of Socrates

² He was the first to import the study of natural philosophy from Ionia to Athens.

Archytas: Pythagoreans

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¹ Archytas was:

a native of Tarentum
the son of Mnesagoras; or, as Aristoxenus relates, of Histiæus.

² He also was a Pythagorean

He saved Plato’s life through a letter, when he was in danger of being put to death by Dionysius.

Arcesilaus: Plato

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¹ Arcesilaus was:

the son of Seuthes or Scythes, as Apollodorus states in the third book of his Chronicles, and a native of Pitane in Æolia.

² He was the original founder of the Middle Academy, and the first man who professed to suspend the declaration of his judgment, because of the contrarieties of the reasons alleged on either side.

Ariston: Stoic

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¹ Ariston the Bald was:

a native of Chios, surnamed the Siren, said, that the chief good was to live in perfect indifference to all those things which are of an intermediate character between virtue and vice; making not the slightest difference between them, but regarding them all on a footing of equality.

For that the wise man resembles a good actor; who, whether he is filling the part of Agamemnon or Thersites, will perform them both equally well.

Aristippus: Socrates' Money-Minded Student

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¹ Aristippus was:

a Cyrenean, but he came to Athens, as Æschines says, having been attracted by the fame of Socrates.

² He was a Sophist, as Phanias, of Eresus, the Peripatetic, informs us.

Aristotle: Peripatetic

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¹ Aristotle was:

the son of Nicomachus and Phæstias
a citizen of Stagira

Nicomachus was descended from Nicomachus, the son of Machaon, the son of Æsculapius, as Hermippus tells us in his treatise on Aristotle.

Bias: Head of 7 Wise Men

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¹ Bias was:

a citizen of Priene
the son of Teutamus
the head of the 7 wise men according to Satyrus.

He was one of the richest men of the city.

Bion: Socrates

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¹ Bion was:

a native of the country around the Borysthenes

Antigonus asked him:

Carneades: Stoic

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¹ Carneades was:

the son of Epicomus, or Philocomus, as Alexander states in his Successions
a native of Cyrene

² He read all the books of the Stoics with great care, and especially those of Chrysippus.

Cebes: Socrates

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¹ Cebes was a Theban.

He has 3 dialogues:

The Tablet
The Seventh
the Phrynichus

Chilo: Spartan

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¹ Chilo was a Spartan, the son of Damagetus.

He composed 200 verses in elegiac metre.

He said that a foresight of future events was the virtue of a man.

Chrysippus: Stoic

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¹ Chrysippus was:

the son of Apollonius
a native of either Soli or Tarsus, as Alexander tells us in his Successions
was a pupil of Cleanthes

Previously he used to practise running as a public runner.

Cleanthes: Stoic

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¹ Cleanthes was:

a native of Assos
the son of Phanias

He was originally a boxer, as we learn from Antisthenes, in his Successions.

He came to Athens with only 4 drachmas. He attached himself to Zeno and devoted himself to Philosophy in a most noble manner.

Cleobolus: Egyptian

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¹ Cleobulus was:

a native of Lindus
the son of Evagoras

According to Duris he was a Carian; others again trace his family back to Hercules.

He had personal strength and beauty and studied philosophy in Egypt.

Clitomachus

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¹ Clitomachus was a Carthaginian. He was called Asdrubal, and used to lecture on philosophy in his own country in his native language.

² He came to Athens at 40 years old amd became a pupil of Carneades who was pleased with his industry.

Crantor: Polemo

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¹ Crantor was a native of Soli, being admired very greatly in his own country

He came to Athens and became a pupil of Xenocrates at the same time with Polemo.

Crates: Polemo, Plato

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Crates + Polemo

¹ Crates was:

the son of Antigenes
from the Thriasian burgh
a pupil and attached friend of Polemo.

He was also his successor as president of his school.

Crates: the Handsome Cynic

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¹ Crates was:

a Theban
the son of Ascondus
one of the eminent disciples of the Cynics

Hippobotus asserts that he was not a pupil of Diogenes, but of Bryson the Achæan.

Crito: Socrates

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¹ Crito was an Athenian.

He looked upon Socrates with the greatest affection; and paid such great attention to him, that he took care that he should never be in want of anything.

Demetrius: Athenian Lawmaker

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¹ Demetrius was:

a native of Phalerus
the son of Phanostratus
a pupil of Theophrastus

² He governed Athens for 10 years. He was honoured with 360 bronze statues, the greater part of which were equestrian

Democritus: Chaldeans and Anaxagoras and Pythagoras

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¹ Democritus was:

the son of Hegesistratus, but as some say, of Athenocrites, and, according to other accounts, of Damasippus.
a native of Abdera, and a citizen of Miletus.

² He was a pupil of some of the Magi and Chaldæans, whom Xerxes had left with his father as teachers, when he had been hospitably received by him, as Herodotus informs us.

The Doctrines of Democritus

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Democritus’ Doctrines

¹² Atoms and the vacuum were the beginning of the universe.

Everything else existed only in opinion.

The worlds were infinite, created, and perishable.

Nothing was created out of nothing, and that nothing was destroyed so as to become nothing.

Diogenes of Sinope

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¹ Diogenes was:

a native of Sinope
the son of Hicesius, a money-changer

Diocles says that he was forced to flee from his native city, as his father kept the public bank there, and had adulterated the coinage.

Diogenes of Apollonia: Anaximenes

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¹ Diogenes was:

a native of Apollonia
the son of Apollothemis, a natural philosopher of high reputation
according to Antisthenes a pupil of Anaximenes
a contemporary of Anaxagoras

Demetrius Phalereus says, in his Defence of Socrates, that he was very unpopular at Athens, and even in some danger of his life.

Dionysius: Stoic

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¹ Dionysius, the Deserter, as he was called, asserted that pleasure was the chief good, from the circumstance of his being afflicted with a complaint in his eyes.

For, as he suffered severely, he could not pronounce pain a thing indifferent.

Empedocles: Pythagoras

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¹ Hippobotus says that Empedocles was:

the son of Meton

a citizen of Agrigentum.

Timæus, in book 15 of his Histories adds that Empedocles, the grandfather of the poet, was also a most eminent man.

Epicharmus: Pythagorean

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¹ Epicharmus was:

a native of Cos
the son of Helothales
a pupil of Pythagoras

When he was 3 months old, he was brought to Megara, in Sicily.

From thence he came to Syracuse, as he himself tells us in his writings. And on his statue there is the following inscription.

Epimenides: Time Traveler

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¹ Epimenides was:

the son of Phædrus, according to Theopompus, or of Dosiadas, or of Agesarchus
a Cretan by birth, of the city of Gnossus

But because he let his hair grow long, he did not look like a Cretan.

Epicurus

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¹ Metrodorus tells us in his treatise on Nobility of Birth that Epicurus was:

an Athenian
the son of Neocles and Chærestrate, of the burgh of Gargettus
of the family of the Philaidæ

Heraclides, in his Abridgment of Sotion, say that as the Athenians had colonised Samos, he was brought up there.

Eudoxus: Plato

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¹ Eudoxus was:

the son of Æschines
a native of Cnidus
an astronomer, a geometrician, a physician, and a lawgiver.

In geometry

Callimachus says in his Tablets that he was a pupil of:

Euclid of Megara: Parmenides

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¹ Euclides was:

a native of Megara on the Isthmus, or of Gela, as mentioned by Alexander in his Successions.

He devoted himself to the study of the writings of Parmenides.

Menippus: Cynic

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¹ Achaicus tells us in his Ethics that Menippus was:

a Cynic
a Phœnician by descent
a slave by birth

Diocles informs us that his master was Baton, a native of Pontus.

Heraclides

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¹ Heraclides was:

the son of Euthyphron
born at Heraclea, in Pontus
a wealthy man=

II. After he came to Athens, he was at first a disciple of Speusippus, but he also attended the schools of the Pythagorean philosophers.

Heraclitus: Xenophanes

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¹ Heraclitus was:

the son of Blyson, or of Heracion
a citizen of Ephesus.

He flourished about the sixty-ninth olympiad.

² He was above all men of a lofty and arrogant spirit:

Herillus: Anti-Stoic

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¹ Herillus was:

a native of Carthage

He said that:

the chief good was knowledge
we should live according to knowledge, and not be misled by ignorance
that knowledge was a habit not departing from reason in the reception of perceptions
there was no such thing as a chief good
circumstances and events changed the good, just as the same piece of brass might become a statue either of Alexander or of Socrates
the chief good or end (τέλος]), there was a subordinate end (ὑποτελίς) different from it
those who were not wise aimed at the latter
only the wise man directed his views to the former
all the things between virtue and vice were indifferent

² His books contain a few lines. But they are full of power, and contain arguments in opposition to Zeno.

Lacydes: New Academy

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¹ Lacydes was:

the son of Alexander
a native of Cyrene.

He founded the New Academy, having succeeded Arcesilaus.

He was a man of great gravity of character and demeanour, and one who had many imitators.

Leucippus: Stoic

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¹ Leucippus was a native of Velia or of Abdera or of Melos.

² He was a pupil of Zeno.

His principal doctrines were:

all things were infinite and were interchanged with one another
the universe was a vacuum full of bodies
the worlds were produced by bodies falling into the vacuum, and becoming entangled with one another
the nature of the stars originated in motion, according to their increase
the sun is borne round in a greater circle around the moon
the earth is carried on revolving round the centre
its figure resembles a drum

He was the first to spoke of atoms as principles.

Lycon: Panthoides

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¹ THEOPHRASTUS? was succeeded by Lycon who was:

a native of the Troas
the son of Astyanax
a man of great eloquence, and of especial ability in the education of youth.

He used to say that it was fit for boys to be harnessed with modesty and rivalry, as much as for horses to be equipped with a spur and a bridle.

Melissus: Parmenides

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¹ Melissus was:

a Samian
the son of Ithagenes
a pupil of Parmenides

But he also had conversed with Heraclitus, when he recommended him to the Ephesians, who were unacquainted with him, as Hippocrates recommended Democritus to the people of Abdera.

Mendemus: The Military Philosopher of Phaedo and Socrates

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¹ Menedemus:

belonged to the school of Phædo
was among those called Theopropidæ
was the son of Clisthenes, a man of noble family, but a poor man and a builder.

He was a tent-maker. Menedemus himself learned both trades.

Mendemus: Cynic

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¹ Menedemus was a disciple of Colotes of Lampsacus.

² Hippobotus tells that he was so superstitious.

He assumed the garb of a fury, and went about saying that he had come from hell to take notice of all who did wrong, in order that he might descend thither again and make his report to the deities who abode in that country.

Metrocles: Crates the Cynic

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¹ Metrocles was:

the brother of Hipparchia
a pupil of Theophrastus

He had profited so little by his instructions, that he fell into despondency, and shut himself up in his house, intending to starve himself to death.

Monimus: Diogenes

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¹ Monimus was a Syracusan, and a pupil of Diogenes, but also a slave of some Corinthian money-changer, as Sosicrates tells us.

Xeniades, who bought Diogenes, used often to come to him, extolling the excellency of Diogenes both in actions and words, till he excited a great affection for the man in the mind of Monimus. For he immediately feigned madness, and threw about all the money and all the coins that were on the table, until his master discarded him, and then he straightway went to Diogenes and became his pupil.

Myson: 7 Wise Men

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¹ Myson was:

the son of Strymon, as Sosicrates states, quoting Hermippus as his authority
a Chenean by birth, of some Œtæan or Laconian village
one of the seven wise men

His father was tyrant of his country.

Onesecritus: Diogenes

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¹ Onesicritus is called by some authors an Æginetan.

But Demetrius the Magnesian affirms that he was a native of Astypalæa.

He also was one of the most eminent of the disciples of Diogenes.

Parmenides: Xenophanes

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¹ Parmenides was:

the son of Pyres
a citizen of Velia
a pupil of Xenophanes

Theophrastus, in his Abridgment, says that he was also a pupil of Anaximander. However, though he was a pupil of Xenophanes, he was not afterwards a follower of his; but he attached himself to Aminias, and Diochaetes the Pythagorean, as Sotion relates, which last was a poor but honourable and virtuous man. And he it was whose follower he became, and after he was dead he erected a shrine, or ἡρῷον, in his honour. And so Parmenides, who was of a noble family and possessed of considerable wealth, was induced, not by Xenophanes but by Aminias, to embrace the tranquil life of a philosopher.

Periander: Tyrant

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¹ Periander was:

a Corinthian
the son of Cypselus
of the family of the Heraclidæ.

He married Lyside (whom he himself called Melissa), the daughter of Procles the tyrant of Epidaurus, and of Eristhenea the daughter of Aristocrates, and sister of Aristodemus, who governed nearly all Arcadia, as Heraclides Ponticus says in his Treatise on Dominion and had by her two sons Cypselus and Lycophron, the younger of whom was clever boy, but the elder was deficient in intellect.

Phaedo: Socrates

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¹ Phædo the Elean, one of the Eupatridæ, was taken prisoner at the time of the subjugation of his country, and was compelled to submit to the vilest treatment.

But while he was standing in the street, shutting the door, he met with Socrates, who desired Alcibiades, or as some say, Crito, to ransom him. And after that time he studied philosophy as became a free man. But Hieronymus, in his essay on suspending one’s judgment, calls him a slave.

Pherecydes: Pittacus

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¹ According to Alexander in his Successions, Pherecydes was:

a Syrian
the son of Babys
a pupil of Pittacus

² Theopompus says that he was the first person who ever wrote among the Greeks on the subject of Natural Philosophy and the Gods.

Philolaus: Pythagoreans

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¹ Philolaus was:

a native of Crotona
a pupil of Pythagoras

It was from him that Plato wrote to Dion to take care and purchase the books of Pythagoras.

II. He died under suspicion of having designed to seize on the tyranny; and we have written an epigram on him:

Pittacus: Lawmaker

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¹ Pittacus was:

a native of Mitylene
son of Hyrradius.

But Duris says, that his father was a Thracian.

He, in union with the brothers of Alcæus, put down Melanchrus the tyrant of Lesbos.

Plato: Solon, Socrates, Parmenides

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¹ Plato was:

the son of Ariston and Perictione or Potone
a citizen of Athens
his mother traced her family back to Solon

Solon had a brother named Dropidas, who had a son named Critias, who was the father of Callæschrus, who was the father of that Critias who was one of the 30 tyrants, and also of Glaucon, who was the father of Charmides and Perictione.

Polemo: Xenocrates

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¹ Polemo was the son of Philostratus, an Athenian, of the burgh of Œa.

When he was young, he was so very intemperate and profligate, that he used always to carry money about with him, to procure the instant gratification of his passions.

Protogoras: Demorcitus

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¹ Protagoras was:

the son of Artemon, or, as Apollodorus says (which account is corroborated by Deinon, in his History of Persia), of Mæander.
was a native of Abdera, as Heraclides Ponticus tell us, in his treatise on Laws
a lawmaker for the Thurians.

But, according to the statement of Eupolis, in his Flatterers, he was a native of Teos; for he says:

Pyrrho: Anaxarchus

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¹ Pyrrho was:

a citizen of Elis
the son of Pleistarchus, as Diocles informs us, and, as Apollodorus in his Chronicles asserts, he was originally a painter.

II. He was a pupil of Bryson, the son of Stilpon, as we are told by Alexander in his Chronicles.

Simon: Socrates

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¹ Simon was an Athenian, a leather-cutter.

He, whenever Socrates came into his workshop and conversed, used to make memorandums of all his sayings that he recollected.

² From this circumstance, people have called his dialogues leathern ones.

Pythagoras:

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¹ The Ionian philosophy was derived from Thales.

The Italian School was founded by Pythagoras who was:

the son of Mnesarchus, a seal engraver, as he is recorded to have been by Hermippus
a native of Samos, or as Aristoxenus asserts, a Tyrrhenian, and a native of one of the islands which the Athenians occupied after they had driven out the Tyrrhenians.

But some authors say that he was the son of Marmacus, the son of Hippasus, the son of Euthyphron, the son of Cleonymus, who was an exile from Phlias; and that Marmacus settled in Samos, and that from this circumstance Pythagoras was called a Samian.

Pythagoras' Prohibitions

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¹⁷ His symbols were: “Do not stir the fire with a sword.”

“Do not sit down on a bushel.”

“Do not devour your heart.”

“Do not aid men in discarding a burden, but in increasing one.”

Pythagoras

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⁶ Sosicrates, in his Successions, relates that Pythagoras was asked by Leon, the tyrant of the Phliasians, who he was.

He replied, “A philosopher.”

He used to compare life to a festival.

Simias: Socrates

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¹ Simias was a Theban.

He had 23 dialogues contained in 1 volume.

On Wisdom
On Ratiocination
On Music
on Verses
on Fortitude
on Philosophy; on Truth; on Letters; on Teaching; on Art; on Government; on what is Becoming; on what is Eligible, and what Proper to be Avoided; on A Friend; on Knowledge; on the Soul; on Living Well; on what is Possible; on Money; on Life; on what the Honourable is; on Industry; and on Love.

Pythagorean Dogmas

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Alexander also says, in his Successions of Philosophers, that he found the following dogmas written in the Commentaries of Pythagoras:

the monad was the beginning of everything.
From the monad proceeds an indefinite duad, which is subordinate to the monad as to its cause.
from the monad and the indefinite duad proceed numbers.
from numbers proceed signs.
from signs, lines of which plane figures consist.
from plane shapes are derived solid bodies
from solid bodies are derived sensible bodies
- These have 4 elements; fire, water, earth, and air.

The following get their motion from the 4 elements:

Sphaerus

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¹ Sphærus, a native of the Bosphorus was a pupil of Cleanthes after the death of Zeno.

² When he made a considerable advance in philosophy he went to Alexandria, to the court of Ptolemy Philopater.

Socrates: Parmenides

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¹ Socrates was the son of Sophroniscus, a statuary, and of Phænarete, a midwife; as Plato records in his Theætetus, he was a citizen of Athens, of the borough of Alopece.

The Character of Socrates

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⁸ He had a great firmness of mind, and very much attached to the democracy.

This was plain from his not submitting to Critias, when he ordered him to bring Leon of Salamis, a very rich man, before the thirty to be killed.

Solon: Lawmaker

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¹ Solon was:

the son of Execestides, a native of Salamis
the first to introduce among the Athenians, an ordinance for the lowering[9] of debts

This was the name given to the release of the bodies and possessions of the debtors.

Speusippus: Plato

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^1-2 Plato was succeeded by Speusippus who was:

the son of Eurymedon
a citizen of Athens
of the Myrrhinusian burgh
the son of Plato’s sister Potone.

III. He presided over his school for eight years, beginning to do so in the hundred and eighth olympiad. And he set up images of the Graces in the temple of the Muses, which had been built in the Academy by Plato.

Stilpo: Platonists

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¹ Stilpo was:

a native of Megara in Greece
a pupil of some of Euclides’ school

But some say that he was a pupil of Euclides himself. And also of Thrasymachus, the Corinthian, who was a friend of Icthyas, as Heraclides informs us.

Strato: Lawmaker

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¹ Theophrastus was succeeded in the presidency of his school by Strato of Lampsacus, the son of Arcesilaus, of whom he had made mention in his will.

² He was a man of great eminence, surnamed the Natural Philosopher, from his surpassing all men in the diligence with which he applied himself to the investigation of matters of that nature.

Thales: Egyptian

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¹ Herodotus and Duris and Democritus say that Thales was:

the son of Euxamius and Cleobule
of the family of the Thelidæ, who are Phœnicians by descent
among the most noble of all the descendants of Cadmus and Agenor, as Plato testifies.

He was the first man to whom the name of Wise was given, when Damasius was Archon at Athens, in whose time also the seven wise men had that title given to them, as Demetrius Phalereus records in his Catalogue of the Archons.

Theophrastus: Leucippus

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¹ Theophrastus was:

a native of Eresus
the son of Melantas, a fuller, as we are told by Athenodorus in the eighth book of his Philosophical Conversations.

² He was originally a pupil of Leucippus, his fellow citizen, in his own country.

Timon: Stilpo

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¹ Apollonides of Nicæa is a philosopher of our school.

According to his Commentaries on the Silli Book 1 dedicated to Tiberius Cæsar, Timon was:

the son of Timarchus
a Phliasian by birth

When he was young, he studied dancing. He later renounced that study and went to Megara to Stilpo.

Xenocrates: Plato

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¹ Xenocrates was:

the son of Agathenor
a native of Chalcedon

From his early youth he was a pupil of Plato, and also accompanied him in his voyages to Sicily.

Xenophon: Socrates' scribe & historian

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¹ Xenophon was:

the son of Gryllus, a citizen of Athens, was of the borough of Erchia; and he was a man of great modesty, and as handsome as can be imagined.

² Socrates met him in a narrow lane and put his stick across to prevent him from passing. He asked him:

Xenophanes: 4 Elements

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¹ Xenophanes was:

the son of Dexius, or, as Apollodorus says, of Orthomenes. He was a citizen of Colophon; and is praised by Timon.

Accordingly, he says:

Xenophanes, not much a slave to vanity, The wise reprover of the tricks of Homer.

Zeno of Citium: Founder of Stoicism

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¹ Zeno was:

the son of Mnaseas, or Demeas
a native of Citium, in Cyprus, which is a Grecian city, partly occupied by a Phœnician colony.

² He had his head naturally bent on one side, as Timotheus, the Athenian, tells us, in his work on Lives.

Zeno of Citium: Founder of Stoicism

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⁹ The Athenians set a decree concerning him:

“In the archonship of Arrhenides, in presidency 5 of the tribe Acamantis, on day 21 of the month Maimacterion, on day 23 of the aforesaid presidency, in a duly convened assembly, Hippo, the son of Cratistoteles, of the borough of Xypetion, being one of the presidents put the following decree to the vote. The decree was proposed by Thrason, of Anacæa, the son of Thrason.

Zeno of Citium: Founder of Stoicism

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²⁰ He used to devote a lot of time to Diodorus, as we learn from Hippobotus.

He studied dialectics under him.

When he had made a good deal of progress he attached himself to Polemo because of his freedom from arrogance, so that it is reported that he said to him, “I am not ignorant, O Zeno, that you slip into the garden-door and steal my doctrines, and then clothe them in a Phœnician dress.”

Zeno of Citium: Founder of Stoicism

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^32-33 The Stoics divide philosophy into 3:

natural philosophy
ethics
logic

Zeno was the first to make this division in his treatise on Reason.

He was followed in it by:

Zeno of Citium: Founder of Stoicism

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³⁶

Zeno of Citium: Founder of Stoicism

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⁴¹ Posidonius defines poetical expression in his introduction on Style as “A metrical or rhythmical diction, proceeding in preparation, and avoiding all resemblance to prose.”

For instance, “The vast and boundless earth,” “Th’ expanse of heaven,” are rhythmical expressions; and[281] poetry is a collection of poetical expressions signifying something, containing an imitation of divine and human beings.

Zeno of Citium: Founder of Stoicism

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⁶⁷ The Stoics divide natural philosophy into the topics of:

bodies
principles
elements
Gods
boundaries
place
the vacuum.

They make these divisions according to species. But according to genera they divide them into 3 topics:

Zeno of Citium: Founder of Stoicism

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⁷⁰ They speak of the world in a threefold sense.

As God himself, whom they call a being of a certain quality, having for his peculiar manifestation universal substance, a being imperishable, and who never had any generation, being the maker of the arrangement and order that we see.

Footnotes

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[1] “The religion of the ancient Persians was the worship of fire or of the elements, in which fire was symbolical of the Deity. At a later period, in the time of the Greeks, the ancient worship was changed into the adoration of the stars (Sabæism), especially of the sun and of the morning star. This religion was distinguished by a simple and majestic character. Its priests were called Magi.”—Tenneman’s Manual of the History of Philosophy, Introd. § 70.