The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
reason. For he was the first man, as Phavorinus says in his Universal
History, who, in conjunction with his disciple Æschines, taught men how
to become orators. And Idomeneus makes the same assertion in his essay
on the Socratic School. He, likewise, was the first person who conversed
about human life; and was also the first philosopher who was condemned
to death and executed. And Aristoxenus, the son of Spintharas, says that
he lent money in usury; and that he collected the interest and principal
together, and then, when he had got the interest, he lent it out again.
And Demetrius, of Byzantium, says that it was Criton who made him leave
his workshop and instruct men, out of the admiration which he conceived
for his abilities.
VI. He then, perceiving that natural philosophy had no immediate bearing
on our interests, began to enter upon moral speculations, both in his
workshop and in the market-place. And he said that the objects of his
search were—
Whatever good or harm can man befall
In his own house.
And very often, while arguing and discussing points that arose, he was
treated with great violence and beaten, and pulled about, and laughed
at and ridiculed by the multitude. But he bore all this with great
equanimity. So that once, when he had been kicked and buffeted about, and
had borne it all patiently, and some one expressed his surprise, he said,
“Suppose an ass had kicked me, would you have had me bring an action
against him?” And this is the account of Demetrius.
VII. But he had no need of travelling (though most philosophers did
travel), except when he was bound to serve in the army. But all the rest
of his life he remained in the same place, and in an argumentative spirit
he used to dispute with all who would converse with him, not with the
purpose of taking away their opinions from them, so much as of learning
the truth, as far as he could do so, himself. And they say that Euripides
gave him a small work of Heraclitus to read, and asked him afterwards
what he thought of it, and he replied, “What I have understood is good;
and so, I think, what I have not understood is; only the book requires
a Delian diver to get at the meaning of it.” He paid great attention
also to the training of the body, and was always in excellent condition
himself. Accordingly, he joined in the expedition to Amphipolis, and
he it was who took up and saved Xenophon in the battle of Delium, when
he had fallen from his horse; for when all the Athenians had fled, he
retreated quietly, turning round slowly, and watching to repel any one
who attacked him. He also joined in the expedition to Potidæa, which was
undertaken by sea; for it was impossible to get there by land, as the war
impeded the communication. And they say that on this occasion he remained
the whole night in one place; and that though he had deserved the prize
of pre-eminent valour, he yielded it to Alcibiades, to whom Aristippus,
in the fourth book of his treatise on the Luxury of the Ancients, says
that he was greatly attached. But Ion, of Chios, says, that while he was
a very young man he left Athens, and went to Samos with Archelaus. And
Aristotle says, that he went to Delphi; and Phavorinus also, in the first
book of his Commentaries, says that he went to the Isthmus.
VIII. He was a man of great firmness of mind, and very much attached to
the democracy, as was plain from his not submitting to Critias, when he
ordered him to bring Leon of Salamis, a very rich man, before the thirty,
for the purpose of being murdered. And he alone voted for the acquittal
of the ten generals;[20] and when it was in his power to escape out of
prison he would not do it; and he reproved those who bewailed his fate,
and even while in prison, he delivered those beautiful discourses which
we still possess.
IX. He was a contented and venerable man. And once, as Pamphila says, in
the seventh book of her Commentaries, when Alcibiades offered him a large
piece of ground to build a house upon, he said, “But if I wanted shoes,
and you had given me a piece of leather to make myself shoes, I should
be laughed at if I took it.” And often, when he beheld the multitude of
things which were being sold, he would say to himself, “How many things
are there which I do not want.” And he was continually repeating these
iambics:—
For silver plate and purple useful are
For actors on the stage, but not for men.
And he showed his scorn of Archelaus the Macedonian, and Scopas the
Cranonian, and Eurylochus of Larissa, when he refused to accept their
money, and to go and visit them. And he was so regular in his way of
living, that it happened more than once when there was a plague at
Athens, that he was the only person who did not catch it.
X. Aristotle says, that he had two wives. The first was Xanthippe, by
whom he had a son named Lamprocles; the second was Myrto, the daughter
of Aristides the Just; and he took her without any dowry, and by her he
had two sons, Sophroniscus and Menexenus. But some say that Myrto was
his first wife. And some, among whom are Satyrus, and Hieronymus, of
Rhodes, say that he had them both at the same time. For they say that the
Athenians, on account of the scarcity of men, passed a vote, with the
view of increasing the population, that a man might marry one citizen,
and might also have children by another who should be legitimate; on
which account Socrates did so.
XI. And he was a man able to look down upon any who mocked him. And he
prided himself upon the simplicity of his way of life; and never exacted
any pay from his pupils. And he used to say, that the man who ate with
the greatest appetite, had the least need of delicacies; and that he who
drank with the greatest appetite, was the least inclined to look for a
draught which is not at hand; and that those who want fewest things are
nearest to the Gods. And thus much, indeed, one may learn from the comic
poets; who, without perceiving it, praise him in the very matters for
which they ridicule him. Aristophanes speaks thus:—
Prudent man, who thus with justice long for mighty wisdom,
Happiness will be your lot in Athens, and all Greece too;
For you’ve a noble memory, and plenty of invention,
And patience dwells within your mind, and you are never tired,
Whether you’re standing still or walking; and you care not for cold,
Nor do you long for breakfast time, nor e’er give in to hunger;
But wine and gluttony you shun, and all such kind of follies.
And Ameipsias introduces him on the stage in a cloak, and speaks thus of
him:—
O Socrates, among few men the best,
And among many vainest; here at last
You come to us courageously—but where,
Where did you get that cloak? so strange a garment,
Some leather cutter must have given you
By way of joke: and yet this worthy man,
Though ne’er so hungry, never flatters any one.
Aristophanes too, exposes his contemptuous and arrogant disposition,
speaking thus:—
You strut along the streets, and look around you proudly,
And barefoot many ills endure, and hold your head above us.
And yet, sometimes he adapted himself to the occasion and dressed
handsomely. As, for instance, in the banquet of Plato, where he is
represented as going to find Agathon.
XII. He was a man of great ability, both in exhorting men to, and
dissuading them from, any course; as, for instance having discoursed
with Theætetus on the subject of knowledge, he sent him away almost
inspired, as Plato says. And when Euthyphron had commenced a prosecution
against his father for having killed a foreigner, he conversed with him
on the subject of piety, and turned him from his purpose: and by his
exhortations he made Lysis a most moral man. For he was very ingenious
at deriving arguments from existing circumstances. And so he mollified
his son Lamprocles when he was very angry with his mother, as Xenophon
mentions somewhere in his works; and he wrought upon Glaucon, the
brother of Plato, who was desirous to meddle with affairs of state, and
induced him to abandon his purpose, because of his want of experience in
such matters, as Xenophon relates. And, on the contrary, he persuaded
Charmidas to devote himself to politics, because he was a man very well
calculated for such business. He also inspired Iphicrates, the general,
with courage, by showing him the gamecocks of Midias the barber, pluming
themselves against those of Callias; and Glauconides said, that the state
ought to keep him carefully, as if he were a pheasant or a peacock. He
used also to say, that it was a strange thing that every one could easily
tell what property he had, but was not able to name all his friends, or
even to tell their number; so careless were men on that subject. Once
when he saw Euclid exceedingly anxious about some dialectic arguments, he
said to him, “O Euclid, you will acquire a power of managing sophists,
but not of governing men.” For he thought that subtle hair-splitting on
those subjects was quite useless; as Plato also records in the Euthydemus.
XIII. And when Charmidas offered him some slaves, with the view to his
making a profit of them, he would not have them; and, as some people say,
he paid no regard to the beauty of Alcibiades.
XIV. He used to praise leisure as the most valuable of possessions,
as Xenophon tells us in his Banquet. And it was a saying of his that
there was one only good, namely, knowledge; and one only evil, namely,
ignorance; that riches and high birth had nothing estimable in them, but
that, on the contrary, they were wholly evil. Accordingly, when some one
told him that the mother of Antisthenes was a Thracian woman, “Did you
suppose,” said he, “that so noble a man must be born of two Athenians?”
And when Phædo was reduced to a state of slavery, he ordered Crito to
ransom him, and taught him, and made him a philosopher.
XV. And, moreover, he used to learn to play on the lyre when he had time,
saying, that it was not absurd to learn anything that one did not know;
and further, he used frequently to dance, thinking such an exercise good
for the health of the body, as Xenophon relates in his Banquet.
XVI. He used also to say that the dæmon foretold the future to him;[21]
and that to begin well was not a trifling thing, but yet not far from
a trifling thing; and that he knew nothing, except the fact of his
ignorance. Another saying of his was, that those who bought things out of
season, at an extravagant price, expected never to live till the proper
season for them. Once, when he was asked what was the virtue of a young
man, he said, “To avoid excess in everything.” And he used to say, that
it was necessary to learn geometry only so far as might enable a man to
measure land for the purposes of buying and selling. And when Euripides,
in his Auge, had spoken thus of virtue:—
’Tis best to leave these subjects undisturbed;
he rose up and left the theatre, saying that it was an absurdity to
think it right to seek for a slave if one could not find him, but to
let virtue be altogether disregarded. The question was once put to him
by a man whether he would advise him to marry or not? And he replied,
“Whichever you do, you will repent it.” He often said, that he wondered
at those who made stone statues, when he saw how careful they were that
the stone should be like the man it was intended to represent, but how
careless they were of themselves, as to guarding against being like the
stone. He used also to recommend young men to be constantly looking in
the glass, in order that, if they were handsome, they might be worthy
of their beauty; and if they were ugly, they might conceal their
unsightly appearance by their accomplishments. He once invited some rich