The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
of Byzantium, who was a political orator. The tenth was another orator,
who is mentioned by Aristotle in his Epitome of the Orators. The eleventh
was a Theban, a statuary. The twelfth was a painter, who is mentioned by
Polemo. The thirteenth was also a painter, who is spoken of by Menodotus.
The fourteenth was an Ephesian, a painter, mentioned by Theophanes in his
Essay on Painting. The fifteenth was an epigrammatic poet. The sixteenth
wrote an essay on Poets. The seventeenth was a physician, a pupil of
Athenæus. The eighteenth was a Chian, a Stoic philosopher. The nineteenth
was a citizen of Miletus, another Stoic. The twentieth was a tragic poet.
LIFE OF PHÆDO.
I. 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.
II. And he wrote dialogues, of which we have genuine copies; by
name—Zopyrus, Simon, and Nicias (but the genuineness of this one is
disputed); Medius, which some people attribute to Æschines, and others
to Polyænus; Antimachus, or the Elders (this too is a disputed one); the
Scythian discourses, and these, too, some attribute to Æschines.
III. But his successor was Plistanus of Elis; and the next in succession
to him were Menedemus of Eretria, and Asclepiades of Phlius, who came
over from Stilpo. And down to the age of these last, they were called
the Eliac school; but after the time of Menedemus, they were called the
Eretrians. And we will speak of Menedemus hereafter, because he was the
founder of a new sect.
LIFE OF EUCLIDES.
I. Euclides was a native of Megara on the Isthmus, or of Gela,
according to some writers, whose statement is mentioned by Alexander
in his Successions. He devoted himself to the study of the writings
of Parmenides; and his successors were called the philosophers of the
Megaric school; after that they were called the Contentious school, and
still later, the Dialecticians, which name was first given to them by
Dionysius the Carthaginian; because they carried on their investigations
by question and answer. Hermodorus says that after the death of Socrates,
Plato and the other philosophers came to Euclides, because they feared
the cruelty of the tyrants.
II. He used to teach that the chief good is unity; but that it is known
by several names; for at one time people call it prudence; at another
time God; at another time intellect, and so on. But everything which was
contrary to good, he discarded, denying its existence. And the proofs
which he used to bring forward to support his arguments, were not those
which proceed on assumptions, but on conclusions. He also rejected all
that sort of reasoning which proceeds on comparison, saying that it
must be founded either on things which are like, or on things which are
unlike. If on things which are like, then it is better to reason about
the things themselves, than about those which resemble them; and if on
things which are unlike, then the comparison is quite useless. And on
this account Timon uses the following language concerning him, where he
also attacks all the other philosophers of the Socratic school:—
But I do care for none of all these triflers,
Nor for any one else; not for your Phædon,
Whoever he may be; not for the quarrelsome
Euclides, who bit all the Megareans
With love of fierce contention.
III. He wrote six dialogues—the Lamprias, the Æschines, the Phœnix, the
Crito, the Alcibiades, and the Amatory dialogue.
IV. Next in succession to Euclides, came Eubulides of Miletus, who handed
down a great many arguments in dialectics; such as the Lying one; the
Concealed one; the Electra; the Veiled one; the Sorites; the Horned
one; the Bald one.[26] And one of the Comic poets speaks of him in the
following terms:—
Eubulides, that most contentious sophist,
Asking his horned quibbles, and perplexing
The natives with his false arrogant speeches,
Has gone with all the fluency of Demosthenes.
For it seems that Demosthenes had been his pupil, and that being at first
unable to pronounce the R, he got rid of that defect. Eubulides had a
quarrel with Aristotle, and was constantly attacking him.
V. Among the different people who succeeded Eubulides, was Alexinus of
Elis, a man very fond of argument, on which account he was nicknamed
Ἐλέγξινος.[27] He had an especial quarrel with Zeno; and Hermippus
relates of him that he went from Elis to Olympia, and studied philosophy
there; and that when his pupils asked him why he lived there, he said
that he wished to establish a school which should be called the Olympic
school; but that his pupils being in distress, through want of means of
support, and finding the situation unhealthy for them, left him; and that
after that Alexinus lived by himself, with only one servant. And after
that, when swimming in the Alpheus, he was pricked by a reed, and the
injury proved fatal, and he died. And we have written an epigram on him
which runs thus:—
Then the report, alas! was true,
That an unhappy man,
While swimming tore his foot against a nail
For the illustrious sage,
Good Alexinus, swimming in the Alpheus,
Died from a hostile reed.
And he wrote not only against Zeno, but he composed other works also,
especially one against Ephorus the historian.
VI. One of the school of Eubulides was Euphantus of Olynthus, who wrote
a history of the events of his own time; he also composed several
tragedies, for which he got great distinction at the festivals. And he
was the preceptor of Antigonus, the king to whom he dedicated a treatise
on Monarchy, which had an exceedingly high reputation. And at last he
died of old age.
VII. There are also other pupils of Eubulides, among whom is Apollonius
Cronus, who was the preceptor of Diodorus of Iasos, the son of Aminias;
and he too was surnamed Cronus, and is thus mentioned by Callimachus in
his epigrams:—
Momus himself did carve upon the walls,
Cronus is wise.
And he was a dialectician, and, as some believe, he was the first
person who invented the Concealed argument, and the Horned one. When
he was staying at the court of Ptolemy Soter, he had several dialectic
questions put to him by Stilpo; and as he was not able to solve them at
the moment, he was reproached by the king with many hard words, and among
other things, he was nicknamed Cronus, out of derision. So he left the
banquet, and wrote an essay on the question of Stilpo, and then died of
despondency. And we have written the following epigram on him:—
O Diodorus Cronus, what sad fate
Buried you in despair?
So that you hastened to the shades below,
Perplexed by Stilpo’s quibbles—
You would deserve your name of Cronus[28] better,
If C and r were gone.
VIII. One of the successors of Euclides was Icthyas, the son of Metellus,
a man of great eminence, to whom Diogenes the Cynic addressed a dialogue.
And Clinomachus of Thurii, who was the first person who ever wrote about
axioms and categorems, and things of that kind. And Stilpo the Megarian,
a most illustrious philosopher, whom we must now speak of.
LIFE OF STILPO.
I. Stilpo, a native of Megara in Greece, was 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.
II. And he was so much superior to all his fellows in command of words
and in acuteness, that it may almost be said that all Greece fixed
its eyes upon him, and joined the Megaric school. And concerning him
Philippus of Megara speaks thus, word for word:—“For he carried off from
Theophrastus, Metrodorus the speculative philosopher, and Timagoras of
Gela; and Aristotle the Cyrenaic, he robbed of Clitarchus and Simias;
and from the dialecticians’ school also he won men over, carrying off
Pæoneius from Aristides, and Diphilus of the Bosphorus from Euphantus,
and also Myrmex of the Venetes, who had both come to him to argue against
him, but they became converts and his disciples.” And besides these
men, he attracted to his school Phrasidemus the Peripatetic, a natural
philosopher of great ability; and Alcimus the rhetorician, the most
eminent orator in all Greece at that time; and he won over Crates, and
great numbers of others, and among them Zeno the Phœnician.
III. And he was very fond of the study of politics. And he was married.
But he lived also with a courtesan, named Nicarete, as Onetor tells us
somewhere. And he had a licentious daughter, who was married to a friend
of his named Simias, a citizen of Syracuse. And as she would not live in
an orderly manner, some one told Stilpo that she was a disgrace to him.
But he said, “She is not more a disgrace to me than I am an honour to
her.”
IV. Ptolemy Soter, it is said, received him with great honour; and when
he had made himself master of Megara, he gave him money, and invited
him to sail with him to Egypt. But he accepted only a moderate sum of
money, and declined the journey proposed to him, but went over to Ægina,
until Ptolemy had sailed. Also when Demetrius, the son of Antigonus
had taken Megara, he ordered Stilpo’s house to be saved, and took care
that everything that had been plundered from him should be restored to
him. But when he wished Stilpo to give him in a list of all that he had
lost, he said that he had lost nothing of his own; for that no one had
taken from him his learning, and that he still had his eloquence and his
knowledge. And he conversed with Demetrius on the subject of doing good
to men with such power, that he became a zealous hearer of his.
V. They say that he once put such a question as this to a man, about the
Minerva of Phidias:—“Is Minerva the Goddess the daughter of Jupiter?”
And when the other said, “Yes;” “But this,” said he, “is not the child
of Jupiter, but of Phidias.” And when he agreed that it was so—“This
then,” he continued, “is not a God.” And when he was brought before the
Areopagus for this speech, he did not deny it, but maintained that he
had spoken correctly; for that she was not a God (θεὸς) but a Goddess
(θεὰ); for that Gods were of the male sex only.[29] However the judges
of the Areopagus ordered him to leave the city; and on this occasion,
Theodorus, who was nicknamed θεὸς, said in derision, “Whence did Stilpo
learn this? and how could he tell whether she was a God or a Goddess?”
But Theodorus was in truth a most impudent fellow. But Stilpo was a most
witty and elegant-minded man. Accordingly when Crates asked him if the
Gods delighted in adoration and prayer; they say that he answered, “Do
not ask these questions, you foolish man, in the road, but in private.”
And they say too that Bion, when he was asked whether there were any
Gods, answered in the same spirit:—
“Will you not first, O! miserable old man,
Remove the multitude?”
VI. But Stilpo was a man of simple character, and free from all trick and
humbug, and universally affable. Accordingly, when Crates the Cynic once
refused to answer a question that he had put to him, and only insulted
his questioner—“I knew,” said Stilpo, “that he would say anything rather
than what he ought.” And once he put a question to him, and offered him
a fig at the same time; so he took the fig and ate it, on which Crates
said, “O Hercules, I have lost my fig.” “Not only that,” he replied,
“but you have lost your question too, of which the fig was the pledge.”