The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
the science of soothsaying—that the Magi occupy themselves about the
service to be paid to the gods, and about sacrifices and prayers, as
if they were the only people to whom the deities listen: and that they
deliver accounts of the existence and generation of the gods, saying that
they are fire, and earth, and water; and they condemn the use of images,
and above all things do they condemn those who say that the gods are male
and female; they speak much of justice, and think it impious to destroy
the bodies of the dead by fire; they allow men to marry their mothers or
their daughters, as Sotion tells us in his twenty-third book; they study
the arts of soothsaying and divination, and assert that the gods reveal
their will to them by those sciences. They teach also that the air is
full of phantoms, which, by emanation and a sort of evaporation, glide
into the sight of those who have a clear perception; they forbid any
extravagance of ornament, and the use of gold; their garments are white,
their beds are made of leaves, and vegetables are their food, with cheese
and coarse bread; they use a rush for a staff, the top of which they run
into the cheese, and so taking up a piece of it they eat it. Of all kinds
of magical divination they are ignorant, as Aristotle asserts in his book
on Magic, and Dinon in the fifth book of his Histories. And this writer
says, that the name of Zoroaster being interpreted means, a sacrifice to
the stars; and Hermodorus makes the same statement. But Aristotle, in
the first book of his Treatise on Philosophy, says, that the Magi are
more ancient than the Egyptians; and that according to them there are two
principles, a good demon and an evil demon, and that the name of the one
is Jupiter or Oromasdes, and that of the other Pluto or Arimanius. And
Hermippus gives the same account in the first book of his History of the
Magi; and so does Eudoxus in his Period; and so does Theopompus in the
eighth book of his History of the Affairs of Philip; and this last writer
tells us also, that according to the Magi men will have a resurrection
and be immortal, and that what exists now will exist hereafter under its
own present name; and Eudemus of Rhodes coincides in this statement.
But Hecatæus says, that according to their doctrines the gods also are
beings who have been born. But Clearchus the Solensian, in his Treatise
on Education says, that the Gymnosophists are descendants of the Magi;
and some say that the Jews also are derived from them. Moreover, those
who have written on the subject of the Magi condemn Herodotus; for they
say that Xerxes would never have shot arrows against the sun, or have
put fetters on the sea, as both sun and sea have been handed down by the
Magi as gods, but that it was quite consistent for Xerxes to destroy the
images of the gods.
VII. The following is the account that authors give of the philosophy of
the Egyptians, as bearing on the gods and on justice. They say that the
first principle is matter; then that the four elements were formed out
of matter and divided, and that some animals were created, and that the
sun and moon are gods, of whom the former is called Osiris and the latter
Isis, and they are symbolised under the names of beetles and dragons, and
hawks, and other animals, as Manetho tells us in his abridged account of
Natural Philosophy, and Hecatæus confirms the statement in the first book
of his History of the Philosophy of the Egyptians. They also make images
of the gods, and assign them temples because they do not know the form of
God. They consider that the world had a beginning and will have an end,
and that it is a sphere; they think that the stars are fire, and that it
is by a combination of them that the things on earth are generated; that
the moon is eclipsed when it falls into the shadow of the earth; that the
soul is eternal and migratory; that rain is caused by the changes of the
atmosphere; and they enter into other speculations on points of natural
history, as Hecatæus and Aristagoras inform us.
They also have made laws about justice, which they attribute to Mercury,
and they consider those animals which are useful to be gods. They claim
to themselves the merit of having been the inventors of geometry, and
astrology, and arithmetic. So much then for the subject of invention.
VIII. But Pythagoras was the first person who invented the term
Philosophy, and who called himself a philosopher; when he was conversing
at Sicyon with Leon, who was tyrant of the Sicyonians or of the
Phliasians (as Heraclides Ponticus relates in the book which he wrote
about a dead woman); for he said that no man ought to be called wise,
but only God. For formerly what is now called philosophy (φιλοσοφία) was
called wisdom (σοφία), and they who professed it were called wise men
(σοφοὶ), as being endowed with great acuteness and accuracy of mind; but
now he who embraces wisdom is called a philosopher (φιλόσοφος).
But the wise men were also called Sophists. And not only they, but poets
also were called Sophists: as Cratinus in his Archilochi calls Homer and
Hesiod, while praising them highly.
IX. Now these were they who were accounted wise men. Thales, Solon,
Periander, Cleobulus, Chilo, Bias, Pittacus. To these men add Anacharsis
the Scythian, Myson the Chenean, Pherecydes the Syrian, and Epimenides
the Cretan; and some add, Pisistratus, the tyrant: These then are they
who were called the wise men.
X. But of Philosophy there arose two schools. One derived from
Anaximander, the other from Pythagoras. Now, Thales had been the
preceptor of Anaximander, and Pherecydes of Pythagoras. And the one
school was called the Ionian, because Thales, being an Ionian (for he
was a native of Miletus), had been the tutor of Anaximander;—but the
other was called the Italian from Pythagoras, because he spent the chief
part of his life in Italy. And the Ionic school ends with Clitomachus,
and Chrysippus, and Theophrastus; and the Italian one with Epicurus; for
Anaximander succeeded Thales, and he was succeeded again by Anaximenes,
and he by Anaxagoras, and he by Archelaus, who was the master of
Socrates, who was the originator of moral philosophy. And he was the
master of the sect of the Socratic philosophers, and of Plato, who was
the founder of the old Academy; and Plato’s pupils were Speusippus and
Xenocrates; and Polemo was the pupil of Xenocrates, and Crantor and
Crates of Polemo. Crates again was the master of Arcesilaus, the founder
of the Middle Academy, and his pupil was Lacydes, who gave the new
Academy its distinctive principles. His pupil was Carneades, and he in
his turn was the master of Clitomachus. And this school ends in this way
with Clitomachus and Chrysippus.
Antisthenes was the pupil of Socrates, and the master of Diogenes the
Cynic; and the pupil of Diogenes was Crates the Theban; Zeno the Cittiæan
was his; Cleanthes was his; Chrysippus was his. Again it ends with
Theophrastus in the following manner:—
Aristotle was the pupil of Plato, Theophrastus the pupil of Aristotle;
and in this way the Ionian school comes to an end.
Now the Italian school was carried on in this way. Pythagoras was the
pupil of Pherecydes; his pupil was Telauges his son; he was the master
of Xenophanes, and he of Parmenides; Parmenides of Zeno the Eleatic,
he of Leucippus, he of Democritus: Democritus had many disciples, the
most eminent of whom were Nausiphanes and Nausicydes, and they were the
masters of Epicurus.
XI. Now, of Philosophers some were dogmatic, and others were inclined
to suspend their opinions. By dogmatic, I mean those who explain their
opinions about matters, as if they could be comprehended. By those who
suspend their opinions, I mean those who give no positive judgment,
thinking that these things cannot be comprehended. And the former class
have left many memorials of themselves; but the others have never written
a line; as for instance, according to some people, Socrates, and Stilpo,
and Philippus, and Menedemus, and Pyrrho, and Theodorus, and Carneades,
and Bryson; and, as some people say, Pythagoras, and Aristo of Chios,
except that he wrote a few letters. There are some men too who have
written one work only, Melissus, Parmenides, and Anaxagoras; but Zeno
wrote many works, Xenophanes still more; Democritus more, Aristotle more,
Epicurus more, and Chrysippus more.
XII. Again, of philosophers some derived a surname from cities, as, the
Elians, and Megaric sect, the Eretrians, and the Cyrenaics. Some from
the places which they frequented, as the Academics and Stoics. Some
from accidental circumstances, as the Peripatetics; or, from jests, as
the Cynics. Some again from their dispositions, as the Eudæmonics; some
from an opinion, as the Elenctic, and Analogical schools. Some from
their masters, as the Socratic and Epicurean philosophers; and so on.
The Natural Philosophers were so called from their study of nature; the
Ethical philosophers from their investigation of questions of morals
(περὶ τὰ ἔθη). The Dialecticians are they who devote themselves to
quibbling on words.
XIII. Now there are three divisions of philosophy. Natural, Ethical, and
Dialectic. Natural philosophy occupies itself about the world and the
things in it; Ethical philosophy about life, and the things which concern
us; Dialectics are conversant with the arguments by which both the others
are supported.
Natural philosophy prevailed till the time of Archelaus; but after the
time of Socrates, Ethical philosophy was predominant; and after the time
of Zeno the Eleatic, Dialectic philosophy got the upper hand.
Ethical philosophy was subdivided into ten sects; the Academic, the
Cyrenaic, the Elian, the Megaric, the Cynic, the Eretrian, the Dialectic,
the Peripatetic, the Stoic, and the Epicurean. Of the old Academic school
Plato was the president; of the middle, Arcesilaus; and of the New,
Lacydes:—the Cyrenaic school was founded by Aristippus the Cyrenian; the
Elian, by Phædo, of Elis; the Megaric, by Euclid, of Megara; the Cynic,
by Antisthenes, the Athenian; the Eretrian, by Menedemus, of Eretria;
the Dialectic by Clitomachus, the Carthaginian; the Peripatetic, by
Aristotle, the Stagirite; the Stoic, by Zeno, the Cittiæan; the Epicurean
school derives its name from Epicurus, its founder.
But Hippobotus, in his Treatise on Sects, says that there are nine sects
and schools: first, the Megaric; secondly, the Eretrian; thirdly, the
Cyrenaic; fourthly, the Epicurean; fifthly, the Annicerean; sixthly, the
Theodorean; seventhly, the sect of Zeno and the Stoics; eighthly, that
of the Old Academy; and ninthly, the Peripatetic;—not counting either
the Cynic, or the Eliac, or the Dialectic school. That also which is
called the Pyrrhonean is repudiated by many writers, on account of the
obscurity of its principles. But others consider that in some particulars
it is a distinct sect, and in others not. For it does appear to be a
sect—for what we call a sect, say they, is one which follows, or appears
to follow, a principle which appears to it to be the true one; on which
principle we correctly call the Sceptics a sect. But if by the name sect
we understand those who incline to rules which are consistent with the
principles which they profess, then the Pyrrhonean cannot be called a
sect, for they have no rules or principles.
These, then, are the beginnings, these are the successive masters, these
are the divisions, and schools of philosophy.
XIV. Moreover, it is not long ago, that a new Eclectic school was set
up by Potamo, of Alexandria, who picked out of the doctrines of each
school what pleased him most. And as he himself says, in his Elementary
Instruction, he thinks that there are certain criteria of truth: first