The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
used to say was, that a mean extraction was a bad companion to freedom of
speech. For:—
It does enslave a man, however bold
His speech may be.[41]
And another was that we ought to keep our friends, whatever sort of
people they may be, so that we may not seem to have been intimate with
wicked men, or to have abandoned good men.
IV. Very early in his career he abandoned the school of the Academy, and
at the same time became a disciple of Crates. Then he passed over to the
sect of the Cynics, taking their coarse cloak and wallet. For what else
could ever have changed his nature into one of such apathy? After that he
adopted the Theodorean principles, having become a disciple of Theodorus
the Atheist, who was used to employ every kind of reasoning in support
of his system of philosophy. After leaving him, he became a pupil of
Theophrastus, the Peripatetic.
V. He was very fond of theatrical entertainments, and very skilful in
distracting his hearers by exciting a laugh, giving things disparaging
names. And because he used to avail himself of every species of
reasoning, they relate that Eratosthenes said that Bion was the first
person who had clothed philosophy in a flowery robe.
VI. He was also very ingenious in parodying passages, and adapting
them to circumstances as they arose. As for instance, I may cite the
following:—
Tender Archytas, born of tuneful lyre,
Whom thoughts of happy vanity inspire;
Most skilled of mortals in appeasing ire.[42]
And he jested on every part of music and geometry.
VII. He was a man of very expensive habits, and on this account he used
to go from city to city, and at times he would contrive the most amazing
devices.
VIII. Accordingly, in Rhodes, he persuaded the sailors to put on the
habiliments of philosophical students and follow him about; and then he
made himself conspicuous by entering the gymnasium with this train of
followers.
IX. He was accustomed also to adopt young men as his sons, in order to
derive assistance from them in his pleasures, and to be protected by
their affection for him. But he was a very selfish man, and very fond of
quoting the saying, “The property of friends is common;” owing to which
it is that no one is spoken of as a disciple of his, though so many
men attended his school. And he made some very shameless; accordingly,
Betion, one of his intimate acquaintances, is reported to have said once
to Menedemus, “So Menedemus constantly spends the evening with Bion, and
I see no harm in it.” He used also to talk with great impiety to those
who conversed with him, having derived his opinions on this subject from
Theodorus.
X. And when at a later period he became afflicted with disease, as the
people of Chalcis said, for he died there, he was persuaded to wear
amulets and charms, and to show his repentance for the insults that he
had offered to the Gods. But he suffered fearfully for want of proper
people to attend him, until Antigonus sent him two servants. And he
followed him in a litter, as Phavorinus relates in his Universal History.
And the circumstances of his death we have ourselves spoken of in the
following lines:—
We hear that Bion the Borysthenite,
Whom the ferocious Scythian land brought forth,
Used to deny that there were Gods at all.
Now, if he’d persevered in this opinion,
One would have said he speaks just as he thinks;
Though certainly his thoughts are quite mistaken.
But when a lengthened sickness overtook him,
And he began to fear lest he should die;
This man who heretofore denied the Gods,
And would not even look upon a temple,
And mocked all those who e’er approached the Gods
With prayer or sacrifice; who ne’er, not even
For his own hearth, and home, and household table,
Regaled the Gods with savoury fat and incense,
Who never once said, “I have sinned, but spare me.”
Then did this atheist shrink, and give his neck
To an old woman to hang charms upon,
And bound his arms with magic amulets,
With laurel branches blocked his doors and windows,
Ready to do and venture anything
Rather than die. Fool that he was, who thought
To win the Gods to come into existence,
Whenever he might think he wanted them.
So wise too late, when now mere dust and ashes,
He put his hand forth, Hail, great Pluto, Hail!
XI. There were ten people of the name of Bion. First of all, the one
who flourished at the same time with Pherecydes of Syros, and who has
left two books behind him, which are still extant; he was a native
of Proconnesus. The second was a Syracusan, the author of a system of
rhetoric. The third was the man of whom we have been speaking. The fourth
was a pupil of Democritus, and a mathematician, a native of Abdera,
who wrote in both the Attic and Ionic dialect. He was the person who
first asserted that there were countries where there was night for six
months, and day for six months. The fifth was a native of Soli; who
wrote a history of Æthiopia. The sixth was a rhetorician, who has left
behind him nine books, inscribed with the names of the Muses, which are
still extant. The eighth was a Milesian statuary, who is mentioned by
Polemo. The ninth was a tragic poet of the number of those who are called
Tarsicans. The tenth was a statuary, a native of Clazomenæ or Chios, who
is mentioned by Hipponax.
LIFE OF LACYDES.
I. Lacydes, the son of Alexander, was a native of Cyrene. He it is who
was the founder of the New Academy, having succeeded Arcesilaus; and he
was a man of great gravity of character and demeanour, and one who had
many imitators.
II. He was industrious from his very childhood, and poor, but very
pleasing and sociable in his manners.
III. They say that he had a pleasant way of managing his house-keeping
affairs. For when he had taken anything out of his store-chest, he
would seal it up again, and throw in his seal through the hole, so
that it should be impossible for anything of what he had laid up there
to be stolen from him, or carried off. But his servants learning this
contrivance of his, broke the seal, and carried off as much as they
pleased, and then they put the ring back through the hole in the same
manner as before; and though they did this repeatedly, they were never
detected.
IV. Lacydes now used to hold his school in the Academy in the garden
which had been laid out by Attalus the king, and it was called the
Lacydeum, after him. And he was the only man, who, while alive, resigned
his school to a successor; but he resigned this to Telicles and Evander,
of Phocis; and Hegesinus, of Pergamus, succeeded Evander; and he himself
was in his turn succeeded by Carneades.
V. There is a witty saying, which is attributed to Lacydes. For they say
that when Attalus sent for him, he answered that statues ought to be seen
at a distance. On another occasion, as it is reported, he was studying
geometry very late in life, and some said to him, “Is it then a time for
you to be learning now?” “If it is not,” he replied, “when will it be?”
VI. And he died in the fourth year of the hundred and thirty-fourth
Olympiad, when he had presided over his school twenty-six years. And his
death was caused by paralysis, which was brought on by drinking. And we
ourselves have jested upon him in the following language.
’Tis an odd story that I heard of you—
Lacydes, that you went with hasty steps,
Spurred on by Bacchus, to the shades below.
How then, if this be true, can it be said,
That Bacchus e’er trips up his votaries’ feet
’Tis a _mistake his being_ named Lyæus.[43]
LIFE OF CARNEADES.
I. Carneades was the son of Epicomus, or Philocomus, as Alexander states
in his Successions; and a native of Cyrene.
II. He read all the books of the Stoics with great care, and especially
those of Chrysippus; and then he wrote replies to them, but did it at the
same time with such modesty that he used to say, “If Chrysippus had not
lived, I should never have existed.”
III. He was a man of as great industry as ever existed; not, however,
very much devoted to the investigation of subjects of natural philosophy,
but more fond of the discussion of ethical topics, on which account he
used to let his hair and his nails grow, from his entire devotion of
all his time to philosophical discussion. And he was so eminent as a
philosopher, that the orators would quit their own schools and come and
listen to his lectures.
IV. He was also a man of a very powerful voice, so that the president of
the Gymnasium sent to him once, to desire he would not shout so loudly.
And he replied, “Give me then, measure for my voice.” And the gymnasiarch
again rejoined with great wit, for he said, “You have a measure in your
pupils.”
V. He was a very vehement speaker, and one difficult to contend with in
the investigation of a point. And he used to decline all invitations to
entertainments, for the reasons I have already mentioned.
VI. On one occasion, when Mentor, the Bithynian, one of his pupils, came
to him to attend his school, observing that he was trying to seduce his
mistress (as Phavorinus relates in his Universal History), while he was
in the middle of his lecture, he made the following parody in allusion to
him:—
A weak old man comes hither, like in voice,
And gait, and figure, to the prudent Mentor
I order him to be expelled this school.
And Mentor rising up, replied:—
Thus did they speak, and straight the others rose.
VII. He appears to have been beset with fears of death; as he was
continually saying, “Nature, who has put this frame together, will also
dissolve it.” And learning that Antipater had died after having taken
poison, he felt a desire to imitate the boldness of his departure, and
said, “Give me some too.” And when they asked “What?” “Some mead,” said
he. And it is said that an eclipse of the moon happened when he died,
the most beautiful of all the stars, next to the sun, indicating (as any
one might say) its sympathy with the philosopher. And Apollodorus, in
his Chronicles, says that he died in the fourth year of the hundred and
sixty-second olympiad, being eighty-five years old.
VIII. There are some letters extant addressed by him to Ariarathes, the
king of the Cappadocians. All the other writings which are attributed to
him were written by his disciples, for he himself left nothing behind
him. And I have written on him the following lines in logaœdical
Archebulian metre.
Why now, O Muse, do you wish me Carneades to confute?
He was an ignoramus, as he did not understand
Why he should stand in fear of death: so once, when he’d a cough,
The worst of all diseases that affect the human frame,
He cared not for a remedy; but when the news did reach him,
That brave Antipater had ta’en some poison, and so died,
“Give me, said he, some stuff to drink.” “Some what?”—“Some luscious
mead.”
Moreover, he’d this saying at all times upon his lips:
“Nature did make me, and she does together keep me still;
But soon the time will come when she will pull me all to pieces.”
But still at last he yielded up the ghost: though long ago
He might have died, and so escaped the evils that befell him.
IX. It is said that at night he was not aware when lights were brought
in; and that once he ordered his servant to light the candles, and when
he had brought them in and told him, “I have brought them;” “Well then,”
said he, “read by the light of them.”
X. He had a great many other disciples; but the most eminent of them was
Clitomachus, whom we must mention presently.
XI. There was also another man of the name of Carneades, a very
indifferent elegiac poet.
LIFE OF CLITOMACHUS.