The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
most capable of holding the school together. And I entreat the rest of
my friends to acquiesce in their election, for my sake and that of the
place. And I desire that Bulon, and Callinus, and the rest of my friends
will manage my funeral and the burning of my body, so that my obsequies
may not be either mean or extravagant. And the property which I have in
Ægina shall be divided by Lycon after my decease among the young men
there, for the purpose of anointing themselves, in order that the memory
of me and of him who honoured me, and who showed his affection by useful
presents, may be long preserved. And let him erect a statue of me; and as
for the place for it, I desire that Diophantus and Heraclides the son of
Demetrius, shall select that, and take care that it be suitable for the
proposed erection. With the property that I have in the city let Lycon
pay all the people of whom I have borrowed anything since his departure;
and let Bulon and Callinus join him in this, and also in discharging
all the expenses incurred for my funeral, and for all other customary
solemnities, and let him deduct the amount from the funds which I have
left in my house, and bequeathed to them both in common. Let him also
pay the physicians, Pasithemis and Medias, men who, for their attention
to me and for their skill, are very deserving of still greater honour.
And I give to the son of Callinus my pair of Thericlean cups; and to his
wife I give my pair of Rhodian cups, and my smooth carpet, and my double
carpet, and my curtains, and the two best pillows of all that I leave
behind me; so that as far as the compliment goes, I may be seen not to
have forgotten them. And with respect to those who have been my servants,
I make the following disposition:—To Demetrius who has long been freed,
I remit the price of his freedom, and I further give five minæ, and a
cloak, and a tunic, that as he has a great deal of trouble about me, he
may pass the rest of his life comfortably. To Criton, the Chalcedonian,
I also remit the price of his freedom, and I further give him four minæ.
Micrus I hereby present with his freedom; and I desire Lycon to maintain
him, and instruct him for six years from the present time. I also give
his freedom to Chares, and desire Lycon to maintain him. And I further
give him two minæ, and all my books that are published; but those which
are not published, I give to Callinus, that he may publish them with
due care. I also give to Syrus, whom I have already emancipated, four
minæ, and Menodora; and if he owes me anything I acquit him of the debt.
And I give to Hilaras four minæ, and a double carpet, and two pillows,
and a curtain, and any couch which he chooses to select. I also hereby
emancipate the mother of Micrus, and Noemon, and Dion, and Theon, and
Euphranor, and Hermeas; and I desire that Agathon shall have his freedom
when he has served two years longer; and that Ophelion, and Poseideon, my
litter-bearers, shall have theirs when they have waited four years more.
I also give to Demetrius, and Criton, and Syrus, a couch a piece, and
coverlets from those which I leave behind me, according to the selection
which Lycon is hereby authorised to make. And these are to be their
rewards for having performed the duties to which they were appointed
well. Concerning my burial, let Lycon do as he pleases, and bury me
here or at home, just as he likes; for I am sure that he has the same
regard for propriety that I myself have. And I give all the things herein
mentioned, in the confidence that he will arrange everything properly.
The witnesses to this my will are Callinus of Hermione, Ariston of Ceos,
and Euphronius of Pæania.”
As he then was thoroughly wise in everything relating to education,
and every branch of philosophy, he was no less prudent and careful in
the framing of his will. So that in this respect too he deserves to be
admired and imitated.
LIFE OF DEMETRIUS.
I. Demetrius was a native of Phalerus, and the son of Phanostratus. He
was a pupil of Theophrastus.
II. And as a leader of the people at Athens he governed the city for ten
years, and was honoured with three hundred and sixty brazen statues, the
greater part of which were equestrian; and some were placed in carriages
or in pair-horse chariots, and the entire number were finished within
three hundred days, so great was the zeal with which they were worked at.
And Demetrius, the Magnesian, in his treatise on People of the same Name,
says that he began to be the leader of the commonwealth, when Harpalus
arrived in Athens, having fled from Alexander. And he governed his
country for a long time in a most admirable manner. For he aggrandised
the city by increased revenues and by new buildings, although he was a
person of no distinction by birth.
III. Though Phavorinus, in the first book of his Commentaries, asserts
that he was of the family of Conon.
IV. He lived with a citizen of noble birth, named Lamia, as his mistress,
as the same author tells us in his first book.
V. Again, in his second book he tells us that Demetrius was the slave of
the debaucheries of Cleon.
VI. Didymus, in his Banquets, says that he was called χαριτοβλέφαρος, or
Beautiful Eyed, and Lampeto, by some courtesan.
VII. It is said that he lost his eye-sight in Alexandria, and recovered
it again by the favour of Serapis; on which account he composed the pæans
which are sung and spoken of as his composition to this day.
VIII. He was held in the greatest honour among the Athenians, but
nevertheless, he found his fame darkened by envy, which attacks every
thing; for he was impeached by some one on a capital charge, and as
he did not appear, he was condemned. His accusers, however, did not
become masters of his person, but expended their venom on the brass,
tearing down his statues and selling some and throwing others into the
sea, and some they cut up into chamber-pots. For even this is stated.
And one statue alone of him is preserved which is in the Acropolis.
But Phavorinus in his Universal History, says that the Athenians
treated Demetrius in this manner at the command of the king; and they
also impeached him as guilty of illegality in his administration, as
Phavorinus says. But Hermippus says, that after the death of Cassander,
he feared the enmity of Antigonus, and on that account fled to Ptolemy
Soter; and that he remained at his court for a long time, and, among
other pieces of advice, counselled the king to make over the kingdom to
his sons by Eurydice. And as he would not agree to this measure, but gave
the crown to his son by Berenice, this latter, after the death of his
father, commanded Demetrius to be kept in prison until he should come to
some determination about him. And there he remained in great despondency;
and while asleep on one occasion, he was bitten by an asp in the hand,
and so he died. And he is buried in the district of Busiris, near
Diospolis, and we have written the following epigram on him:—
An asp, whose tooth of venom dire was full,
Did kill the wise Demetrius.
The serpent beamed not light from out his eyes,
But dark and lurid hell.
But Heraclides, in his Epitome of the Successions of Sotion, says
that Ptolemy wished to transmit the kingdom to Philadelphus, and that
Demetrius dissuaded him from doing so by the argument, “If you give
it to another, you will not have it yourself.” And when Menander, the
comic poet, had an information laid against him at Athens (for this is
a statement which I have heard), he was very nearly convicted, for no
other reason but that he was a friend of Demetrius. He was, however,
successfully defended by Telesphorus, the son-in-law of Demetrius.
IX. In the multitude of his writings and the number of lines which they
amount to, he exceeded nearly all the Peripatetics of his day, being a
man of great learning and experience on every subject. And some of his
writings are historical, some political, some on poets, some rhetorical,
some also are speeches delivered in public assemblies or on embassies;
there are also collections of Æsop’s Fables, and many other books. There
are five volumes on the Legislation of Athens; two on Citizens of Athens;
two on the Management of the People; two on Political Science; one on
Laws; two on Rhetoric; two on Military Affairs; two on the Iliad; four on
the Odyssey; one called the Ptolemy; one on Love; the Phædondas, one; the
Mædon, one; the Cleon, one; the Socrates, one; the Artaxerxes, one; the
Homeric, one; the Aristides, one; the Aristomachus, one; the Exhortatory,
one; one on the Constitution; one on his Ten Years’ Government; one on
the Ionians; one on Ambassadors; one on Good Faith; one on Gratitude; one
on Futurity; one on Greatness of Soul; one on Marriage; one on Opinion;
one on Peace; one on Laws; one on Studies; one on Opportunity; the
Dionysius, one; the Chalcidean, one; the Maxims of the Athenians, one;
on Antiphanes, one; a Historic Preface, one; one Volume of Letters; one
called an Assembly on Oath; one on Old Age; one on Justice; one volume of
Æsop’s Fables; one of Apophthegms. His style is philosophical, combined
with the energy and impressiveness of an orator.
X. When he was told that the Athenians had thrown down his statues, he
said, “But they have not thrown down my virtues, on account of which they
erected them.” He used to say that the eyebrows were not an insignificant
part of a man, for that they were able to overshadow the whole life.
Another of his sayings was that it was not Plutus alone who was blind,
but Fortune also, who acted as his guide. Another, that reason had as
much influence on government, as steel had in war. On one occasion, when
he saw a debauched young man, he said, “There is a square Mercury with a
long robe, a belly, and a beard.” It was a favourite saying of his, that
in the case of men elated with pride one ought to cut something off their
height, and leave them their spirit. Another of his apophthegms was, that
at home young men ought to show respect to their parents, and in the
streets to every one whom they met, and in solitary places to themselves.
Another, that friends ought to come to others in good fortune only when
invited, but to those in distress of their own accord.
These are the chief sayings attributed to him.
XI. There were twenty persons of the name of Demetrius, of sufficient
consideration to be entitled to mention. First, a Chalcedonian, an
orator, older than Thrasymachus; the second, this person of whom we are
speaking; the third was a Byzantine, a Peripatetic philosopher; the
fourth was a man surnamed Graphicus, a very eloquent lecturer, and also
a painter; the fifth was a native of Aspendus, a disciple of Apollonius,
of Soli; the sixth was a native of Calatia, who wrote twenty books about
Asia and Europe; the seventh was a Byzantine, who wrote an account of
the crossing of the Gauls from Europe into Asia, in thirteen books, and
the History of Antiochus and Ptolemy, and their Administration of the
Affairs of Africa, in eight more; the eighth was a Sophist who lived
in Alexandria, and who wrote a treatise on Rhetorical Art; the ninth
was a native of Adramyttium, a grammarian, who was nick-named Ixion,
in allusion to some crime he had committed against Juno; the tenth
was a Cyrenean, a grammarian, who was surnamed Stamnus,[51] a very
distinguished man; the eleventh was a Scepsian, a rich man of noble
birth, and of great eminence for learning. He it was who advanced the
fortunes of Metrodorus his fellow citizen; the twelfth was a grammarian
of Erythræ, who was made a citizen of Lemnos; the thirteenth was a
Bithynian, a son of Diphilus the Stoic, and a disciple of Panætius of
Rhodes; the fourteenth was an orator of Smyrna. All of these were prose
writers.