The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
it is not an abuse of language to call that a sect of philosophy at all,
instead of, as some contend it should be termed, a mere system of life.
They wished to abolish the whole system of logic and natural philosophy,
like Aristo of Chios, and thought that men should study nothing but
ethics; and what some people assert of Socrates was described by Diocles
as a characteristic of Diogenes, for he said that his doctrine was, that
a man ought to investigate—
Only the good and ill that taketh place
Within our houses.
They also discard all liberal studies. Accordingly, Antisthenes said that
wise men only applied themselves to literature and learning for the sake
of perverting others; they also wish to abolish geometry and music, and
everything of that kind. Accordingly, Diogenes said once to a person who
was showing him a clock; “It is a very useful thing to save a man from
being too late for supper.” And once when a man made an exhibition of
musical skill before him, he said:—
“Cities are governed, so are houses too,
By wisdom, not by harp-playing and whistling.”[80]
Their doctrine is, that the chief good of mankind is to live according to
virtue, as Antisthenes says in his Hercules, in which they resemble the
Stoics. For those two sects have a good deal in common with one another,
on which account they themselves say that cynicism is a short road to
virtue; and Zeno, the Cittiæan lived in the same manner.
They also teach that men ought to live simply, using only plain food in
moderate quantities, wearing nothing but a cloak, and despising riches,
and glory, and nobleness of birth; accordingly some of them feed upon
nothing beyond herbs and cold water, living in any shelter that they can
find, or in tubs as Diogenes did; for he used to say that it was the
peculiar property of the Gods to want nothing, and that, therefore, when
a man wished for nothing he was like the Gods.
Another of their doctrines is, that virtue is a thing which may be
taught, as Antisthenes affirms in his Heraclides; and that when it has
once been attained it can never be lost. They also say that the wise
man deserves to be loved, and cannot commit error, and is a friend to
every one who resembles him, and that he leaves nothing to fortune. And
everything which is unconnected with either virtue or vice they call
indifferent, agreeing in this with Aristo, the Chian.
These then were the Cynics; and now we must pass on to the Stoics, of
which sect the founder was Zeno, who had been a disciple of Crates.
BOOK VII.
LIFE OF ZENO.
I. Zeno was the son of Mnaseas, or Demeas, and a native of Citium, in
Cyprus, which is a Grecian city, partly occupied by a Phœnician colony.
II. He had his head naturally bent on one side, as Timotheus, the
Athenian, tells us, in his work on Lives. And Apollonius, the Tyrian,
says that he was thin, very tall, of a dark complexion; in reference
to which some one once called him an Egyptian Clematis, as Chrysippus
relates in the first volume of his Proverbs: he had fat, flabby, weak
legs, on which account Persæus, in his Convivial Reminiscences, says that
he used to refuse many invitations to supper; and he was very fond, as it
is said, of figs both fresh and dried in the sun.
III. He was a pupil, as has been already stated, of Crates. After that,
they say that he became a pupil of Stilpon and of Xenocrates, for ten
years, as Timocrates relates in his Life of Dion. He is also said to have
been a pupil of Polemo. But Hecaton, and Apollonius, of Tyre, in the
first book of his essay on Zeno, say that when he consulted the oracle,
as to what he ought to do to live in the most excellent manner, the God
answered him that he ought to become of the same complexion as the dead,
on which he inferred that he ought to apply himself to the reading of the
books of the ancients. Accordingly, he attached himself to Crates in the
following manner. Having purchased a quantity of purple from Phœnicia,
he was shipwrecked close to the Piræus; and when he had made his way
from the coast as far as Athens, he sat down by a bookseller’s stall,
being now about thirty years of age. And as he took up the second book
of Xenophon’s Memorabilia and began to read it, he was delighted with
it, and asked where such men as were described in that book lived; and
as Crates happened very seasonably to pass at the moment, the bookseller
pointed him out, and said, “Follow that man.” From that time forth
he became a pupil of Crates; but though he was in other respects very
energetic in his application to philosophy, still he was too modest for
the shamelessness of the Cynics. On which account, Crates, wishing to
cure him of this false shame, gave him a jar of lentil porridge to carry
through the Ceramicus; and when he saw that he was ashamed, and that he
endeavoured to hide it, he struck the jar with his staff, and broke it;
and, as Zeno fled away, and the lentil porridge ran all down his legs,
Crates called after him, “Why do you run away, my little Phœnician,
you have done no harm?” For some time then he continued a pupil of
Crates, and when he wrote his treatise entitled the Republic, some said,
jokingly, that he had written it upon the tail of the dog.
IV. And besides his Republic, he was the author also of the following
works:—a treatise on a Life according to Nature; one on Appetite, or the
Nature of Man; one on Passions; one on the Becoming; one on Law; one on
the usual Education of the Greeks; one on Sight; one on the Whole; one
on Signs; one on the Doctrines of the Pythagoreans; one on Things in
General; one on Styles; five essays on Problems relating to Homer; one
on the Bearing of the Poets. There is also an essay on Art by him, and
two books of Solutions and Jests, and Reminiscences, and one called the
Ethics of Crates. These are the books of which he was the author.
V. But at last he left Crates, and became the pupil of the philosophers
whom I have mentioned before, and continued with them for twenty years.
So that it is related that he said, “I now find that I made a prosperous
voyage when I was wrecked.” But some affirm that he made this speech in
reference to Crates. Others say, that while he was staying at Athens he
heard of a shipwreck, and said, “Fortune does well in having driven us on
philosophy.” But as some relate the affair, he was not wrecked at all,
but sold all his cargo at Athens, and then turned to philosophy.
VI. And he used to walk up and down in the beautiful colonnade which is
called the Peisianactium, and which is also called ποικίλη, from the
paintings of Polygnotus, and there he delivered his discourses, wishing
to make that spot tranquil; for in the time of the thirty, nearly
fourteen hundred of the citizens had been murdered there by them.
VII. Accordingly, for the future, men came thither to hear him, and from
this his pupils were called Stoics, and so were his successors also, who
had been at first called Zenonians, as Epicurus tells us in his Epistles.
And before this time, the poets who frequented this colonnade (στοὰ) had
been called Stoics, as we are informed by Eratosthenes, in the eighth
book of his treatise on the Old Comedy; but now Zeno’s pupils made the
name more notorious. Now the Athenians had a great respect for Zeno, so
that they gave him the keys of their walls, and they also honoured him
with a golden crown, and a brazen statue; and this was also done by his
own countrymen, who thought the statue of such a man an honour to their
city. And the Cittiæans, in the district of Sidon, also claimed him as
their countryman.
VIII. He was also much respected by Antigonus, who, whenever he came to
Athens, used to attend his lectures, and was constantly inviting him to
come to him. But he begged off himself, and sent Persæus, one of his
intimate friends, who was the son of Demetrius, and a Cittiæan by birth,
and who flourished about the hundred and thirtieth olympiad, when Zeno
was an old man. The letter of Antigonus to Zeno was as follows, and it is
reported by Apollonius, the Syrian, in his essay on Zeno.
KING ANTIGONUS TO ZENO THE PHILOSOPHER, GREETING.
“I think that in good fortune and glory I have the advantage of you; but
in reason and education I am inferior to you, and also in that perfect
happiness which you have attained to. On which account I have thought
it good to address you, and invite you to come to me, being convinced
that you will not refuse what is asked of you. Endeavour, therefore, by
all means to come to me, considering this fact, that you will not be the
instructor of me alone, but of all the Macedonians together. For he who
instructs the ruler of the Macedonians, and who leads him in the path of
virtue, evidently marshals all his subjects on the road to happiness. For
as the ruler is, so is it natural that his subjects for the most part
should be also.”
And Zeno wrote him back the following answer.
ZENO TO KING ANTIGONUS, GREETING.
“I admire your desire for learning, as being a true object for the wishes
of mankind, and one too that tends to their advantage. And the man who
aims at the study of philosophy has a proper disregard for the popular
kind of instruction which tends only to the corruption of the morals.
And you, passing by the pleasure which is so much spoken of, which
makes the minds of some young men effeminate, show plainly that you are
inclined to noble pursuits, not merely by your nature, but also by your
own deliberate choice. And a noble nature, when it has received even a
slight degree of training, and which also meets with those who will teach
it abundantly, proceeds without difficulty to a perfect attainment of
virtue. But I now find my bodily health impaired by old age, for I am
eighty years old: on which account I am unable to come to you. But I send
you some of those who have studied with me, who in that learning which
has reference to the soul, are in no respect inferior to me, and in their
bodily vigour are greatly my superiors. And if you associate with them
you will want nothing that can bear upon perfect happiness.”
So he sent him Persæus and Philonides, the Theban, both of whom are
mentioned by Epicurus, in his letter to his brother Aristobulus, as being
companions of Antigonus.
IX. And I have thought it worth while also to set down the decree of the
Athenians concerning him; and it is couched in the following language.
“In the archonship of Arrhenides, in the fifth presidency of the tribe
Acamantis, on the twenty-first day of the month Maimacterion, on the
twenty-third day of the aforesaid presidency, in a duly convened
assembly, Hippo, the son of Cratistoteles, of the borough of Xypetion,
being one of the presidents, and the rest of the presidents, his
colleagues, put the following decree to the vote. And the decree was
proposed by Thrason, of Anacæa, the son of Thrason.
“Since Zeno the son of Mnaseas, the Cittiæan, has passed many years
in the city, in the study of philosophy, being in all other respects
a good man, and also exhorting all the young men who have sought his
company to the practice of virtue, and encouraging them in the practice
of temperance; making his own life a model to all men of the greatest
excellence, since it has in every respect corresponded to the doctrines
which he has taught; it has been determined by the people (and may the
determination be fortunate), to praise Zeno, the son of Mnaseas, the
Cittiæan, and to present him with a golden crown in accordance with the
law, on account of his virtue and temperance, and to build him a tomb in
the Ceramicus, at the public expense. And the people has appointed by
its vote five men from among the citizens of Athens, who shall see to
the making of the crown and the building of the tomb. And the scribe of