The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
I am a brazen maiden lying here
Upon the tomb of Midas. And as long
As water flows, as trees are green with leaves
As the sun shines and eke the silver moon,
As long as rivers flow, and billows roar,
So long will I upon this much wept tomb,
Tell passers by, “Midas lies buried here.”
And as an evidence of this epigram being by him they quote a song of
Simonides, which runs thus:—
What men possessed of sense
Would ever praise the Lindian Cleobulus?
Who could compare a statue made by man
To everflowing streams,
To blushing flowers of spring,
To the sun’s rays, to beams o’ the golden morn,
And to the ceaseless waves of mighty Ocean?
All things are trifling when compared to God.
While men beneath their hands can crush a stone;
So that such sentiments can only come from fools.
And the epigram cannot possibly be by Homer, for he lived many years, as
it is said, before Midas.
III. There is also the following enigma quoted in the Commentaries of
Pamphila, as the work of Cleobulus:—
There was one father and he had twelve daughters,
Each of his daughters had twice thirty children.
But most unlike in figure and complexion;
For some were white, and others black to view,
And though immortal they all taste of death.
And the solution is, “the year.”
IV. Of his apophthegms, the following are the most celebrated. Ignorance
and talkativeness bear the chief sway among men. Opportunity will be the
most powerful. Cherish not a thought. Do not be fickle, or ungrateful.
He used to say too, that men ought to give their daughters in marriage
while they were girls in age, but women in sense; as indicating by this
that girls ought to be well educated. Another of his sayings was, that
one ought to serve a friend that he may become a greater friend; and an
enemy, to make him a friend. And that one ought to guard against giving
one’s friends occasion to blame one, and one’s enemies opportunity of
plotting against one. Also, when a man goes out of his house, he should
consider what he is going to do: and when he comes home again he should
consider what he has done. He used also to advise men to keep their
bodies in health by exercise.—To be fond of hearing rather than of
talking.—To be fond of learning rather than unwilling to learn.—To speak
well of people.—To seek virtue and eschew vice.—To avoid injustice.—To
give the best advice in one’s power to one’s country.—To be superior to
pleasure.—To do nothing by force.—To instruct one’s children.—To be
ready for reconciliation after quarrels.—Not to caress one’s wife, nor to
quarrel with her when strangers are present, for that to do the one is a
sign of folly, and to do the latter is downright madness.—Not to chastise
a servant while elated with drink, for so doing one will appear to be
drunk one’s self.—To marry from among one’s equals, for if one takes a
wife of a higher rank than one’s self, one will have one’s connexions
for one’s masters.—Not to laugh at those who are being reproved, for so
one will be detested by them.—Be not haughty when prosperous.—Be not
desponding when in difficulties.—Learn to bear the changes of fortune
with magnanimity.
V And he died at a great age, having lived seventy years, and this
inscription was put over him:—
His country, Lindus, this fair sea-girt city
Bewails wise Cleobulus here entombed.
VI. One of his sayings was, “Moderation is the best thing.” He also wrote
a letter to Solon in these terms:—
CLEOBULUS TO SOLON.
You have many friends, and a home everywhere, but yet I think that Lindus
will be the most agreeable habitation for Solon, since it enjoys a
democratic government, and it is a maritime island, and whoever dwells in
it has nothing to fear from Pisistratus, and you will have friends flock
to you from all quarters.
LIFE OF PERIANDER.
I. Periander was a Corinthian, the son of Cypselus, of the family of
the Heraclidæ. He married Lyside (whom he himself called Melissa), the
daughter of Procles the tyrant of Epidaurus, and of Eristhenea the
daughter of Aristocrates, and sister of Aristodemus, who governed nearly
all Arcadia, as Heraclides Ponticus says in his Treatise on Dominion
and had by her two sons Cypselus and Lycophron, the younger of whom was
clever boy, but the elder was deficient in intellect. At a subsequent
period he in a rage either kicked or threw his wife down stairs when
she was pregnant, and so killed her, being wrought upon by the false
accusations of his concubines, whom he afterwards burnt alive. And the
child, whose name was Lycophron, he sent away to Corcyra because he
grieved for his mother.
II. But afterwards, when he was now extremely old, he sent for him back
again, in order that he might succeed to the tyranny. But the Corcyreans,
anticipating his intention, put him to death, at which he was greatly
enraged, and sent their children to Corcyra to be made eunuchs of; and
when the ship came near to Samos, the youths, having made supplications
to Juno, were saved by the Samians. And he fell into despondency and
died, being eighty years old. Sosicrates says that he died forty-one
years before Crœsus, in the last year of the forty-eighth Olympiad.
Herodotus, in the first book of his History, says that he was connected
by ties of hospitality with Thrasybulus the tyrant of Miletus. And
Aristippus, in the first book of his Treatise on Ancient Luxury, tells
the following story of him; that his mother Cratea fell in love with
him, and introduced herself secretly into his bed; and he was delighted;
but when the truth was discovered he became very oppressive to all his
subjects, because he was grieved at the discovery. Ephorus relates that
he made a vow that, if he gained the victory at Olympia in the chariot
race, he would dedicate a golden statue to the God. Accordingly he
gained the victory; but being in want of gold, and seeing the women at
some national festival beautifully adorned, he took away their golden
ornaments, and then sent the offering which he had vowed.
III. But some writers say that he was anxious that his tomb should not be
known, and that with that object he adopted the following contrivance. He
ordered two young men to go out by night, indicating a particular road by
which they were to go, and to kill the first man they met, and bury him;
after them he sent out four other men who were to kill and bury them.
Again he sent out a still greater number against these four, with similar
instructions. And in this manner he put himself in the way of the first
pair, and was slain, and the Corinthians erected a cenotaph over him with
the following inscription:—
The sea-beat land of Corinth in her bosom,
Doth here embrace her ruler Periander,
Greatest of all men for his wealth and wisdom.
We ourselves have also written an epigram upon him:—
Grieve not when disappointed of a wish,
But be content with what the Gods may give you—
For the great Periander died unhappy,
At failing in an object he desired.
IV. It was a saying of his that we ought not to do anything for the sake
of money; for that we ought only to acquire such gains as are allowable.
He composed apophthegms in verse to the number of two thousand lines;
and said that those who wished to wield absolute power in safety, should
be guarded by the good will of their countrymen, and not by arms. And
once being asked why he assumed tyrannical power, he replied, “Because,
to abdicate it voluntarily, and to have it taken from one, are both
dangerous.” The following sayings also belong him:—Tranquillity is
a good thing.—Rashness is dangerous.—Gain is disgraceful.—Democracy
is better than tyranny.—Pleasures are transitory, but honour is
immortal.—Be moderate when prosperous, but prudent when unfortunate.—Be
the same to your friends when they are prosperous, and when they
are unfortunate.—Whatever you agree to do, observe.—Do not divulge
secrets.—Punish not only those who do wrong, but those who intend to do
so.
V. This prince was the first who had body-guards, and who changed a
legitimate power into a tyranny; and he would not allow any one who chose
to live in his city, as Euphorus and Aristotle tell us.
VI. And he flourished about the thirty-eighth Olympiad, and enjoyed
absolute power for forty years. But Sotion, and Heraclides, and
Pamphila, in the fifth book of her Commentaries, says that there were
two Perianders; the one a tyrant, and the other a wise man, and a native
of Ambracia. And Neanthes of Cyzicus makes the same assertion, adding,
that the two men were cousins to one another. And Aristotle says, that it
was the Corinthian Periander who was the wise one; but Plato contradicts
him. The saying—“Practice does everything,” is his. He it was, also, who
proposed to cut through the Isthmus.
VII. The following letter of his is quoted:—
PERIANDER TO THE WISE MEN.
I give great thanks to Apollo of Delphi that my letters are able to
determine you all to meet together at Corinth; and I will receive you
all, as you may be well assured, in a manner that becomes free citizens.
I hear also that last year you met at Sardis, at the court of the King
of Lydia. So now do not hesitate to come to me, who am the tyrant of
Corinth; for the Corinthians will all be delighted to see you come to the
house of Periander.
VIII. There is this letter too:—
PERIANDER TO PROCLES.
The injury of my wife was unintended by me; and you have done wrong in
alienating from me the mind of my child. I desire you, therefore, either
to restore me to my place in his affections, or I will revenge myself on
you; for I have myself made atonement for the death of your daughter, by
burning in her tomb the clothes of all the Corinthian women.[16]
IX. Thrasybulus also wrote him a letter in the following terms:—
I have given no answer to your messenger; but having taken him into a
field, I struck with my walking-stick all the highest ears of corn, and
cut off their tops, while he was walking with me. And he will report to
you, if you ask him, everything which he heard or saw while with me; and
do you act accordingly if you wish to preserve your power safely, taking
off the most eminent of the citizens, whether he seems an enemy to you or
not, as even his companions are deservedly objects of suspicion to a man
possessed of supreme power.
LIFE OF ANACHARSIS, THE SCYTHIAN.
I. Anacharsis the Scythian was the son of Gnurus, and the brother of
Caduides the king of the Scythians; but his mother was a Grecian woman;
owing to which circumstance he understood both languages.
II. He wrote about the laws existing among the Scythians, and also about
those in force among the Greeks, urging men to adopt a temperate course
of life; and he wrote also about war, his works being in verse, and
amounting to eight hundred lines. He gave occasion for a proverb, because
he used great freedom of speech, so that people called such freedom the
Scythian conversation.
III. But Sosicrates says that he came to Athens in the forty-seventh
Olympiad, in the archonship of Eucrates. And Hermippus asserts that he
came to Solon’s house, and ordered one of the servants to go and tell
his master that Anacharsis was come to visit him, and was desirous to
see him, and, if possible, to enter into relations of hospitality with
him. But when the servant had given the message, he was ordered by Solon
to reply him that, “Men generally limited such alliances to their own
countrymen.” In reply to this Anacharsis entered the house, and told
the servant that now he was in Solon’s country, and that it was quite
consistent for them to become connected with one another in this way. On
this, Solon admired the readiness of the man, and admitted him, and made