Greek Texts & Translations

Dionysius met a request of his for money with the words, "Nay, but you told me that the wise man would never be in want." To which he retorted, "Pay! Pay! and then let us discuss the question;" and when he was paid, "Now you see, do you not," said he, "that I was not found wanting?" Dionysius having repeated to him the lines:

Whoso betakes him to a prince's court

Becomes his slave, albeit of free birth, ^note

he retorted:

If a free man he come, no slave is he. ^note

This is stated by Diocles in his work On the Lives of Philosophers; other writers refer the anecdotes to Plato. After getting in a rage with Aeschines, he presently addressed him thus: "Are we not to make it up and desist from vapouring, or will you wait for some one to reconcile us over the wine-bowl?" To which he replied, "Agreed." 2.8.83 "Then remember," Aristippus went on, "that, though I am your senior, I made the first approaches." Thereupon Aeschines said, "Well done, by Hera, you are quite right; you are a much better man than I am. For the quarrel was of my beginning, you make the first move to friendship." Such are the repartees which are attributed to him.

There have been four men called Aristippus, (1) our present subject, (2) the author of a book about Arcadia, (3) the grandchild by a daughter of the first Aristippus, who was known as his mother's pupil, (4) a philosopher of the New Academy.

The following books by the Cyrenaic philosopher are in circulation: a history of Libya in three Books, sent to Dionysius; one work containing twenty-five dialogues, some written in Attic, some in Doric, as follows:

Artabazus.

To the shipwrecked.

To the Exiles.

To a Beggar.

To Laïs.

To Porus.

To Laïs, On the Mirror.

Hermias.

A Dream.

To the Master of the Revels.

Philomelus.

To his Friends.

To those who blame him for his love of old wine and of women.

To those who blame him for extravagant living.

Letter to his daughter Arete.

To one in training for Olympia.

An Interrogatory.

Another Interrogatory.

An Occasional Piece to Dionysius.

Another, On the Statue.

Another, On the daughter of Dionysius.

To one who considered himself slighted.

To one who essayed to be a counsellor.

Some also maintain that he wrote six Books of Essays; others, and among them Sosicrates of Rhodes, that he wrote none at all.

According to Sotion in his second book, and Panaetius, the following treatises are his:

On Education.

On Virtue.

Introduction to Philosophy.

Artabazus.

The Ship-wrecked.

The Exiles.

Six books of Essays.

Three books of Occasional Writings (χρεῖαι).

To Laïs.

To Porus.

To Socrates.

On Fortune.

He laid down as the end the smooth motion resulting in sensation.

Having written his life, let me now proceed to pass in review the philosophers of the Cyrenaic school which sprang from him, although some call themselves followers of Hegesias, others followers of Anniceris, others again of Theodorus. ^note Not but what we shall notice further the pupils of Phaedo, the chief of whom were called the school of Eretria. 2.8.86 The case stands thus. The disciples of Aristippus were his daughter Arete, Aethiops of Ptolemais, ^note and Antipater of Cyrene. The pupil of Arete was Aristippus, who went by the name of mother-taught, and his pupil was Theodorus, known as the atheist, subsequently as "god." Antipater's pupil was Epitimides of Cyrene, his was Paraebates, and he had as pupils Hegesias, the advocate of suicide, and Anniceris, who ransomed Plato.

Those then who adhered to the teaching of Aristippus and were known as Cyrenaics held the following opinions. They laid down that there are two states, pleasure and pain, the former a smooth, the latter a rough motion, and that pleasure does not differ from pleasure nor is one pleasure more pleasant than another. T 2.8.87 he one state is agreeable and the other repellent to all living things. However, the bodily pleasure which is the end is, according to Panaetius in his work On the Sects, not the settled pleasure following the removal of pains, or the sort of freedom from discomfort which Epicurus accepts and maintains to be the end. They also hold that there is a difference between "end" and "happiness." Our end is particular pleasure, whereas happiness is the sum total of all particular pleasures, in which are included both past and future pleasures.

Particular pleasure is desirable for its own sake, whereas happiness is desirable not for its own sake but for the sake of particular pleasures. That pleasure is the end is proved by the fact that from our youth up we are instinctively attracted to it, and, when we obtain it, seek for nothing more, and shun nothing so much as its opposite, pain. Pleasure is good even if it proceed from the most unseemly conduct, as Hippobotus says in his work On the Sects. For even if the action be irregular, still, at any rate, the resultant pleasure is desirable for its own sake and is good.