| Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (English) (XML Header) [word count] [lemma count] [Diog. Laert.]. | ||
| <<Diog. Laert. 5.5.77 | Diog. Laert. 5.5.85 (Greek) | >>Diog. Laert. 5.6.92 |
His style is philosophical, with an admixture of rhetorical vigour and force. When he heard that the Athenians had destroyed his statues, "That they may do," said he, "but the merits which caused them to be erected they cannot destroy." He used to say that the eyebrows formed but a small part of the face, and yet they can darken the whole of life by the scorn they express. Again, he said that not only was Plutus blind, but his guide, Fortune, as well; that all that steel could achieve in war was won in politics by eloquence. On seeing a young dandy, "There," quoth he, "is a four-square Hermes for you, with trailing robe, belly, beard and all." note When men are haughty and arrogant, he declared we should cut down their tall stature and leave them their spirit unimpaired. Children should honour their parents at home, out-of-doors everyone they meet, and in solitude themselves.
5.5.83 In prosperity friends do not leave you unless desired, whereas in adversity they stay away of their own accord. All these sayings seem to be set down to his credit.There have been twenty noteworthy men called Demetrius: (1) a rhetorician of Chalcedon, older than Thrasymachus; (2) the subject of this notice; (3) a Peripatetic of Byzantium; (4) one called the graphic writer, clear in narrative; he was also a painter; (5) a native of Aspendus, a pupil of Apollonius of Soli; (6) a native of Callatis, who wrote a geography of Asia and Europe in twenty books; (7) a Byzantine, who wrote a history of the migration of the Gauls from Europe into Asia in thirteen books, and another work in eight books dealing with Antiochus and Ptolemy and their settlement of Libya;
5.5.84 (8) the sophist who lived at Alexandria, author of handbooks of rhetoric; (9) a grammarian of Adramyttium, surnamed Ixion because he was thought to be unjust to Hera; (10) a grammarian of Cyrene, surnamed Wine-jar, an eminent man; (11) a native of Scepsis, a man of wealth and good birth, ardently devoted to learning; he was also the means of bringing his countryman Metrodorus into prominence; (12) a grammarian of Erythrae enrolled as a citizen of Mnos; (13) a Bithynian, son of Diphilus the Stoic and pupil of Panaetius of Rhodes; 5.5.85 (14) a rhetorician of Smyrna. The foregoing were prose authors. Of poets bearing this name the first belonged to the Old Comedy; the second was an epic poet whose lines to the envious alone survive:While he lives they scorn the man whom they regret when he is gone; yet, some day, for the honour of his tomb and lifeless image, contention seizes cities and the people set up strife;
the third of Tarsus, writer of satires; the fourth, a writer of lampoons, in a bitter style; the fifth, a sculptor mentioned by Polemo; the sixth, of Erythrae, a versatile man, who also wrote historical and rhetorical works.
Heraclides, son of Euthyphro, born at Heraclea in the Pontus, was a wealthy man. At Athens he first attached himself to Speusippus. He also attended the lectures of the Pythagoreans and admired the writings of Plato. Last of all he became a pupil of Aristotle, as Sotion says in his Successions of Philosophers. note He wore fine soft clothes, and he was extremely corpulent, which made the Athenians call him Pompicus rather than Ponticus. He was mild and dignified of aspect. Works by him survive of great beauty and excellence. There are ethical dialogues:
Of Justice, three books.
Of Temperance, one book.
Of Piety, five books.
Of Courage, one book.
Of Virtue in general, one book.
A second with the same title.
Of Happiness, one book.
5.6.87Of Government, one book.
On Laws, one book, and on subjects kindred to these.
Of Names, one book.
Agreements, one book.
On the Involuntary, one book.
Concerning Love, and Clinias, one book.
Others are physical treatises:
Of Reason.
Of the Soul, and a separate treatise with the same title.
Of Nature.
Of Images.
Against Democritus.
Of Celestial Phenomena, one book
Of Things in the Under-world.
On Various Ways of Life, two books.
The Causes of Diseases, one book.
Of the Good, one book.
Against Zeno's Doctrines, one book.
A Reply to Metron's Doctrines, one book.
To grammar and criticism belong:
Of the Age of Homer and Hesiod, two books
Of Archilochus and Homer, two books.
Of a literary nature are:
A work on passages in Euripides and Sophocles, three books.
On Music, two books.
5.6.88Solutions of Homeric Problems, two books.
Of Theorems, one book.
On the Three Tragic Poets, one book.
Characters, one book.
Of Poetry and Poets, one book.
Of Conjecture, one book.
Concerning Prevision, one book.
Expositions of Heraclitus, four books.
Expositions in Reply to Democritus, one book.
Solutions of Eristic Problems, two books.
Logical Proposition, one book.
Of Species, one book.
Solutions, one book.
Admonitions, one book.
A Reply to Dionysius, one book.
To rhetoric belongs:
Of Public Speaking, or Protagoras.
To history:
On the Pythagoreans.
Of Discoveries.
Some of these works are in the style of comedy, for instance the tracts On Pleasure and On Temperance; others in the style of tragedy, as the books entitled Of those in Hades, Of Piety, and Of Authority.
Again, he has a sort of intermediate style of conversation which he employs when philosophers, generals and statesmen converse with each other.
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