Greek Texts & Translations

Onesicritus some report to have been an Aeginetan, but Demetrius of Magnesia says that he was a native of Astypalaea. He too was one of the distinguished pupils of Diogenes. His career seems to have resembled that of Xenophon ; for Xenophon joined the expedition of Cyrus, Onesicritus that of Alexander ; and the former wrote the Cyropaedia, or Education of Cyrus, while the latter has described how Alexander was educated : the one a laudation of Cyrus, the other of Alexander. And in their diction they are not unlike : except that Onesicritus, as is to be expected in an imitator, falls short of his model.

Amongst other pupils of Diogenes were Menander, who was nicknamed Drymus or "Oakwood," a great admirer of Homer ; Hegesias of Sinope, nicknamed "Dog-collar" ; and Philiscus of Aegina mentioned above.