BOOK IV
Chapter 1. SPEUSIPPUS (circa 407-339 B.C.)
(Head of the Academy, 347-339 B.C.)
The foregoing is the best account of Plato that we
were able to compile after a diligent examination of
the authorities. He was succeeded by Speusippus,
an Athenian and son of Eurymedon, who belonged
to the deme of Myrrhinus, and was the son of Plato's
sister Potone. He was head of the school for eight
years beginning in the 108th Olympiad.
1
He set
up statues of the Graces in the shrine of the Muses
erected by Plato in the Academy. He adhered
faithfully to Plato's doctrines. In character, however,
he was unlike him, being prone to anger and easily
overcome by pleasures. At any rate there is a story
that in a fit of passion he flung his favourite dog
into the well, and that pleasure was the sole motive
for his journey to Macedonia to be present at the
wedding-feast of Casander.
[
2]
It was said that among those who attended his
lectures were the two women who had been pupils
of Plato, Lastheneia of Mantinea and Axiothea of
Phlius. And at the time Dionysius in a letter says
derisively, "We may judge of your wisdom by the
Arcadian girl who is your pupil. And, whereas
Plato exempted from fees all who came to him, you
levy tribute on them and collect it whether they will
or no."
2 According to Diodorus in the first book of
his
Memorabilia, Speusippus was the first to
discern
the common element in all studies and to bring them
into connexion with each other so far as that was
possible.
[
3]
And according to Caeneus he was the first
to divulge what Isocrates called the secrets of his
art, and the first to devise the means by which fagots
of firewood are rendered portable.
When he was already crippled by paralysis, he
sent a message to Xenocrates entreating him to
come and take over the charge of the school.
3 They
say that, as he was being conveyed to the Academy
in a tiny carriage, he met and saluted Diogenes, who
replied, "Nay, if you can endure to live in such a
plight as this, I decline to return your greeting."
At last in old age he became so despondent that
he put an end to his life. Here follows my epigram
upon him
4:
Had I not learnt that Speusippus would die thus, no one
would have persuaded me to say that he was surely not of
Plato's blood; for else he would never have died in despair
for a trivial cause.
[
4]
Plutarch in the Lives of Lysander and Sulla makes
his malady to have been "morbus pedicularis."
5
That his body wasted away is affirmed by Timotheus
in his book
On Lives. Speusippus, he says, meeting
a rich man who was in love with one who was no
beauty, said to him, "Why, pray, are you in such
sore need of him? For ten talents I will find you a
more handsome bride."
He has left behind a vast store of memoirs and
numerous dialogues, among them:
Aristippus the Cyrenaic.
On Wealth, one book.
On Pleasure, one book.
On Justice,
On Philosophy,
On Friendship,
On the Gods,
The Philosopher,
A Reply to Cephalus,
Cephalus,
Clinomachus or Lysias,
The Citizen,
Of the Soul,
A Reply to Gryllus,
[
5]
Aristippus,
Criticism of the Arts, each in one book.
Memoirs, in the form of dialogues.
Treatise on System, in one book.
Dialogues on the Resemblances in Science, in ten
books.
Divisions and Hypotheses relating to the Resemblances.
On Typical Genera and Species.
A Reply to the Anonymous Work.
Eulogy of Plato.
Epistles to Dion, Dionysius and Philip.
On Legislation.
The Mathematician.
Mandrobolus.
Lysias.
Definitions.
Arrangements of Commentaries.
They comprise in all 43,475 lines. To him Timonides addresses his narrative in which he related the
achievements of Dion and Bion.
6 Favorinus also in
the second book of his
Memorabilia relates that
Aristotle purchased the works of Speusippus for three
talents.
There was another Speusippus, a physician of
Alexandria, of the school of Herophilus.
Chapter 2. XENOCRATES (396-314 B.C.)
(Head of the Academy 339-314 B.C.)
[
6]
Xenocrates, the son of Agathenor, was a native of
Chalcedon. He was a pupil of Plato from his earliest
youth; moreover he accompanied him on his journey
to Sicily. He was naturally slow and clumsy. Hence
Plato, comparing him to Aristotle, said, "The one
needed a spur, the other a bridle." And again,
"See what an ass I am training and what a horse
he has to run against." However, Xenocrates was
in all besides dignified and grave of demeanour,
which made Plato say to him continually, "Xenocrates, sacrifice to the Graces." He spent most of
his time in the Academy; and whenever he was going
to betake himself to the city, it is said that all the
noisy rabble and hired porters made way for him as
he passed.
[
7]
And that once the notorious Phryne
tried to make his acquaintance and, as if she were
being chased by some people, took refuge under his
roof; that he admitted her out of ordinary humanity
and, there being but one small couch in the room,
permitted her to share it with him, and at last, after
many importunities, she retired without success,
telling those who inquired that he whom she quitted
was not a man but a statue. Another version of the
story is that his pupils induced Laïs to invade his
couch; and that so great was his endurance that he
many times submitted to amputation and cautery.
His words were entirely worthy of credit, so much
so that, although it was illegal for witnesses to give
evidence unsworn, the Athenians allowed Xenocrates
alone to do so.
[
8]
Furthermore, he was extremely
independent; at all events, when Alexander sent
him a large sum of money, he took three thousand
Attic drachmas and sent back the rest to Alexander,
whose needs, he said, were greater than his own,
because he had a greater number of people to keep.
Again, he would not accept the present sent him by
Antipater, as Myronianus attests in his
Parallels.
And when he had been honoured at the court of
Dionysius with a golden crown as the prize for his
prowess in drinking at the Feast of Pitchers, he went
out and placed it on the statue of Hermes just as
he had been accustomed to place there garlands of
flowers. There is a story that, when he was sent,
along with others also, on an embassy to Philip, his
colleagues, being bribed, accepted Philip's invitations to feasts and talked with him. Xenocrates
did neither the one nor the other. Indeed on this
account Philip declined to see him.
[
9]
Hence, when
the envoys returned to Athens, they complained
that Xenocrates had accompanied them without
rendering any service. Thereupon the people were
ready to fine him. But when he told them that
now more than ever they ought to consider the
interests of the state--"for," said he, "Philip knew
that the others had accepted his bribes, but that he
would never win me over"--then the people paid
him double honours. And afterwards Philip said that,
of all who had arrived at his court, Xenocrates was
the only man whom he could not bribe. Moreover,
when he went as envoy to Antipater to plead for
Athenians taken prisoners in the Lamian war,
7
being
invited to dine with Antipater, he quoted to him
the following lines
8:
O Circe! what righteous man would have the heart to
taste meat and drink ere he had redeemed his company and
beheld them face to face?
and so pleased Antipater with his ready wit that he
at once released them.
[
10]
When a little sparrow was pursued by a hawk and
rushed into his bosom, he stroked it and let it go,
declaring that a suppliant must not be betrayed.
When bantered by Bion, he said he would make no
reply. For neither, said he, does tragedy deign to
answer the banter of comedy. To some one who had
never learnt either music or geometry or astronomy,
but nevertheless wished to attend his lectures,
Xenocrates said, "Go your ways, for you offer
philosophy nothing to lay hold of." Others report
him as saying, "It is not to me that you come for
the carding of a fleece."
[
11]
When Dionysius told Plato that he would lose his
head, Xenocrates, who was present, pointed to his
own and added, "No man shall touch it till he cut
off mine." They say too that, when Antipater came
to Athens and greeted him, he did not address him
in return until he had finished what he was saying.
He was singularly free from pride; more than once
a day he would retire into himself, and he assigned,
it is said, a whole hour to silence.
He left a very large number of treatises, poems
and addresses, of which I append a list:
On Nature, six books.
On Wisdom, six books.
On Wealth, one book.
The Arcadian, one book.
On the Indeterminate, one book.
[
12]
On the Child, one book.
On Continence, one book.
On Utility, one book.
On Freedom, one book.
On Death, one book.
9
On the Voluntary, one book.
On Friendship, two books.
On Equity, one book.
On that which is Contrary, two books.
On Happiness, two books.
On Writing, one book.
On Memory, one book.
On Falsehood, one book.
Callicles, one book.
On Prudence, two books.
The Householder, one book.
On Temperance, one book.
On the Influence of Law, one book.
On the State, one book.
On Holiness, one book.
That Virtue can be taught, one book.
On Being, one book.
On Fate, one book.
On the Emotions, one book.
On Modes of Life, one book.
On Concord, one book.
On Students, two books.
On Justice, one book.
On Virtue, two books.
On Forms, one book.
On Pleasure, two books.
On Life, one book.
On Bravery, one book.
On the One, one book.
On Ideas, one book.
[
13]
On Art, one book.
On the Gods, two books.
On the Soul, two books.
On Science, one book.
The Statesman, one book.
On Cognition, one book.
On Philosophy, one book.
On the Writings of Parmenides, one book.
Archedemus or Concerning Justice, one book.
On the Good, one book.
Things relating to the Understanding, eight
books.
Solution of Logical Problems, ten books.
Physical Lectures, six books.
Summary, one book.
On Genera and Species, one book.
Things Pythagorean, one book.
Solutions, two books.
Divisions, eight books.
Theses, in twenty books, 30,000 lines.
The Study of Dialectic, in fourteen books, 12,740
lines.
After this come fifteen books, and then sixteen
books of Studies relating to Style.
Nine books on Ratiocination.
Six books concerned with Mathematics.
Two other books entitled Things relating to the
Intellect.
On Geometers, five books.
Commentaries, one book.
Contraries, one book.
On Numbers, one book.
Theory of Numbers, one book.
On Dimensions, one book.
On Astronomy, six books.
[
14]
Elementary Principles of Monarchy, in four books,
dedicated to Alexander.
To Arybas.
To Hephaestion.
On Geometry, two books.
These works comprise in all 224,239 lines.
Such was his character, and yet, when he was
unable to pay the tax levied on resident aliens, the
Athenians put him up for sale. And Demetrius of
Phalerum purchased him, thereby making twofold
restitution, to Xenocrates of his liberty, and to
the Athenians of their tax. This we learn from
Myronianus of Amastris in the first book of his
Chapters on Historical Parallels. He succeeded
Speusippus and was head of the school for twenty-five
years from the archonship of Lysimachides, beginning
in the second year of the 110th Olympiad.
10 He died
in his 82nd year from the effects of a fall over some
utensil in the night.
Upon him I have expressed myself as follows
11:
[
15]
Xenocrates, that type of perfect manliness, stumbled over
a vessel of bronze and broke his head, and, with a loud cry,
expired.
There have been six other men named Xenocrates:
(1) a tactician in very ancient times; (2) the kinsman
and fellow-citizen of the philosopher: a speech by
him is extant entitled the Arsinoëtic, treating of a
certain deceased Arsinoë
12; (4) a philosopher and
not very successful writer of elegies; it is a remarkable fact that poets succeed when they undertake
to write prose, but prose-writers who essay poetry
come to grief; whereby it is clear that the one is a
gift of nature and the other of art; (5) a sculptor;
(6) a writer of songs mentioned by Aristoxenus.
Chapter 3. POLEMO
(Head of the Academy from 314 to c. 276 B.C.)
[
16]
Polemo, the son of Philostratus, was an Athenian
who belonged to the deme of Oea. In his youth he
was so profligate and dissipated that he actually
carried about with him money to procure the immediate gratification of his desires, and would even
keep sums concealed in lanes and alleys.
13
Even in
the Academy a piece of three obols was found close
to a pillar, where he had buried it for the same
purpose. And one day, by agreement with his
young friends, he burst into the school of Xenocrates
quite drunk, with a garland on his head. Xenocrates,
however, without being at all disturbed, went on
with his discourse as before, the subject being
temperance. The lad, as he listened, by degrees
was taken in the toils. He became so industrious
as to surpass all the other scholars, and rose to be
himself head of the school in the 116th Olympiad.
14
[
17]
Antigonus of Carystus in his
Biographies says
that
his father was foremost among the citizens and kept
horses to compete in the chariot-race; that Polemo
himself had been defendant in an action brought by
his wife, who charged him with cruelty owing to the
irregularities of his life; but that, from the time
when he began to study philosophy, he acquired
such strength of character as always to maintain the
same unruffled calm of demeanour. Nay more, he
never lost control of his voice. This in fact accounts
for the fascination which he exercised over Crantor.
15
Certain it is that, when a mad dog bit him in the
back of his thigh, he did not even turn pale, but
remained undisturbed by all the clamour which
arose in the city at the news of what had happened.
In the theatre too he was singularly unmoved.
[
18]
For
instance, Nicostratus, who was nicknamed Clytemnestra, was once reading to him and Crates something from Homer; and, while Crates was deeply
affected, he was no more moved than if he had
not heard him. Altogether he was a man such as
Melanthius the painter describes in his work
On
Painting. There he says that a certain wilfulness
and stubbornness should be stamped on works of
art, and that the same holds good of character.
Polemo used to say that we should exercise ourselves with facts and not with mere logical speculations, which leave us, like a man who has got by
heart some paltry handbook on harmony but never
practised, able, indeed, to win admiration for skill
in asking questions, but utterly at variance with
ourselves in the ordering of our lives.
He was, then, refined and generous, and would beg
to be excused, in the words of Aristophanes about
Euripides, the "acid, pungent style,"
[
19]
which, as the
same author says, is "strong seasoning for meat when
it is high."
16 Further, he would not,
they say, even
sit down to deal with the themes of his pupils, but
would argue walking up and down. It was, then,
for his love of what is noble that he was honoured
in the state. Nevertheless would he withdraw from
society
17
and confine himself to the Garden of the
Academy, while close by his scholars made themselves little huts and lived not far from the shrine of
the Muses and the lecture-hall. It would seem that
in all respects Polemo emulated Xenocrates. And
Aristippus in the fourth book of his work
On the
Luxury of the Ancients affirms him to have been his
favourite. Certainly he always kept his predecessor
before his mind and, like him, wore that simple
austere dignity which is proper to the Dorian mode.
[
20]
He loved Sophocles, particularly in those passages
where it seemed as if, in the phrase of the comic
poet,
A stout Molossian mastiff lent him aid,
and where the poet was, in the words of Phrynichus,
18
Nor must, nor blended vintage, but true Pramnian.
Thus he would call Homer the Sophocles of epic, and
Sophocles the Homer of tragedy
He died at an advanced age of gradual decay,
leaving behind him a considerable number of works.
I have composed the following epigram upon him
19:
Dost thou not hear? We have buried Polemo, laid here
by that fatal scourge of wasted strength. Yet not Polemo,
but merely his body, which on his way to the stars he left
to moulder in the ground.
Chapter 4. CRATES (of Athens)
(Head of the Academy in third century B.C.)
[
21]
Crates, whose father was Antigenes, was an
Athenian belonging to the deme of Thria. He was
a pupil and at the same time a favourite of Polemo,
whom he succeeded in the headship of the school.
The two were so much attached to each other that
they not only shared the same pursuits in life but
grew more and more alike to their latest breath, and,
dying, shared the same tomb. Hence Antagoras,
writing of both, employed this figure
20:
Passing stranger, say that in this tomb rest godlike
Crates and Polemo, men magnanimous in concord, from
whose inspired lips flowed sacred speech, and whose pure
life of wisdom, in accordance with unswerving tenets, decked
them for a bright immortality.
[
22]
Hence Arcesilaus, who had quitted Theophrastus
and gone over to their school, said of them that they
were gods or a remnant of the Golden Age. They
did not side with the popular party, but were such
as Dionysodorus the flute-player is said to have
claimed to be, when he boasted that no one ever
heard his melodies, as those of Ismenias were heard,
either on shipboard or at the fountain. According
to Antigonus, their common table was in the house
of Crantor; and these two and Arcesilaus lived in
harmony together. Arcesilaus and Crantor shared
the same house, while Polemo and Crates lived with
Lysicles, one of the citizens. Crates, as already
stated, was the favourite of Polemo and Arcesilaus
of Crantor.
[
23]
According to Apollodorus in the third book of his
Chronology, Crates at his death left behind him
works,
some of a philosophical kind, others on comedy,
others again speeches delivered in the assembly or
when he was envoy. He also left distinguished
pupils; among them Arcesilaus, of whom we shall
speak presently--for he was also a pupil of Crates;
another was Bion of Borysthenes, who was afterwards
known as the Theodorean, from the school which he
joined; of him too we shall have occasion to speak
next after Arcesilaus.
There have been ten men who bore the name of
Crates: (1) the poet of the Old Comedy; (2) a
rhetorician of Tralles, a pupil of Isocrates; (3) a
sapper and miner who accompanied Alexander; (4)
the Cynic, of whom more hereafter; (5) a Peripatetic
philosopher; (6) the Academic philosopher described
above; (7) a grammarian of Malos; (8) the author of
a geometrical work; (9) a composer of epigrams;
(10) an Academic philosopher of Tarsus.
Chapter 5. CRANTOR
(Perhaps about 340-290 B.C.)
[
24]
Crantor of Soli, though he was much esteemed in
his native country, left it for Athens and attended
the lectures of Xenocrates at the same time as
Polemo. He left memoirs extending to 30,000
lines, some of which are by some critics attributed
to Arcesilaus. He is said to have been asked what
it was in Polemo that attracted him, and to have
replied, "The fact that I never heard him raise or
lower his voice in speaking." He happened to fall
ill, and retired to the temple of Asclepius, where he
proceeded to walk about. At once people flocked
round him in the belief that he had retired thither,
not on account of illness, but in order to open a
school. Among them was Arcesilaus, who wished to
be introduced by his means to Polemo, notwithstanding the affection which united the two, as will be
related in the Life of Arcesilaus.
[
25]
However, when
he recovered, he continued to attend Polemo's
lectures, and for this he was universally praised. He
is also said to have left Arcesilaus his property, to
the value of twelve talents. And when asked by
him where he wished to be buried, he answered
21:
Sweet in some nook of native soil to
rest.
It is also said that he wrote poems and deposited
them under seal in the temple of Athena in his
native place. And Theaetetus the poet writes thus
of him
22:
Pleasing to men, more pleasing to the Muses, lived Crantor,
and never saw old age. Receive, O earth, the hallowed
dead; gently may he live and thrive even in the world
below.
[
26]
Crantor admired Homer and Euripides above all
other poets; it is hard, he said, at once to write
tragedy and to stir the emotions in the language of
everyday life. And he would quote the line from
the story of Bellerophon
23:
Alas! But why Alas? We have suffered the lot of
mortals.
And it is said that there are extant
24 these lines of the
poet Antagoras, spoken by Crantor on Love:
My mind is in doubt, since thy birth is disputed, whether
I am to call thee, Love, the first of the immortal gods, the
eldest of all the children whom old Erebus and queenly
Night brought to birth in the depths beneath wide Ocean;
[
27]
or art thou the child of wise Cypris, or of Earth, or of the
Winds? So many are the goods and ills thou devisest for
men in thy wanderings. Therefore hast thou a body of
double form.
He was also clever at inventing terms. For instance, he said of a tragic player's voice that it
was unpolished and unpeeled. And of a certain poet
that his verses abounded in miserliness. And that
the disquisitions of Theophrastus were written with
an oyster-shell. His most highly esteemed work is
the treatise
On Grief.25 He died before Polemo and
Crates, his end being hastened by dropsy. I have
composed upon him the following epigram
26:
The worst of maladies overwhelmed you, Crantor, and
thus did you descend the black abyss of Pluto. While you
fare well even in the world below, the Academy and your
country of Soli are bereft of your discourses.
Chapter 6. ARCESILAUS (c. 318-242 B.C.)
[
28]
Arcesilaus, the son of Seuthes, according to Apollodorus in the third book of his
Chronology, came
from
Pitane in Aeolis. With him begins the Middle
Academy; he was the first to suspend his judgement
owing to the contradictions of opposing arguments.
He was also the first to argue on both sides of a
question, and the first to meddle with the system
handed down by Plato and, by means of question
and answer, to make it more closely resemble eristic.
He came across Crantor in this way. He was the
youngest of four brothers, two of them being his
brothers by the same father, and two by the same
mother. Of the last two Pylades was the elder, and
of the former two Moereas, and Moereas was his
guardian.
[
29]
At first, before he left Pitane for Athens,
he was a pupil of the mathematician Autolycus, his
fellow-countryman, and with him he also travelled
to Sardis. Next he studied under Xanthus, the
musician, of Athens; then he was a pupil of Theophrastus. Lastly, he crossed over to the Academy
and joined Crantor. For while his brother Moereas,
who has already been mentioned, wanted to make
him a rhetorician, he was himself devoted to philosophy, and Crantor, being enamoured of him, cited
the line from the
Andromeda of Euripides
27:
O maiden, if I save thee, wilt thou be grateful to me?
and was answered with the next line
28:
Take me, stranger, whether for maidservant or for wife.
[
30]
After that they lived together. Whereupon Theophrastus, nettled at his loss, is said to have remarked,
"What a quick-witted and ready pupil has left my
school!" For, besides being most effective in argument and decidedly fond of writing books, he also
took up poetry. And there is extant an epigram of
his upon Attalus which runs thus
29:
Pergamos, not famous in arms alone, is often celebrated
for its steeds in divine Pisa. And if a mortal may make
bold to utter the will of heaven, it will be much more sung
by bards in days to come.
And again upon Menodorus, the favourite of
Eugamus, one of his fellow-students
30:
[
31]
Far, far away are Phrygia and sacred Thyatira, thy
native land, Menodorus, son of Cadanus. But to unspeakable Acheron the ways are equal, from whatever place they be
measured, as the proverb saith. To thee Eugamus raised
this far-seen monument, for thou wert dearest to him of all
who for him toiled.
He esteemed Homer above all the poets and would
always read a passage from him before going to
sleep. And in the morning he would say, whenever
he wanted to read Homer, that he would pay a visit
to his dear love. Pindar too he declared matchless
for imparting fullness of diction and for affording a
copious store of words and phrases. And in his youth
he made a special study of Ion.
[
32]
He also attended the lectures of the geometer
Hipponicus, at whom he pointed a jest as one who
was in all besides a listless, yawning sluggard but
yet proficient in his subject. "Geometry," he said,
"must have flown into his mouth while it was agape."
When this man's mind gave way, Arcesilaus took him
to his house and nursed him until he was completely
restored. He took over the school on the death of
Crates, a certain Socratides having retired in his
favour. According to some, one result of his suspending judgement on all matters was that he never
so much as wrote a book.
31
Others relate that he was
caught revising some works of Crantor, which
according to some he published, according to others
he burnt. He would seem to have held Plato in
admiration, and he possessed a copy of his works.
[
33]
Some represent him as emulous of Pyrrho as well.
He was devoted to dialectic and adopted the methods
of argument introduced by the Eretrian school. On
account of this Ariston said of him:
Plato the head of him, Pyrrho the tail, midway Diodorus.
32
And Timon speaks of him thus
33:
Having the lead of Menedemus at his heart, he will run
either to that mass of flesh, Pyrrho, or to Diodorus.
And a little farther on he introduces him as saying:
I shall swim to Pyrrho and to crooked
Diodorus.
He was highly axiomatic and concise, and in his discourse fond of distinguishing the meaning of terms.
He was satirical enough, and outspoken.
[
34]
This is why
Timon speaks of him again as follows:
And mixing sound sense with wily cavils.Or possibly with Wachsmuth: "mixing jest in wily
fashion (ai(muli/ws) with
abuse."
Hence, when a young man talked more boldly
than was becoming, Arcesilaus exclaimed, "Will no
one beat him at a game of knuckle-bone?" Again,
when some one of immodest life denied that one
thing seemed to him greater than another, he
rejoined, "Then six inches and ten inches are all
the same to you?" There was a certain Hemon,
a Chian, who, though ugly, fancied himself to be
handsome, and always went about in fine clothes.
He having propounded as his opinion that the wise
man will never fall in love, Arcesilaus replied,
"What, not with one so handsome as you and so
handsomely dressed?" And when one of loose life,
to imply that Arcesilaus was arrogant, addressed
him thus
35:
[
35]
Queen, may I speak, or must I silence keep?
his reply was
36:
Woman, why talk so harshly, not as thou art wont?
When some talkative person of no family caused
him considerable trouble, he cited the line
37:
Right ill to live with are the sons of
slaves.
Of another who talked much nonsense he said that
he could not have had even a nurse to scold him.
And some persons he would not so much as answer.
To a money-lending student, upon his confessing
ignorance of something or other, Arcesilaus replied
with two lines from the
Oenomaus of Sophocles
38:
Be sure the hen-bird knows not from what quarter the
wind blows until she looks for a new brood in the nest.
39
[
36]
A certain dialectic, a follower of Alexinus, was
unable to repeat properly some argument of his
teacher, whereupon Arcesilaus reminded him of the
story of Philoxenus and the brickmakers. He found
them singing some of his melodies out of tune; so he
retaliated by trampling on the bricks they were
making, saying, "If you spoil my work, I'll spoil
yours." He was, moreover, genuinely annoyed with
any who took up their studies too late. By some
natural impulse he was betrayed into using such
phrases as "I assert," and "So-and-so" (mentioning
the name) "will not assent to this."
40 And this
trait
many of his pupils imitated, as they did also his
style of speaking and his whole address.
[
37]
Very fertile in invention, he could meet objection
acutely or bring the course of discussion back to
the point at issue, and fit it to every occasion.
In persuasiveness he had no equal, and this all the
more drew pupils to the school, although they were
in terror of his pungent wit. But they willingly put
up with that; for his goodness was extraordinary,
and he inspired his pupils with hopes. He showed
the greatest generosity in private life, being ever
ready to confer benefits, yet most modestly anxious
to conceal the favour. For instance, he once called
upon Ctesibius when he was ill and, seeing in what
straits he was, quietly put a purse under his pillow.
He, when he found it, said, "This is the joke of
Arcesilaus." Moreover, on another occasion, he sent
him 1000 drachmas.
[
38]
Again, by introducing Archias the Arcadian to
Eumenes, he caused him to be advanced to great
dignity. And, as he was very liberal, caring very
little for money, so he was the first to attend performances where seats were paid for, and he was above all
eager to go to those of Archecrates and Callicrates, for
which the fee was a gold piece. And he helped many
people and collected subscriptions for them. Some one
once borrowed his silver plate in order to entertain
friends and never brought it back, but Arcesilaus did
not ask him for it and pretended it had not been
borrowed. Another version of the story is that he lent
it on purpose, and, when it was returned, made the
borrower a present of it because he was poor. He
had property in Pitane from which his brother
Pylades sent him supplies. Furthermore, Eumenes,
the son of Philetaerus, furnished him with large sums,
and for this reason Eumenes was the only one of
the contemporary kings to whom he dedicated any
of his works.
[
39]
And whereas many persons courted Antigonus and
went to meet him whenever he came to Athens,
Arcesilaus remained at home, not wishing to thrust
himself upon his acquaintance. He was on the best
of terms with Hierocles, the commandant in Munichia
and Piraeus, and at every festival would go down to
see him. And though Hierocles joined in urging
him to pay his respects to Antigonus, he was not
prevailed upon, but, after going as far as the gates,
turned back. And after the battle at sea,
41 when
many went to Antigonus or wrote him flattering
letters, he held his peace. However, on behalf of
his native city, he did go to Demetrias as envoy to
Antigonus, but failed in his mission. He spent his
time wholly in the Academy, shunning politics.
[
40]
Once indeed, when at Athens, he stopped too long
in the Piraeus, discussing themes, out of friendship
for Hierocles, and for this he was censured by certain
persons.
42 He was very lavish, in short
another
Aristippus, and he was fond of dining well, but only
with those who shared his tastes. He lived openly
with Theodete and Phila, the Elean courtesans, and
to those who censured him he quoted the maxims of
Aristippus. He was also fond of boys and very
susceptible. Hence he was accused by Ariston of
Chios, the Stoic, and his followers, who called him a
corrupter of youth and a shameless teacher of
immorality.
[
41]
He is said to have been particularly
enamoured of Demetrius who sailed to Cyrene, and
of Cleochares of Myrlea; of him the story is told
that, when a band of revellers came to the door, he
told them that for his part he was willing to admit
them but that Cleochares would not let him. This
same youth had amongst his admirers Demochares
the son of Laches, and Pythocles the son of Bugelus,
and once when Arcesilaus had caught them, with
great forbearance he ordered them off. For all this
he was assailed and ridiculed by the critics abovementioned, as a friend of the mob who courted
popularity. The most virulent attacks were made
upon him in the circle of Hieronymus the Peripatetic,
43
whenever he collected his friends to keep the birthday of Halcyoneus, son of Antigonus, an occasion
for which Antigonus used to send large sums of
money to be spent in merrymaking.
[
42]
There he had
always shunned discussion over the wine; and when
Aridices, proposing a certain question, requested
him to speak upon it, he replied, "The peculiar
province of philosophy is just this, to know that there
is a time for all things." As to the charge brought
against him that he was the friend of the mob, Timon,
among many other things, has the following
44:
So saying, he plunged into the surrounding crowd. And
they were amazed at him, like chaffinches about an owl,
pointing him out as vain, because he was a flatterer of the
mob. And why, insignificant thing that you are, do you
puff yourself out like a simpleton?
45
And yet for all that he was modest enough to
recommend his pupils to hear other philosophers.
And when a certain youth from Chios was not well
pleased with his lectures and preferred those of
the above-mentioned Hieronymus, Arcesilaus himself
took him and introduced him to that philosopher,
with an injunction to behave well.
[
43]
Another pleasant story told of him is this. Some
one had inquired why it was that pupils from all the
other schools went over to Epicurus, but converts
were never made from the Epicureans: "Because
men may become eunuchs, but a eunuch never
becomes a man," was his answer.
At last, being near his end, he left all his property
to his brother Pylades, because, unknown to Moereas,
he had taken him to Chios and thence brought him
to Athens. In all his life he never married nor had
any children. He made three wills: the first he
left at Eretria in the charge of Amphicritus, the
second at Athens in the charge of certain friends,
while the third he dispatched to his home to
Thaumasias, one of his relatives, with the request
that he would keep it safe. To this man he also
wrote as follows:
"Arcesilaus to Thaumasias greeting.
[
44]
"I have given Diogenes my will to be conveyed
to you. For, owing to my frequent illnesses and the
weak state of my body, I decided to make a will,
in order that, if anything untoward should happen,
you, who have been so devotedly attached to me,
should not suffer by my decease. You are the most
deserving of all those in this place to be entrusted
with the will, on the score both of age and of relationship to me. Remember then that I have reposed
the most absolute confidence in you, and strive to
deal justly by me, in order that, so far as you are
concerned, the provisions I have made may be
carried out with fitting dignity. A copy is deposited
at Athens with some of my acquaintance, and another
in Eretria with Amphicritus."
He died, according to Hermippus, through drinking
too freely of unmixed wine which affected his reason;
he was already seventy-five and regarded by the
Athenians with unparalleled good-will.
[
45]
I have written upon him as follows
46:
Why, pray, Arcesilaus, didst thou quaff so unsparingly
unmixed wine as to go out of thy mind? I pity thee not so
much for thy death as because thou didst insult the Muses
by immoderate potations.
Three other men have borne the name of Arcesilaus: a poet of the Old Comedy, another poet who
wrote elegies, and a sculptor besides, on whom
Simonides composed this epigram
47:
This is a statue of Artemis and its cost two hundred
Parian drachmas, which bear a goat for their device. It
was made by Arcesilaus, the worthy son of Aristodicus, well
practised in the arts of Athena.
According to Apollodorus in his
Chronology, the
philosopher described in the foregoing flourished
about the 120th Olympiad.
48
Chapter 7. BION (third century B.C.)
[
46]
Bion was by birth a citizen of Borysthenes [Olbia];
who his parents were, and what his circumstances
before he took to philosophy, he himself told
Antigonus in plain terms. For, when Antigonus
inquired:
Who among men, and whence, are you? What is your
city and your parents?
49
he, knowing that he had already been maligned to
the king, replied, "My father was a freedman, who
wiped his nose on his sleeve"--meaning that he
was a dealer in salt fish--"a native of Borysthenes,
with no face to show, but only the writing on his
face, a token of his master's severity. My mother
was such as a man like my father would marry, from
a brothel. Afterwards my father, who had cheated
the revenue in some way, was sold with all his
family. And I, then a not ungraceful youngster,
was bought by a certain rhetorician, who on his
death left me all he had.
[
47]
And I burnt his books,
scraped everything together, came to Athens and
turned philosopher.
This is the stock and this the blood from which I boast
to have sprung.
50
Such is my story. It is high time, then, that Persaeus
and Philonides left off recounting it. Judge me by
myself."
In truth Bion was in other respects a shifty
character, a subtle sophist, and one who had given
the enemies of philosophy many an occasion to
blaspheme, while in certain respects he was even
pompous and able to indulge in arrogance. He left
very many memoirs, and also sayings of useful
application. For example, when he was reproached
for not paying court to a youth, his excuse was,
"You can't get hold of a soft cheese with a hook."
[
48]
Being once asked who suffers most from anxiety, he
replied, "He who is ambitious of the greatest prosperity." Being consulted by some one as to whether
he should marry--for this story is also told of Bion--
he made answer, "If the wife you marry be ugly,
she will be your bane; if beautiful, you will not
keep her to yourself."
51 He called old age the
harbour of all ills; at least they all take refuge
there. Renown he called the mother of virtues;
beauty another's good; wealth the sinews of success.
To some one who had devoured his patrimony he
said, "The earth swallowed Amphiaraus, but you
have swallowed your land." To be unable to bear
an ill is itself a great ill. He used to condemn those
who burnt men alive as if they could not feel, and
yet cauterized them as if they could.
[
49]
He used
repeatedly to say that to grant favours to another
was preferable to enjoying the favours of others.
For the latter means ruin to both body and soul.
He even abused Socrates, declaring that, if he felt
desire for Alcibiades and abstained, he was a fool; if he
did not, his conduct was in no way remarkable. The
road to Hades, he used to say, was easy to travel;
at any rate men passed away with their eyes shut.
He said in censure of Alcibiades that in his boyhood
he drew away the husbands from their wives, and as
a young man the wives from their husbands. When
the Athenians were absorbed in the practice of
rhetoric, he taught philosophy at Rhodes. To some
one who found fault with him for this he replied,
"How can I sell barley when what I brought to
market is wheat?"
[
50]
He used to say that those in Hades would be
more severely punished if the vessels in which they
drew water were whole instead of being pierced with
holes. To an importunate talker who wanted his
help he said, "I will satisfy your demand, if you will
only get others to plead your cause and stay away
yourself." On a voyage in bad company he fell in
with pirates. When his companions said, "We are
lost if we are discovered," "And I too," he replied,
"unless I am discovered." Conceit he styled a
hindrance to progress. Referring to a wealthy miser
he said, "He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune
has acquired him." Misers, he said, took care of
property as if it belonged to them, but derived no
more benefit from it than if it belonged to others.
"When we are young," said he, "we are courageous,
but it is only in old age that prudence is at its height."
[
51]
Prudence, he said, excels the other virtues as much
as sight excels the other senses. He used to say
that we ought not to heap reproaches on old age,
seeing that, as he said, we all hope to reach it. To
a slanderer who showed a grave face his words were,
"I don't know whether you have met with ill luck,
or your neighbour with good." He used to say that
low birth made a bad partner for free speech, for--
It cows a man, however bold his heart.Eur.
Hipp. 424.
We ought, he remarked, to watch our friends and
see what manner of men they are, in order that we
may not be thought to associate with the bad or to
decline the friendship of the good.
Bion at the outset used to deprecate the Academic
doctrines,
53 even at the time when he
was a pupil of
Crates. Then he adopted the Cynic discipline,
donning cloak and wallet.
[
52]
For little else was needed
to convert him to the doctrine of entire insensibility.
Next he went over to Theodorean views, after he
had heard the lectures of Theodorus the Atheist,
who used every kind of sophistical argument. And
after Theodorus he attended the lectures of Theophrastus the Peripatetic. He was fond of display
and great at cutting up anything with a jest, using
vulgar names for things. Because he employed every
style of speech in combination, Eratosthenes, we
hear, said of him that he was the first to deck
philosophy with bright-flowered robes. He was
clever also at parody. Here is a specimen of his
style:
O gentle Archytas, musician-born, blessed in thine own
conceit, most skilled of men to stir the bass of strife.
54
[
53]
And in general he made sport of music and geometry.
He lived extravagantly, and for this reason he
would move from one city to another, sometimes
contriving to make a great show. Thus at Rhodes
he persuaded the sailors to put on students' garb
and follow in his train. And when, attended by
them, he made his way into the gymnasium, all
eyes were fixed on him. It was his custom also to
adopt certain young men for the gratification of his
appetite and in order that he might be protected
by their goodwill.
55 He was extremely selfish and
insisted strongly on the maxim that "friends share in
common." And hence it came about that he is not
credited with a single disciple, out of all the crowds
who attended his lectures. And yet there were
some who followed his lead in shamelessness.
[
54]
For
instance, Betion, one of his intimates, is said once to
have addressed Menedemus in these words: "For
my part, Menedemus, I pass the night with Bion,
and I don't think I am any the worse for it." In
his familiar talk he would often vehemently assail
belief in the gods, a taste which he had derived from
Theodorus. Afterwards, when he fell ill (so it was
said by the people of Chalcis where he died), he was
persuaded to wear an amulet and to repent of his
offences against religion. And even for want of
nurses he was in a sad plight, until Antigonus sent
him two servants. And it is stated by Favorinus
in his
Miscellaneous History that the king himself
followed in a litter.
Even so he died, and in these lines
56 I have taken
him to task:
[
55]
We hear that Bion, to whom the Scythian land of Borysthenes gave birth, denied that the gods really exist. Had
he persisted in holding this opinion, it would have been right
to say, "He thinks as he pleases: wrongly, to be sure, but
still he does think so." But in fact, when he fell ill of a
lingering disease and feared death, he who denied the existence of the gods, and would not even look at a temple,
[
56]
who
often mocked at mortals for sacrificing to deities, not only over
hearth and high altars and table, with sweet savour and fat
and incense did he gladden the nostrils of the gods; nor
was he content to say "I have sinned, forgive the past,"
[
57]
but he cheerfully allowed an old woman to put a charm
round his neck, and in full faith bound his arms with leather
and placed the rhamnus and the laurel-branch over the
door, being ready to submit to anything sooner than die.
Fool for wishing that the divine favour might be purchased
at a certain price, as if the gods existed just when Bion chose
to recognize them! It was then with vain wisdom that,
when the driveller was all ashes, he stretched out his hand
and said "Hail, Pluto, hail!"
[
58]
Ten men have borne the name of Bion: (1) the
contemporary of Pherecydes of Syria, to whom are
assigned two books in the Ionic dialect; he was of
Proconnesus; (2) a Syracusan, who wrote rhetorical
handbooks; (3) our philosopher; (4) a follower of
Democritus and mathematician of Abdera, who
wrote both in Attic and in Ionic: he was the first
to affirm that there are places where the night lasts
for six months and the day for six months
57; (5) a
native of Soli, who wrote a work on Aethiopia;
(6) a rhetorician, the author of nine books called
after the Muses; (7) a lyric poet; (8) a Milesian
sculptor, mentioned by Polemo; (9) a tragic poet,
one of the poets of Tarsus, as they are called; (10)
a sculptor of Clazomenae or Chios, mentioned by
Hipponax.
Chapter 8. LACYDES
(Head of the Academy c. 242-216 B.C.)
[
59]
Lacydes, son of Alexander, was a native of Cyrene
He was the founder of the New Academy and the
successor of Arcesilaus: a man of very serious
character who found numerous admirers; industrious
from his youth up and, though poor, of pleasant
manners and pleasant conversation. A most amusing
story is told of his housekeeping. Whenever he
brought anything out of the store-room, he would
seal the door up again and throw his signet-ring
inside through the opening, to ensure that nothing
laid up there should be stolen or carried off. So
soon, then, as his rogues of servants got to know this,
they broke the seal and carried off what they pleased,
afterwards throwing the ring in the same way through
the opening into the store-room. Nor were they ever
detected in this.
[
60]
Lacydes used to lecture in the Academy, in the
garden which had been laid out by King Attalus,
and from him it derived its name of Lacydeum. He
did what none of his predecessors had ever done;
in his lifetime he handed over the school to Telecles
and Evander, both of Phocaea. Evander was succeeded by Hegesinus of Pergamum, and he again by
Carneades. A good saying is attributed to Lacydes.
When Attalus sent for him, he is said to have
remarked that statues are best seen from a distance.
He stadied geometry late, and some one said to him,
"Is this a proper time?" To which he replied,
"Nay, is it not even yet the proper time?"
[
61]
He assumed the headship of the school in the
fourth year of the 134th Olympiad,
58 and at his death
he had been head for twenty-six years. His end
was a palsy brought on by drinking too freely. And
here is a quip of my own upon the fact
59:
Of thee too, O Lacydes, I have heard a tale, that Bacchus
seized thee and dragged thee on tip-toe
60 to the underworld.
Nay, was it not clear that when the wine-god comes in force
into the frame, he loosens our limbs? Perhaps this is why
he gets his name of the Loosener.
Chapter 9. CARNEADES (c. 213-129 B C.)
[
62]
Carneades, the son of Epicomus or (according
to Alexander in his
Successions of Philosophers)
of
Philocomus, was a native of Cyrene. He studied
carefully the writings of the Stoics and particularly
those of Chrysippus, and by combating these successfully he became so famous that he would often say:
Without Chrysippus where should I have
been?
The man's industry was unparalleled, although in
physics he was not so strong as in ethics. Hence he
would let his hair and nails grow long from intense
devotion to study. Such was his predominance in
philosophy that even the rhetoricians would dismiss
their classes and repair to him to hear him lecture.
[
63]
His voice was extremely powerful, so that the
keeper of the gymnasium sent to him and requested
him not to shout so loud. To which he replied,
"Then give me something by which to regulate
my voice." Thereupon by a happy hit the man
replied in the words, "You have a regulator in your
audience." His talent for criticizing opponents was
remarkable, and he was a formidable controversialist.
And for the reasons already given he further declined
invitations to dine out. One of his pupils was Mentor
the Bithynian, who tried to ingratiate himself with
a concubine of Carneades; so on one occasion
(according to Favorinus in his
Miscellaneous
History),
when Mentor came to lecture, Carneades in the
course of his remarks let fall these lines by way of
parody at his expense:
[
64]
Hither comes an old man of the sea, infallible, like to
Mentor in person and in voice.
61 Him I proclaim to have
been banished from this school.
Thereupon the other got up and replied:
Those on their part made proclamation, and these speedily
assembled.
62
He seems to have shown some want of courage in
the face of death, repeating often the words, "Nature
which framed this whole will also destroy it." When
he learnt that Antipater committed suicide by
drinking a potion, he was greatly moved by the
constancy with which he met his end, and exclaimed,
"Give it then to me also." And when those about
him asked "What?" "A honeyed draught," said
he. At the time he died the moon is said to have
been eclipsed, and one might well say that the
brightest luminary in heaven next to the sun thereby
gave token of her sympathy.
[
65]
According to Apollodorus in his
Chronology, he
departed this life in the fourth year of the 162nd
Olympiad
63 at the age of eighty-five
years. Letters
of his to Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, are extant.
Everything else was compiled by his pupils; he
himself left nothing in writing. I have written upon
him in logaoedic metre as follows
64:
Why, Muse, oh why wouldst thou have me censure
Carneades? For he is ignorant who knoweth not how he
feared death. When wasting away with the worst of
diseases, he would not find release. But when he heard
that Antipater's life was quenched by drinking a potion,
[
66]
"Give me too," he cried, "a draught to drink." "What?
pray what?" "Give me a draught of honeyed wine."
He had often on his lips the words, "Nature which holds
this frame together will surely dissolve it." None the less
he too went down to the grave, and he might have got there
sooner by cutting short his tale of woes.
It is said that his eyes went blind at night without
his knowing it, and he ordered the slave to light the
lamp. The latter brought it and said, "Here it is."
"Then," said Carneades, "read."
He had many other disciples, but the most illustrious of them all was Clitomachus, of whom we have
next to speak.
There was another Carneades, a frigid elegiac poet.
Chapter 10. CLITOMACHUS
(Head of the Academy from 129 B.C.)
[
67]
Clitomachus was a Carthaginian, his real name
being Hasdrubal, and he taught philosophy at
Carthage in his native tongue. He had reached his
fortieth year when he went to Athens and became
a pupil of Carneades. And Carneades, recognizing
his industry, caused him to be educated and took
part in training him. And to such lengths did his
diligence go that he composed more than four
hundred treatises. He succeeded Carneades in the
headship of the school, and by his writings did much
to elucidate his opinions. He was eminently well
acquainted with the three sects--the Academy, the
Peripatetics, and the Stoics.
The Academics in general are assailed by Timon
in the line:
The prolixity of the Academics unseasoned by
salt.
Having thus reviewed the Academics who derived
from Plato, we will now pass on to the Peripatetics, who
also derived from Plato. They begin with Aristotle.