Chapter 3. MONIMUS (fourth
century B.C.)
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Monimus of Syracuse was a pupil of Diogenes
; and, according to Sosicrates, he was in the service of a certain
Corinthian banker, to whom Xeniades, the purchaser of Diogenes, made
frequent visits, and by the account which he gave of his goodness in
word and deed, excited in Monimus a passionate admiration of
Diogenes. For he forthwith pretended to be mad and proceeded to
fling away the small change and all the money on the banker's table,
until at length his master dismissed him ; and he then straightway
devoted himself to Diogenes. He often followed Crates the Cynic as
well, and embraced the like pursuits ; whereupon his master, seeing
him do this, was all the more persuaded that he was mad.
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He
came to be a distinguished man ; so much so that he is even
mentioned by the comic poet Menander. At any rate in one of his
plays,
The Groom, his words are :
One Monimus there was, a wise man, Philo,
But not
so very famous.
a. He, you mean,
Who carried the scrip
?
b. Nay, not one scrip, but three.
Yet never a word,
so help me Zeus, spake he
To match the saying, Know thyself,
nor such
Famed watchwords. Far beyond all these he went,
Your dusty mendicant, pronouncing wholly vain
All man's
supposings.
Monimus indeed showed himself a very grave
moralist, so that he ever despised mere opinion and sought only
truth.
He has left us, besides some trifles blended with
covert earnestness, two books,
On Impulses and
an
Exhortation to Philosophy.