The Lives and Opinions of Eminent PhilosophersDiogenes Laertius
Philosophy
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Diogenes Laertius
Philosophers, Ancient -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient
XXVIII. Some, indeed, among whom is Cassius the Sceptic, attack Zeno
on many accounts, saying first of all that he denounced the general
system of education in vogue at the time, as useless, which he did in
the beginning of his Republic. And in the second place, that he used to
call all who were not virtuous, adversaries, and enemies, and slaves,
and unfriendly to one another, parents to their children, brethren to
brethren, and kinsmen to kinsmen; and again, that in his Republic, he
speaks of the virtuous as the only citizens, and friends, and relations,
and free men, so that in the doctrine of the Stoic, even parents and
their children are enemies; for they are not wise. Also, that he lays
down the principle of the community of women both in his Republic and in
a poem of two hundred verses, and teaches that neither temples nor courts
of law, nor gymnasia, ought to be erected in a city; moreover, that he
writes thus about money, “That he does not think that men ought to coin
money either for purposes of traffic, or of travelling.” Besides all
this, he enjoins men and women to wear the same dress, and to leave no
part of their person uncovered.
XXIX. And that this treatise on the Republic is his work we are assured
by Chrysippus, in his Republic. He also discussed amatory subjects in the
beginning of that book of his which is entitled the Art of Love. And in
his Conversations he writes in a similar manner.
Such are the charges made against him by Cassius, and also by Isidorus,
of Pergamus, the orator, who says that all the unbecoming doctrines and
assertions of the Stoics were cut out of their books by Athenodorus,
the Stoic, who was the curator of the library at Pergamus. And that
subsequently they were replaced, as Athenodorus was detected, and placed
in a situation of great danger; and this is sufficient to say about those
doctrines of his which were impugned.
XXX. There were eight different persons of the name of Zeno. The first
was the Eleatic, whom we shall mention hereafter; the second was this
man of whom we are now speaking; the third was a Rhodian, who wrote a
history of his country in one book; the fourth was a historian who wrote
an account of the expedition of Pyrrhus into Italy and Sicily; and also
an epitome of the transactions between the Romans and Carthaginians; the
fifth was a disciple of Chrysippus, who wrote very few books, but who
left a great number of disciples; the sixth was a physician of Herophila,
a very shrewd man in intellect, but a very indifferent writer; the
seventh was a grammarian, who, besides other writings, has left some
epigrams behind him; the eighth was a Sidonian by descent, a philosopher
of the Epicurean school, a deep thinker, and very clear writer.
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