The Lives and Opinions of Eminent PhilosophersDiogenes Laertius
Philosophy
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Diogenes Laertius
Philosophers, Ancient -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient
II. They say that Socrates met him in a narrow lane, and put his stick
across it, and prevented him from passing by, asking him where all kinds
of necessary things were sold. And when he had answered him, he asked him
again where men were made good and virtuous. And as he did not know, he
said, “Follow me, then, and learn.” And from this time forth, Xenophon
became a follower of Socrates.
III. And he was the first person who took down conversations as they
occurred, and published them among men, calling them memorabilia. He was
also the first man who wrote a history of philosophers.
IV. And Aristippus, in the fourth book of his treatise on Ancient Luxury,
says that he loved Clinias; and that he said to him, “Now I look upon
Clinias with more pleasure than upon all the other beautiful things which
are to be seen among men; and I would rather be blind as to all the rest
of the world, than as to Clinias. And I am annoyed even with night and
with sleep, because then I do not see him; but I am very grateful to the
sun and to daylight, because they show Clinias to me.”
V. He became a friend of Cyrus in this manner. He had an acquaintance, by
name Proxenus, a Bœotian by birth, a pupil of Gorgias of Leontini, and a
friend of Cyrus. He being in Sardis, staying at the court of Cyrus, wrote
a letter to Athens to Xenophon, inviting him to come and be a friend of
Cyrus. And Xenophon showed the letter to Socrates, and asked his advice.
And Socrates bade him go to Delphi, and ask counsel of the God. And
Xenophon did so, and went to the God; but the question he put was, not
whether it was good for him to go to Cyrus or not, but how he should go;
for which Socrates blamed him, but still advised him to go. Accordingly
he went to Cyrus, and became no less dear to him than Proxenus. And all
the circumstances of the expedition and the retreat, he himself has
sufficiently related to us.
VI. But he was at enmity with Menon the Pharsalian, who was the commander
of the foreign troops at the time of the expedition; and amongst other
reproaches, he says that he was much addicted to the worst kind of
debauchery. And he reproaches a man of the name of Apollonides with
having his ears bored.
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