The Lives and Opinions of Eminent PhilosophersDiogenes Laertius
Philosophy
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Diogenes Laertius
Philosophers, Ancient -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient
X. In the meantime, as the Athenians had passed a vote to go to the
assistance of the Lacedæmonians, he sent his sons to Athens, to join in
the expedition in aid of the Lacedæmonians; for they had been educated
in Sparta, as Diocles relates in his Lives of the Philosophers. Diodorus
returned safe back again, without having at all distinguished himself
in the battle. And he had a son who bore the same name as his brother
Gryllus. But Gryllus, serving in the cavalry, (and the battle took place
at Mantinea,) fought very gallantly, and was slain, as Ephorus tells us,
in his twenty-fifth book; Cephisodorus being the Captain of the cavalry,
and Hegesides the commander-in-chief. Epaminondas also fell in this
battle. And after the battle, they say that Xenophon offered sacrifice,
wearing a crown on his head; but when the news of the death of his son
arrived, he took off the crown; but after that, hearing that he had
fallen gloriously, he put the crown on again. And some say that he did
not even shed a tear, but said, “I knew that I was the father of a mortal
man.” And Aristotle says, that innumerable writers wrote panegyrics and
epitaphs upon Gryllus, partly out of a wish to gratify his father. And
Hermippus, in his Treatise on Theophrastus, says that Isocrates also
composed a panegyric on Gryllus. But Timon ridicules him in these words:—
A silly couplet, or e’en triplet of speeches,
Or longer series still, just such as Xenophon
Might write, or Meagre Æschines.
Such, then, was the life of Xenophon.
XI. And he flourished about the fourth year of the ninety-fourth
Olympiad; and he took part in the expedition of Cyrus, in the archonship
of Xenænetus, the year before the death of Socrates. And he died, as
Stesiclides the Athenian states in his List of Archons and Conquerors
at Olympia, in the first year of the hundred and fifth Olympiad, in the
archonship of Callidemides; in which year, Philip the son of Amyntas
began to reign over the Macedonians. And he died at Corinth, as Demetrius
the Magnesian says, being of a very advanced age.
XII. And he was a man of great distinction in all points, and very fond
of horses and of dogs, and a great tactician, as is manifest from his
writings. And he was a pious man, fond of sacrificing to the Gods, and a
great authority as to what was due to them, and a very ardent admirer and
imitator of Socrates.
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