The Lives and Opinions of Eminent PhilosophersDiogenes Laertius
Philosophy
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Diogenes Laertius
Philosophers, Ancient -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient
XIII. He also wrote near forty books; though different critics divide
them differently. He wrote an account of the expedition of Cyrus, to each
book of which work he prefixed a summary, though he gave none of the
whole history. He also wrote the Cyropædia, and a history of Greece, and
Memorabilia of Socrates, and a treatise called the Banquet, and an essay
on Œconomy, and one on Horsemanship, and one on Breaking Dogs, and one on
Managing Horses, and a Defence of Socrates, and a Treatise on Revenues,
and one called Hiero, or the Tyrant, and one called Agesilaus; one on
the Constitution of the Athenians and Lacedæmonians, which, however,
Demetrius the Magnesian says is not the work of Xenophon. It is said,
also, that he secretly got possession of the books of Thucydides, which
were previously unknown, and himself published them.
XIV. He was also called the Attic Muse, because of the sweetness of
his diction, in respect of which he and Plato felt a spirit of rivalry
towards one another, as we shall relate further in our life of Plato. And
we ourselves have composed an epigram on him, which runs thus:—
Not only up to Babylon for Cyrus
Did Xenophon go, but now he’s mounted up
The path which leads to Jove’s eternal realms—
For he, recounting the great deeds of Greece,
Displays his noble genius, and he shows
The depth of wisdom of his master Socrates.
And another which ends thus:—
O Xenophon, if th’ ungrateful countrymen
Of Cranon and Cecrops, banished you,
Jealous of Cyrus’ favour which he show’d you,
Still hospitable Corinth, with glad heart,
Received you, and you lived there happily,
And so resolved to stay in that fair city.
XV. But I have found it stated in some places that he flourished about
the eighty-ninth Olympiad, at the same time as the rest of the disciples
of Socrates. And Ister says, that he was banished by a decree of Eubulus,
and that he was recalled by another decree proposed by the same person.
XVI. But there were seven people of the name of Xenophon. First of
all, this philosopher of ours; secondly, an Athenian, a brother of
Pythostratus, who wrote the poem called the Theseid, and who wrote
other works too, especially the lives of Epaminondas and Pelopidas; the
third was a physician of Cos; the fourth, a man who wrote a history of
Alcibiades; the fifth, was a writer who composed a book full of fabulous
prodigies; the sixth, a citizen of Paros, a sculptor; the seventh, a poet
of the Old Comedy.
LIFE OF ÆSCHINES.
I. Æschines was the son of Charinus, the sausage-maker, but, as some
writers say, of Lysanias; he was a citizen of Athens, of an industrious
disposition from his boyhood upwards, on which account he never quitted
Socrates.
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