The Lives and Opinions of Eminent PhilosophersDiogenes Laertius
Philosophy
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Diogenes Laertius
Philosophers, Ancient -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient
On another occasion, he said to a profligate man who was giving himself
airs, “Do not you know that the cabbage is not the only plant that has
a pleasant juice, but that radishes have it also?” And once, hearing a
young man talk very loudly, he said, “See whom you have behind you.”
When Antigonus consulted him whether he should go to a certain revel,
he made no answer beyond desiring those who brought him the message, to
tell him that he was the son of a king. When a stupid fellow once said
something at random to him, he asked him whether he had a farm; and when
he said that he had, and a large stock of cattle, he said, “Go then and
look after them; lest, if you neglect them, you lose them, and that
elegant rusticity of yours with them.” He was once asked whether a good
man should marry, and his reply was, “Do I seem to you to be a good man,
or not?” and when the other said he did; “Well,” said he, “and I am
married.” On one occasion a person said that there were a great many good
things, so he asked him how many; and whether he thought that there were
more than a hundred. And as he could not bear the extravagance of one man
who used frequently to invite him to dinner, once when he was invited
he did not say a single word, but admonished him of his extravagance in
silence, by eating nothing but olives.
IV. On account then of the great freedom of speech in which he indulged,
he was very near while in Cyprus, at the court of Nicocreon, being
in great danger with his friend Asclepiades. For when the king was
celebrating a festival at the beginning of the month, and had invited
them as he did all the other philosophers; Menedemus said, “If the
assemblage of such men as are met here to-day is good, a festival like
this ought to be celebrated every day: but if it is not good, even once
is too often.” And as the tyrant made answer to this speech, “that he
kept this festival in order to have leisure in it to listen to the
philosophers,” he behaved with even more austerity than usual, arguing,
even while the feast was going on, that it was right on every occasion
to listen to philosophers; and he went on in this way till, if a
flute-player had not interrupted their discussion, they would have been
put to death. In reference to which, when they were overtaken by a storm
in a ship, they say that Asclepiades said, “that the fine playing of a
flute-player had saved them, but the freedom of speech of Menedemus had
ruined them.”
V. But he was, they say, inclined to depart a good deal from the usual
habits and discipline of a school, so that he never regarded any order,
nor were the seats arranged around properly, but every one listened
to him while lecturing, standing up or sitting down, just as he might
chance to be at the moment, Menedemus himself setting the example of this
irregular conduct.
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