Reading 4

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The primary source for the following text is

Book 7 of Diogenes Laertius’ Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.

All section numbers are part of Book 7. For example, section 12, or [12], is 7.12.

This reading comes from the Cave’s

The Best of the Early Stoics: The Lives, Writings & Teachings of the Early Stoics.

__________

Diogenes Laertius writes:

Part 1: Early Life, Education, School & Writings[i] 

Zeno, the son of Mnaseas, or the son of Demeas, was a citizen of Citium in Cyprus, a Greek city that had received Phoenician settlers.

In his book On Lives, Timotheus of Athens says that Zeno had a slightly bent neck. And Apollonius of Tyre says that he was lean, fairly tall, and dark-skinned—hence, someone called him an Egyptian vine branch, according to what Chrysippus says in the first book of his Proverbs. He had fat, flabby, and weak legs. For this reason, Persaeus, in his Convivial Reminiscences, says that he declined most invitations to dinner. They say that he was fond of eating green figs and of basking in the sun. …

[12] Antigonus of Carystus [ii] tells us that Zeno himself never denied that he was a citizen of Citium. For when he was one of those who contributed to the restoration of the baths, and his name was inscribed upon the pillar as “Zeno the Philosopher,” he requested that the words “of Citium” should be added.

Zeno’s Turn to Literature & Philosophy

[2] As stated before, Zeno was a student of Crates. Next they say he attended the lectures of Stilpon and Xenocrates for ten years, as Timocrates says in his Dion, as well as Polemon.[iii]

Hecaton, and Apollonius of Tyre in his first book On Zeno, state that Zeno consulted the oracle to know what he should do in order to live the best life. The god’s reply was that Zeno would live the best life if he made contact with the dead. Perceiving what this meant, he studied the works of the ancients.

Zeno came across Crates in this way. Zeno was shipwrecked on a voyage from Phoenicia to Piraeus with a cargo of purple dye. He went up to and entered into Athens and sat down in a bookseller’s shop. He was then thirty years old. As he went on reading the second book of Xenophon’s Memorabilia, he was so delighted that he inquired where he could find such men—that is, men like Socrates.

[3] Crates passed by right then, just at the right time. The bookseller pointed to him and said, “Follow that man.”

From that day on, Zeno became Crates’ student. And though he was in other ways very energetic in his approach to philosophy, he was nevertheless too full of shame for Cynic shamelessness.[iv] Therefore, Crates, desiring to cure the defect in him, gave him an earthen pot full of lentil soup to carry through the Ceramicus. When Crates saw that Zeno was ashamed and tried to hide the pot of soup, he broke the pot with a blow of his staff. As Zeno fled with the lentil soup flowing down his legs, Crates said, “Why do you flee, my little Phoenician? You have suffered nothing terrible!”

[4] For a time, then, Zeno listened to and followed Crates. … But in the end, he left Crates, and he followed the men mentioned above for twenty years.

Consequently, he is reported to have said, “I made a prosperous voyage when I shipwrecked.” Others say that he made this remark in reference to his time with Crates. [5] A different version of the story is that he was staying in Athens when he heard that his ship was wrecked, and so he said, “Fortune does well in driving us to philosophy.” Still, some say that he disposed of his cargo in Athens before turning his attention to philosophy. …

[15] Zeno’s inclination was toward searching and inquiry. He was precise in everything. …

[16] Zeno used to dispute very carefully with Philo the dialectician and studied with him. For this reason, Zeno, who was the younger man, admired Philo no less than his teacher Diodorus. …

[31] In his work Men of the Same Name, Demetrius of Magnesia [v] says that his father, Mnaseas, often went to Athens as a merchant and carried back many books about Socrates for Zeno while he was yet a boy. [32] As a result, Zeno had been well-trained in his homeland. And so he came to Athens and encountered Crates.

Zeno’s Lectures & School

[5] Zeno used to arrange his arguments and deliver his lectures while walking back and forth in the painted colonnade or stoa, which is also called the colonnade of Peisianax, even though it received its name “painted” because of the painting of Polygnotus. He walked this way back and forth because he wanted to keep the spot free from people standing around. It was the same spot where 1,400 citizens had been put to death in the time of the Thirty Tyrants.

Here, then, people came out to listen to Zeno. For this reason, they were called Stoics, after the painted stoa. And his followers were at the same time given the same name, those who had formerly been known as Zenonians—this according to what Epicurus says in his letters. And yet, according to Eratosthenes[vi] in his eighth book On the Old Comedy, the poets who spent all their time in the colonnade were first called Stoics. And they made the name still more famous.

Zeno’s Writings

[4] Aside from his Republic, Zeno wrote the following works: On Life According to Nature; On Impulse or On Human Nature; On the Passions; On Dutiesor On What is Fitting; On Law; On Greek Education; On Vision; On the Whole Cosmos; On Signs; Pythagorean Questions; Universals; On Varieties of Style; Homeric Problems—in five books; On the Reading of Poetry. These are also by him: Art or Skill; also, Solutions; also, Refutations—in two books; Recollections of Crates; Ethics.

This is a list of his writings.

Zeno’s Students

[36] Of the many students of Zeno, the following are the most notable. There is Persaeus of Citium, the son of Demetrius. Some say he was Zeno’s friend, but others say that he was a household slave, one of those sent by Antigonus to Zeno to act as his scribe. He had taken care of Antigonus’ son Halcyoneus. And once, when Antigonus wanted to test Persaeus, he caused some false news to be brought to him that his estate had been ravaged by the enemy. And when Persaeus appeared sad to hear this, Antigonus said, “Do you see that wealth is not a matter of indifference?”

The following works are by Persaeus: On Kingship; The Spartan Constitution; On Marriage; On Impiety; Thyestes; On Desire or On Love; Exhortations; Studies; Anecdotes and Sayings—in four books; Memorabilia; a seven book reply to Plato’s Laws.

[37] Another notable student is Ariston of Chios, Miltiades’ son, who introduced the teaching of “the indifferent.”

Herillus of Carthage said that knowledge is the goal of life.

Then there is Dionysius, who changed the goal to pleasure. He did this because of the severity of his ophthalmia. He no longer had the nerve to call physical suffering something indifferent. He was from Heraclea.

There are also Sphaerus of Bosporus and Cleanthes of Assos, the son of Phanias. Cleanthes was Zeno’s successor in the school. Zeno used to compare him to hard waxen tablets that are difficult to write on but retain the characters written on them. Sphaerus also became Cleanthes’ student after Zeno’s death. We will say something about him in the Life of Cleanthes.

[38] Moreover, according to Hippobotus,[vii] the following were students of Zeno: Philonides of Thebes, Callipus of Corinth, Posidonius of Alexandria, Athenodorus of Soli, and Zeno of Sidon.

Part 2: Anecdotes & Sayings[viii]

Zeno made a hollow lid for an oil flask and used to carry money around in it so that there might be a provision ready at hand for the necessities of his teacher Crates.

[13] They say that he had more than a thousand talents when he came to Greece, and that he lent out the money secured with the cargo of a ship.

Zeno used to eat small loaves of bread with honey and drink a small amount of fragrant wine. He rarely employed young male servants. In fact, once or twice he had a young girl wait on him so that he would not appear to be a misogynist.

He shared the same house with Persaeus. And when the latter brought in a little flute player to him, he immediately led the girl straight back to Persaeus.

They say that Zeno was very accommodating—so much so that king Antigonus often broke in on him with a noisy party. Once, he took him along with other revelers to the harp player Aristocles. Nevertheless, in a little while Zeno escaped them.

[14] They say that he disliked being brought too near to people. Accordingly, he would take the end seat of a couch to avoid at least one half of such an annoyance. Neither would he walk around with more than two or three people. And he would occasionally ask bystanders for a few copper coins so that, for fear of being asked to give, they would stop mobbing him—this according to what Cleanthes says in his work On Bronze. When several people stood around him in the colonnade, he pointed to the wooden railing, which surrounded the altar at the top, and said, “This was once open to all. But because it was found to be a hindrance, it was railed off. So then, if you will take yourselves out of the way, you will be much less annoying to us.” …

[16] Zeno himself was sour with a frowning face. He was very frugal, too, practicing at times a stinginess unworthy of a Greek on the pretext of good stewardship.

If he reproved anyone, he would do it concisely and without an effusion of words—doing so, as it were, at as distance. I mean, for example, what he said to the pretty boy who embellished his face to show it off. [17] When he was slowly making his way across a gutter, Zeno said, “He looks askance at the mud with good reason, for he cannot see his face in it.”

When a certain Cynic man declared that he had no oil in his oil-flask and asked Zeno for some, he refused to give him any. However, as the man went away, Zeno urged him to consider which of the two was the more shameless.

Zeno was very much in love with Chremonides. Once, when he and Cleanthes were both sitting by him, Zeno rose up. Astonished by this, Cleanthes said, “I hear from good physicians that the best medicine for inflammation is quiet and rest.”

There were once two men reclining next to each other over cups of wine. The one who was sitting next to Zeno kicked the other man. So Zeno himself kicked the man with his knee. When the man turned around, Zeno asked, “How do you think your neighbor liked what you did to him?”

[18] To a lover of boys, Zeno said, “Just as teachers lose their mind by spending all their time with boys, so it is with people like you.”

He used to say that refined and precise words were like coins struck by Alexander: they were beautiful in appearance and well-rounded like the coins but no better because of this. As for the opposite kind of words, he would compare them to the Attic tetradrachm, which, though struck carelessly and awkwardly, nevertheless outweighed the elaborate speech.

When his student Ariston discoursed at length in an uninspired manner, sometimes in a headstrong and overly confident manner, Zeno said, “Your father must have been drunk when he begot you.” Therefore, he would call him a babbler since he himself was very concise in his speech.

[19] There was a glutton who was so greedy that he left nothing for his table companions. When a large fish was served, Zeno took it up as if he were going to eat the whole thing. When the other man looked at him, he said, “What do you suppose those who live with you feel every day if you can’t, just once, put up with my gluttony?”

Once a youth was asking him questions with a curiosity unsuited to his age. Consequently, Zeno led the youth to a mirror, urged him to look into it, and asked him whether such questions appeared suitable to the face he saw there.

A man said that he did not in general agree with Antisthenes. So Zeno produced Antisthenes’ essay on Sophocles and asked him if he thought it was at all noble. The man said he didn’t know. “Then are you not ashamed,” he said, “to pick out and mention anything wrong said by Antisthenes, while you suppress the good things without giving them any thought?”

[20] When someone said that he thought the petty speeches of the philosophers seemed small, Zeno said, “You’re right. To be sure, the very syllables should be short, if possible.”

Speaking about Polemon, someone said that his lecture was different from the topic he had announced. Frowning, Zeno said, “At what price would have you been content with what was offered?”

Zeno said that we should be earnest when conversing, and, like actors, we should have a loud voice and great strength. Nevertheless, we should not open the mouth too wide. That is what a senseless chatterbox does.

He used to say that there was no need for those who spoke well to leave those listening space to look around them as good workmen do who want to have their work seen. On the contrary, those who are listening should be so absorbed in the speaking itself as to have no time even to take notes.

[21] Once, when a young man was talking a lot, Zeno said, “Your ears have slipped down and merged with your tongue.”

To the handsome youth who said that it seemed to him that a wise man would not fall in love, Zeno replied, “In that case, there will be no one more miserable than you handsome fellows.”

About philosophers, Zeno used to say that most were unwise about many things, and ignorant about small and chance things.

And he used to cite the sayings of Caphisius, who, when one of his students was attempting to blow the flute with great gusto, gave the student a slap and told him that to play well does not depend on volume, though playing loudly may follow upon playing well.

And to a youth who was arguing in too bold a manner, he said, “I would rather not tell you, young man, what I am thinking.”

[22] A Rhodian man, who was handsome and wealthy, but nothing more, insisted on joining his class. But so unwelcome was the student that Zeno first of all made him sit on benches that were dusty so that his cloak would be covered with dust. Then he consigned him to the place where the beggars sat so that he would have to rub shoulders with their rags. Finally, the young man went away. Zeno declared that nothing was more unbecoming than vanity, particularly in the young.

Zeno used to say that it was not the words and expressions that we ought to remember, but we should engage our mind in arranging to our advantage what we hear, instead of, as it were, tasting a well-cooked dish or a well-dressed meal.

He said that the young should behave with perfect propriety in the way they walk and carry themselves and dress. Accordingly, he used to quote the lines of Euripides about Capaneus: “Though he was happy in riches, he had no more pride than a poor man.”[ix]

[23] Zeno would say that if we want to master the sciences, there is nothing as fatal as supposition or self-conceit. Further, there is nothing we lack as much as time.

To the question, “Who is a friend?” Zeno’s answer was, “Another self.”

They say that Zeno was once chastising a slave for stealing. When the latter said that he was fated to steal, Zeno replied, “Yes, and you were also fated to receive a beating.”

Zeno called beauty the bloom of moderation. According to others, he said that moderation was the bloom of beauty.

Once, when he saw the slave of one of his acquaintances marked with the signs of a beating, Zeno said, “I see the imprints of your anger.”

To a man who was drenched with perfume, he said, “Who is this that smells like a woman?”

When Diogenes Metathemenus asked him why he was the only student he did not correct, Zeno said, “Because I do not trust you.”

To a young man who was talking nonsense, Zeno said, “The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is so that we may listen more and talk less.”

[24] Zeno was once reclining in silence at a drinking party. When he was asked the reason, he told his critic to carry word to the king that there was one present who knew how to hold his tongue. Now those who inquired of him were ambassadors of Ptolemy. They wanted to know what message they should take back from him to the king.

When Zeno was asked how he felt when people abused him, he replied, “As an ambassador feels when he is sent away without an answer.”

Apollonius of Tyre tells us how, when Crates grabbed Zeno by the cloak to drag him from Stilpon, Zeno said, “The right way to seize a philosopher, Crates, is by the ears. So then persuade me and drag me off by them. But if you use violence, my body will be with you, but my mind will be with Stilpon.”

[25] According to Hippobotus, Zeno spent time with Diodorus, studying dialectic with him. And when he was already making progress, he would enter Polemon’s school because of his freedom from vanity. Consequently, Polemon reportedly said to him, “I’m not unaware, Zeno, that you slip in through the garden door and steal my teachings, clothing them as a Phoenician.”[x]

A dialectician once showed Zeno seven logical forms concerned with the sophism known as “The Reaper,” and Zeno asked him how much he wanted for them. When he was told a hundred drachmas, Zeno promptly paid two hundred. That’s how far he would go to satisfy his love of learning.

They say that Zeno was the first one to use the term “duty” [kathēkon] and that he wrote a treatise on the topic.

It is also said that he altered Hesiod’s lines in this way: “Best of all is that man who is won over by good advice. And noble too is that one who thinks about everything himself.”[xi][26] The reason he gave for this alteration was this: the man who is capable of giving a proper hearing to what is said and profiting by it is superior to him who understands everything by himself. This is so because the one has understanding alone, whereas in obeying good advice, the other has added doing or acting to his understanding.

When Zeno was asked why he relaxed at a drinking party even though he was usually so austere, he said, “Lupin beans are also bitter. But when they are soaked, they become sweet.” In the second book of his Anecdotes and Sayings, Hecaton says that Zeno freely indulged at such gatherings.

Zeno would say that it is better to trip with the feet than with the tongue.

He would say that getting well happens little by little but that well-being is nevertheless no small thing. (Others attribute this to Socrates.)

[27] Zeno was most capable of endurance and very frugal. His food required no fire, and his threadbare cloak was thin, so that it was said of him: “Neither the cold of winter, nor the endless rain, nor the flame of the sun, nor dread disease, nor the passion urged at a festival of the people conquers him. But unwearied and unyielding, he clings to his studies day and night.”

Moreover, the comic poets, without intending it, praise him by means of their jokes. In this way, Philemon declares in his drama the Philosophers, “A loaf of bread with fig relish and water besides—this man adopts a new philosophy, teaching hunger, and yet he gets students.” Others attribute these lines to Poseidippus.

By this time, he had almost become a proverb. Anyway, “More self-controlled than the philosopher Zeno” used to be said about him. Poseidippus includes it in his Men Transported: “So that for ten days he was more self-controlled than Zeno.”

Part 3: Criticisms, King Antigonus, Death, Burial & Honors[xii]

Criticisms of Zeno

There are some—among them Cassius the skeptic and his followers—who make many charges against Zeno.

Their first charge is that in the beginning of his Republic Zeno declares that ordinary education is useless.

The second charge is that he calls all men who are not excellent “adversaries” and “enemies” and “slaves” and “strangers to one another”—parents to their children, brothers to brothers, and family to family. [33] Yet again, in the Republic he presents excellent men as the only true citizens, as well as friends and family members and free men. Accordingly, in the view of the Stoics, parents and children are adversaries since they are not wise.

And in the Republic, Zeno gives as his opinion that there should be a community of wives. And at line 200, he prohibits the construction of temples, lawcourts, and gymnasia in cities. As for currency, he writes that he does not think that it is necessary to introduce it either for purposes of exchange or for traveling abroad. Additionally, he calls on men and women to wear the same clothing and to leave no part uncovered.

[34] In his treatise On the State, Chrysippus affirms that the Republicis Zeno’s work.

In the beginning of his writing The Art of Love, Zeno discusses love matters. Furthermore, in the Studies he writes about similar things.

So much for the charges made by Cassius, as well as by the orator Isidorus of Pergamum.

Isidorus also declares that the worthless sayings made by the Stoics were cut out of their books by Athenodorus the Stoic, the curator of the library at Pergamum. Later on, when Athenodorus was detected and threatened, they were replaced. So much regarding the passages in his writings that were rejected as spurious.

Zeno’s Interaction with King Antigonus of Macedonia [xiii]

[6] Antigonus also favored Zeno. Whenever he came to Athens, he listened to him lecture, and he often invited the philosopher to visit him. But Zeno declined his offer, sending one of his friends, Persaeus, the son of Demetrius and a native of Citium, who flourished in the 130th Olympiad. Zeno was already an old man by this time. According to what Apollonius of Tyre says in his work On Zeno, the letter of Antigonus was as follows:

[7] King Antigonus to Zeno the philosopher, greeting.

I consider myself superior to you in glory and wealth. But in reason and education, and in the perfect happiness you have attained, I acknowledge that I am far behind you. Therefore, I have decided to ask you to visit me, being persuaded that you will not refuse the request.

By all means, then, do your best to meet with me, understanding that you will not only be instructing me but all the Macedonians together. For he who teaches the Macedonian ruler and guides him along the path of virtue will also be training his subjects to be good men. For as the ruler is, so, for the most part, we may expect the subjects to become.

And Zeno wrote back to him as follows:

[8] Zeno to King Antigonus, greeting.

I welcome your love of learning inasmuch as you hold to the truth that stretches out toward advantage and not to that popular kind of instruction that tends only to the corruption of morals. If anyone has longed for philosophy, turning away from well-known pleasure that renders effeminate the souls of some of the young, it is clear that he is inclined to nobility of life not only by nature but by deliberate choice. If any man with a nature such as yours receives a reasonable amount of training, in terms of ungrudging instruction, he will easily reach perfect virtue.

[9] As for me, I am unable to join you due to old age and subsequent bodily weakness—I am eighty years old.

But I send to you certain men who have studied with me, men whose mental powers are not inferior to mine, while their bodily strength is far greater. If you join with these men, you will lack nothing that is necessary for perfect happiness.

So he sent Persaeus and Philonides the Theban. Epicurus mentions them both as living with Antigonus in his letter to his brother Aristobulus. …

[14] When Demochares, the son of Laches, greeted him and told him that he only had to speak or write for anything he wanted to Antigonus, who would be sure to grant all his requests, Zeno, after hearing this, would have nothing more to do with him.

[15] After Zeno’s death, Antigonus is reported to have said, “What a spectacle I have lost!” For this reason he employed Thraso as his ambassador to ask the Athenians to bury Zeno in the Ceramicus. And when queried why he admired him, he said, “Because the many and great gifts I gave him never filled him with conceit nor yet did they cause him to appear lowly.” …

Zeno’s Death

[28] Zeno surpassed everyone in self-control and dignity—also, by god, in bliss—for he was ninety-eight when he died, free from sickness, and healthy to the end.

Persaeus, however, in his ethical lectures, declares that he died at the age of seventy-two, having come to Athens at the age of twenty-two. But Apollonius says that he presided over the school for fifty-eight years.

The manner of his death was as follows. As he was leaving the school, he tripped and fell, breaking a toe. Striking the ground with his fist, he quoted the line from the Niobe, “I come, why are you crying aloud to me?” And he died straightaway by holding his breath. …

[31] We have ourselves spoken of the manner of Zeno’s death in the Pammetros, our collection of poems in all meters: “The story goes that Zeno of Citium, after enduring many hardships by reason of old age, was set free—some say by stopping to take food, whereas others say that once when he had tripped, he beat with his hand upon the earth and cried, ‘I come of my own accord—why then call me?’” For there are some who hold this to have been the manner of his death.

So much, then, concerning his death.

Honors for Zeno & His Place of Burial

[6] The people of Athens honored Zeno very much, as was shown when they entrusted him with the keys of the city walls, and when they honored him with a golden crown and a bronze statue. This honor was also given him by the citizens of his hometown, who considered his statue a credit to their city. And the men of Citium living in Sidon also claimed him as their own. …

[9] It has also seemed good to me to add on the decree that the Athenians passed concerning him. [10] It reads as follows:

In the archonship of Arrhenides, in the fifth prytany of the tribe Acamantis, on the twenty-first day of Maemacterion, at the twenty-third plenary assembly of the prytany, one of the presidents, Hippo, the son of Cratistoteles, of the deme Xypetaeon, and his co-presidents put the question to the vote. Thraso, the son of Thraso, of the deme Anacaea, moved:

Whereas Zeno of Citium, the son of Mnaseas, has for many years been devoted to philosophy in the city and has continued to be a good man in all other respects, exhorting to virtue and moderation those of the youth who come to him to be taught, directing them to what is most excellent, offering to all in his own manner of living a pattern for imitation in perfect conformity with his teaching, [11] it has seemed good to the people—and may it so happen—to bestow praise on Zeno of Citium, the son of Mnaseas, and to crown him with a golden crown according to the law for his virtue and moderation, and to build for him a tomb in the Ceramicus out of public funds. And that for the making of the crown and the building of the tomb, the people shall now elect five men from the Athenian population, and the recorder shall inscribe this decree on two stone pillars, and he shall be given the power to set up one in the Academy and the other in the Lyceum. And that the magistrate presiding over the administration shall apportion the expense incurred on the pillars so that all may know that the Athenian people honor good men both during their life and after their death.

[12] For the making of the crown and the building, Thraso of the deme Anacaea, Philocles of Piraeus, Phaedrus of Anaphlystus, Medon of Acharnae, Micythus of Sypalettus, and Dion of Paeania have been elected.

Such are the terms of the decree. …

[29] The Athenians buried Zeno in the Ceramicus and honored him in the decrees already cited above, bearing additional witness to his virtue.

Here is the epitaph composed for him by Antipater of Sidon: “Here lies great Zeno, dear to Citium, who scaled high Olympus, though he piled not Pelion on Ossa nor toiled at the labors of Heracles, but his path was a path to the stars—the way of moderation alone.”

[30] Here too is another by Zenodotus the Stoic, Diogenes’ student: “You, O Zeno, made self-sufficiency your rule, letting go of empty riches. With gravity of deportment—venerable, revered—you discovered a manly doctrine. And with foresight you contended by means of a deliberate plan, the mother of fearless liberty. And even if your fatherland was Phoenicia, what need is there for ill-will? Didn’t Cadmus come from there, the place from which Greece has writing and papyrus?”

And Athenaeus the epigrammatist speaks of all the Stoics in common as follows: “You who are acquainted with the words of the Stoic Porch, you have committed to your divine books the best of teachings, that virtue of the soul is the only good. Her decrees alone protect the lives of men and cities. But those other men who declare that the goal of life is the enjoyment of the flesh are ruined by one of the Muses, the daughters of Memory.”[xiv]

So ends Reading 4. See you in Reading 5, “Hymn to Zeus, Ruler of the Cosmos."

Notes

[i] For Part 1, see Diogenes Laertius, Lives7.1, 12, 2-5, 15-16, 31-32, 36-38.

[ii] Antigonus of Carystus was a writer and bronzeworker who lived in Athens and Pergamum during the third century BC.

[iii] Crates of Thebes (c. 365-c. 285 BC) is known for his radical conversion to Cynicism. He was Diogenes of Sinope’s student and his eventual successor as leader of the Cynics. Stilpon (Stilpo) of Megara (fourth century BC), head of the Megarian school, focused on ethics. Xenocrates of Chalcedon (fourth century BC) was the student of Plato and the third head of the Academy. Polemon (Polemo) of Athens (fourth to third century BC) was the fourth head of the Academy.

[iv] For the Cynics and Cynic shamelessness (anaideia), see the Cave’s The Best of the Cynics: The Lives, Writings & Teachings of the Ancient Cynics.

[v] Demetrius of Magnesia was a first century bcbiographer.

[vi] The third century BC director of the library at Alexandria, Eratosthenes of Cyrene, carried out research in many areas of study. He is most famous for measuring the circumference of the earth.

[vii] Hippobotus was a late third to early second century BC historian of philosophy.

[viii] For Part 2, see Diogenes Laertius, Lives7.12-14, 16-27.

[ix] See Euripides, Suppliant Women 861-863.

[x] “A Phoenician” because Citium, Zeno’s hometown, was, as Diogenes Laertius puts it, “a Greek city that had received Phoenician settlers” (7.1). Others thought Zeno’s “fatherland” was Phoenician (see Zenodotus the Stoic in Lives 7.30).

[xi] The original lines from Hesiod’s Works and Days 293-295 read, “Best of all is that man who thinks about everything himself. And noble too is that one who is won over by good advice.” To read it in context, see the Cave’s The Best of Hesiod’s Theogony & Works and Days.

[xii] For Part 3, see Diogenes Laertius, Lives 7.32-34, 6-12, 14-15, 28, 31, 29-30.

[xiii] Antigonus (called Gonatas) was the king of Macedonia from c. 277-239 BC. His interest in the life of the intellect was manifest in the form of having philosophers, poets, and historians visit him at his court in Pella. He is reported to have declared that “kingship is honorable service”—an ancient precursor, perhaps, of today’s “servant leadership.”

[xiv] Athenaeus the epigrammatist is referring either to the Cyrenaics, founded by Aristippus of Cyrene (c. 435-356 BC), or the Epicureans, founded by Epicurus (341-270 BC). As for the Muse, he likely means Euterpe. For Epicurus, see the Cave’s The Best of Epicurus: The Life, Writings & Teachings of Epicurus the Greek Philosopher.