,

Catholic Library Home

▾

,

Lives of the Eminent Philosophers

Table of Contents

Book I .

and this idea was borrowed by Anaxagoras when he declared that all things were originally together until Mind came and set them in order. Linus died i

And thus it was from the Greeks that philosophy took its rise: its very name refuses to be translated into foreign speech.

But the advocates of the theory that philosophy took its rise among the barbarians go on to explain the different forms it assumed in different countr

But according to others he wrote nothing but two treatises, one On the Solstice and one On the Equinox History of Astronomy.

Accordingly they give it to Thales, and he to another, and so on till it comes to Solon, who, with the remark that the god was the most wise, sent it

But the prose inscription is:

and it was given in reply to a question put by Anacharsis. Daimachus the Platonist and Clearchus allege that a bowl was sent by Croesus to Pittacus an

Some relate that a vessel with its freight was sent by Periander to Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus, and that, when it was wrecked in Coan waters, the

That of the Milesians beginning Who shall possess the tripod? has been quoted above. So much for this version of the story.

His writings are said by Lobon of Argos to have run to some two hundred lines. His statue is said to bear this inscription:

Of songs still sung these verses belong to him:

Here too are certain current apophthegms assigned to him:

I may also cite one of my own, from my first book, Epigrams in Various Metres

To him belongs the proverb Know thyself, which Antisthenes in his Successions of Philosophers attributes to Phemonoë, though admitting that it was a

Nor is there any agreement how the number is made up for Maeandrius, in place of Cleobulus and Myson, includes Leophantus, son of Gorgiadas, of Lebed

He also persuaded the Athenians to acquire the Thracian Chersonese. And lest it should be thought that he had acquired Salamis by force only and not o

Solon inserted one of his own:

Thereafter the people looked up to him, and would gladly have had him rule them as tyrant he refused, and, early perceiving the designs of his kinsma

That he foresaw the tyranny of Pisistratus is proved by a passage from a poem of his:

When Pisistratus was already established, Solon, unable to move the people, piled his arms in front of the generals' quarters, and exclaimed, My coun

and Solon, perceiving this, treated them with scant respect. Excellent, too, is his provision that the guardian of an orphan should not marry the moth

and to have replied thus:

Of the songs sung this is attributed to Solon:

He flourished, according to Sosicrates, about the 46th Olympiad, in the third year of which he was archon at Athens it was then that he enacted his l

An epigram of my own is also contained in the collection of Epigrams in Various Metres mentioned above, where I have discoursed of all the illustrious

It is said that he was the author of the apophthegm Nothing too much, Ne quid nimis. According to Dioscurides in his Memorabilia,

The inscription on his statue runs thus:

His apophthegm is: Give a pledge, and suffer for it. A short letter is also ascribed to him.

He also wrote poems in elegiac metre, some 600 lines, and a prose work On Laws for the use of the citizens.

To him belongs the apophthegm, Know thine opportunity.

The advice seems to have been prompted by his situation. For he had married a wife superior in birth to himself: she was the sister of Draco, the son

and Hipponax thus: More powerful in pleading causes than Bias of Priene.

My own epitaph is:

He wrote a poem of 2000 lines on Ionia and the manner of rendering it prosperous. Of his songs the most popular is the following:

For this earns most gratitude the headstrong spirit often flashes forth with harmful bane.

His apophthegm was: Moderation is best. And he wrote to Solon the following letter:

My own epitaph on him is:

To him belongs the maxim: Never do anything for money leave gain to trades pursued for gain. He wrote a didactic poem of 2000 lines. He said that tho

It was a saying of his that the vine bore three kinds of grapes: the first of pleasure, the next of intoxication, and the third of disgust. He said he

His curiosity aroused, Anacharsis went to the village in summer time and found him fitting a share to a plough and said, Myson, this is not the seaso

Aristoxenus in his Historical Gleanings says he was not unlike Timon and Apemantus, for he was a misanthrope. At any rate he was seen in Lacedaemon la

Ion of Chios says of him:

There is also an epigram of my own in the Pherecratean metre:

Book II .

He was eminent for wealth and noble birth, and furthermore for magnanimity, in that he gave up his patrimony to his relations. For, when they accused

I also have written an epigram upon him:

There have been three other men who bore the name of Anaxagoras [of whom no other writer gives a complete list]. The first was a rhetorician of the sc

And again he calls Euripides an engine riveted by Socrates. And Callias in The Captives :

Aristophanes in The Clouds

According to some authors he was a pupil of Anaxagoras, and also of Damon, as Alexander states in his Successions of Philosophers. When Anaxagoras was

that frequently, owing to his vehemence in argument, men set upon him with their fists or tore his hair out and that for the most part he was despise

He showed his contempt for Archelaus of Macedon and Scopas of Cranon and Eurylochus of Larissa by refusing to accept their presents or to go to their

This disdainful, lofty spirit of his is also noticed by Aristophanes when he says:

he got up and left the theatre. For he said it was absurd to make a hue and cry about a slave who could not be found, and to allow virtue to perish in

and he told Aeschines, On the third day I shall die. When he was about to drink the hemlock, Apollodorus offered him a beautiful garment to die in:

For this he was most envied and especially because he would take to task those who thought highly of themselves, proving them to be fools, as to be s

Dionysodorus denies that he wrote the paean. He also composed a fable of Aesop, not very skilfully, beginning:

So he was taken from among men and not long afterwards the Athenians felt such remorse that they shut up the training grounds and gymnasia. They bani

There is another on the circumstances of his death:

He is said to have ordered a partridge to be bought at a cost of fifty drachmae, and, when someone censured him, he inquired, Would not you have give

Aristippus, however, put on the dress and, as he was about to dance, was ready with the repartee:

He made a request to Dionysius on behalf of a friend and, failing to obtain it, fell down at his feet. And when some one jeered at him, he made reply,

This is stated by Diocles in his work On the Lives of Philosophers other writers refer the anecdotes to Plato. After getting in a rage with Aeschine

He too was a dialectician and was supposed to have been the first who discovered the arguments known as the Veiled Figure and the Horned One. When

The successors of Euclides include Ichthyas, the son of Metallus, an excellent man, to whom Diogenes the Cynic has addressed one of his dialogues Cli

In character Stilpo was simple and unaffected, and he could readily adapt himself to the plain man. For instance, when Crates the Cynic did not answer

The pun upon καινοῦ (new) and καὶ νοῦ (mind as well) recurs vi. 3.

and Timon as follows:

He was a man of such dignity that, when Eurylochus of Casandrea was invited by Antigonus to court along with Cleïppides, a youth of Cyzicus, he declin

which are from the Omphale, a satiric drama of Achaeus. Therefore it is a mistake to say that he had read nothing except the Medea

Book III

From that time onward, having reached his twentieth year (so it is said), he was the pupil of Socrates. When Socrates was gone, he attached himself to

Furthermore he said that, according to Homer, beyond all men the Egyptians were skilled in healing. Plato also intended to make the acquaintance of th

Moreover, there are verses of Timon which refer to Plato:

Then there is Timon who puns on his name thus:

Alexis again in the Meropis :

And Alexis in the Olympiodorus :

And in the Parasite :

Anaxilas, again, in the Botrylion Circe Rich Women

And he wrote thus upon Dion:

This, they say, was actually inscribed upon his tomb at Syracuse.

Further, Molon, being his enemy, said, It is not wonderful that Dionysius should be in Corinth, but rather that Plato should be in Sicily. And it se

There is also an epitaph of my own which runs thus:

Here too are certain current apophthegms assigned to him:

Of all things that are, the most ancient is God, for he is uncreated.
The most beautiful is the universe, for it is God's workmanship.
The greatest is space, for it holds all things.
The swiftest is mind, for it speeds everywhere.
The strongest, necessity, for it masters all.
The wisest, time, for it brings everything to light.

He held there was no difference between life and death. "Why then," said one, "do you not die?" "Because," said he, "there is no difference." To the question which is older, day or night, he replied: "Night is the older by one day." Some one asked him whether a man could hide an evil deed from the gods: "No," he replied, "nor yet an evil thought." To the adulterer who inquired if he should deny the charge upon oath he replied that perjury was no worse than adultery. Being asked what is difficult, he replied, "To know oneself." "What is easy?" "To give advice to another." "What is most pleasant?" "Success." "What is the divine?" "That which has neither beginning nor end." To the question what was the strangest thing he had ever seen, his answer was, "An aged tyrant." "How can one best bear adversity?" "If he should see his enemies in worse plight." "How shall we lead the best and most righteous life?" "By refraining from doing what we blame in others." "What man is happy?" "He who has a healthy body, a resourceful mind and a docile nature." He tells us to remember friends, whether present or absent; not to pride ourselves upon outward appearance, but to study to be beautiful in character. "Shun ill-gotten gains," he says. "Let not idle words prejudice thee against those who have shared thy confidence." "Whatever provision thou hast made for thy parents, the same must thou expect from thy children." He explained the overflow of the Nile as due to the etesian winds which, blowing in the contrary direction, drove the waters upstream.

Apollodorus in his Chronology places his birth in the first year of the 35th Olympiad.³² He died at the age of 78 (or, according to Sosicrates, of 90 years); for he died in the 58th Olympiad, being contemporary with Croesus, whom he undertook to take across the Halys without building a bridge, by diverting the river.

There have lived five other men who bore the name of Thales, as enumerated by Demetrius of Magnesia in his Dictionary of Men of the Same Name:

A rhetorician of Callatia, with an affected style.
A painter of Sicyon, of great gifts.
A contemporary of Hesiod, Homer and Lycurgus, in very early times.
A person mentioned by Duris in his work On Painting.
An obscure person in more recent times who is mentioned by Dionysius in his Critical Writings.

Thales the Sage died as he was watching an athletic contest from heat, thirst, and the weakness incident to advanced age. And the inscription on his tomb is³³:

Here in a narrow tomb great Thales lies;

Yet his renown for wisdom reached the skies.