Lives of the Eminent Philosophers
Book I .
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
Solon inserted one of his own:
That he foresaw the tyranny of Pisistratus is proved by a passage from a poem of his:
Of the songs sung this is attributed to Solon:
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.
To him belongs the apophthegm, Know thine opportunity.
and Hipponax thus: More powerful in pleading causes than Bias of Priene.
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:
There is also an epigram of my own in the Pherecratean metre:
Book II .
I also have written an epigram upon him:
And again he calls Euripides an engine riveted by Socrates. And Callias in The Captives :
This disdainful, lofty spirit of his is also noticed by Aristophanes when he says:
There is another on the circumstances of his death:
Aristippus, however, put on the dress and, as he was about to dance, was ready with the repartee:
The pun upon καινοῦ (new) and καὶ νοῦ (mind as well) recurs vi. 3.
Book III
Moreover, there are verses of Timon which refer to Plato:
Then there is Timon who puns on his name thus:
And Alexis in the Olympiodorus :
Anaxilas, again, in the Botrylion Circe Rich Women
This, they say, was actually inscribed upon his tomb at Syracuse.
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 Cratylus the Heraclitean, and to Hermogenes who professed the philosophy of Parmenides. Then at the age of twenty-eight, according to Hermodorus, he withdrew to Megara to Euclides, with certain other disciples of Socrates. Next he proceeded to Cyrene on a visit to Theodorus the mathematician, thence to Italy to see the Pythagorean philosophers Philolaus and Eurytus, and thence to Egypt to see those who interpreted the will of the gods; and Euripides is said to have accompanied him thither. There he fell sick and was cured by the priests, who treated him with sea-water, and for this reason he cited the line: 8
The sea doth wash away all human ills.