Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​All these things are related by Lycophron in the satyr play he composed titled Menedemus, having made the drama an encomium of the philosopher; some verses of which are as follows: "Truly, after a frugal banquet, the tiny cup circulates among them with measure, and for dessert the discourse that brings moderation serves those fond of listening." At first, then, he was despised, being called a dog and a babbler by the Eretrians; but later he was admired, so much so that they entrusted the city to him. He also went on embassies to Ptolemy and Lysimachus, being honored everywhere; nor indeed was it otherwise with Demetrius. And when the city was paying two hundred talents a year to Demetrius, he had fifty taken off. When he was slandered before Demetrius as being about to surrender the city to Ptolemy, he defended himself by a letter, the opening of which is:

"Menedemus to King Demetrius, greetings. I hear that an accusation has been laid before you concerning us." Report has it that one of his political opponents, Aeschylus, had slandered him. He is thought to have conducted an embassy to Demetrius concerning Oropus with the greatest dignity, as Euphantus also mentions in his Histories. Antigonus also loved him and proclaimed himself his disciple. And when Antigonus defeated the barbarians near Lysimacheia, Menedemus drafted for him a decree both simple and free from flattery, the beginning of which is:

"The generals and the probouloi proposed: Whereas King Antigonus, having conquered the barbarians in battle, has returned to his own land, and is accomplishing all other matters according to his will; resolved by the council and the people." On account of these things and his other ties of friendship, when he was suspected of intending to betray the city to him, and Aristodemus slandered him, he secretly withdrew; and he dwelt in Oropus in the temple of Amphiaraus. When gold cups were lost there, as Hermippus says, he was ordered to depart by a general decree of the Boeotians. Becoming dispirited from that, he secretly stole into his native city, took his wife and daughters, and went to Antigonus, where he ended his life in dejection.

​Heraclides, however, says quite the opposite: that having become a proboulos of the Eretrians, he frequently liberated the city from tyrants by calling in Demetrius; so that he could never have betrayed the city to Antigonus, but suffered a false accusation; and that he visited Antigonus wishing to liberate his native city, but when Antigonus would not yield, he ended his life through dejection by fasting for seven days. Antigonus of Carystus also records things similar to this. He had an open feud with Persaeus alone; for it was thought that when Antigonus was willing to restore the democracy to the Eretrians for the sake of Menedemus, Persaeus prevented it.

​Wherefore once at a drinking party Menedemus refuting him in argument said among other things and particularly: "As a philosopher he is indeed such a one, but as a man he is the worst of those who are and of those who are yet to be born." He died, according to Heraclides, having lived seventy-four years. And there is an epigram of ours upon him, running thus: "I heard, Menedemus, of thy fate, how voluntarily thou didst quench thy life, eating nothing in seven days. And then thou didst an Eretrian deed, yet all the same unmanly; for faint-heartedness, as thy guide, urged thee on." These, then, were the Socratics and those who derived from them. But we must now pass on to Plato, who founded the Academy, and those derived from him, as many as have become renowned.