Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​Menedemus was a pupil of Colotes of Lampsacus. This man, as Hippobotus says, went to such a pitch of charlatanism that he went about in the garb of an Erinys, saying that he had come from Hades as an inspector of sinners, in order that on descending again he might report these misdeeds to the demons there. His costume was as follows: a grey tunic reaching to the feet, with a crimson girdle around it, an Arcadian cap on his head having the twelve signs of the zodiac woven into it, tragic buskins, an enormous beard, and an ash-wood rod in his hand.

​Such are the lives of each of the Cynics. We will proceed to append a sketch of their common doctrines as well, since we judge that this philosophy is also a sect, and not, as some say, merely a manner of life. They resolve, then, to discard the logical and physical branches, similarly to Aristo of Chios, and to attend solely to the ethical. And what some record of Socrates, this Diocles writes of Diogenes, asserting that he used to say that one must seek "whatever of evil and of good has been wrought in your halls." They also reject the subjects of general education. Antisthenes, at any rate, used to say that those who had become temperate should not learn letters, so that they might not be corrupted by foreign matters.

​They also banish geometry, music, and all such pursuits. Diogenes, at any rate, said to someone who was displaying a sundial to him: "A useful invention for not being late to dinner." To one who was displaying his musical skill before him, he said: "For by the counsel of men are cities well governed, and so is a house, not by harpings and trillings." It is also their doctrine that living according to virtue is the end, as Antisthenes says in his *Heracles*, resembling the Stoics; for there is a certain kinship between these two sects. Hence they have also called Cynicism a shortcut to virtue; and in this way Zeno of Citium also lived. It is also their doctrine to live frugally, using only sufficient food and worn cloaks, despising wealth, reputation, and noble birth. Some, at any rate, use herbs and strictly cold water, and whatever shelters come to hand, or large wine-jars, just like Diogenes, who used to say that to need nothing is proper to gods, but to need few things is proper to those who resemble gods.

​It is also their doctrine that virtue can be taught, as Antisthenes says in his *Heracles*, and that it cannot be lost; and that the wise man is worthy of love, free from error, a friend to his peer, and entrusts nothing to fortune. The things intermediate between virtue and vice they declare to be indifferent, similarly to Aristo of Chios. Such, then, are the Cynics; and we must pass on to the Stoics, of whom Zeno was the founder, having become a pupil of Crates.