The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

LIVES OF EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS.

wisdom (sophia), and those who professed it were called wise men (sophoi), as being endowed with great acuteness and accuracy of mind. But now, he who embraces wisdom is called a philosopher (philosophos).

Wise men were also called Sophists. Not only they, but poets were also called Sophists; for instance, Cratinus in his Archilochi calls Homer and Hesiod Sophists while praising them highly.

IX. Now, these were the men accounted wise: Thales, Solon, Periander, Cleobulus, Chilo, Bias, and Pittacus. To these, add Anacharsis the Scythian, Myson the Chenean, Pherecydes the Syrian, and Epimenides the Cretan; some also add Pisistratus the tyrant. These, then, are they who were called the wise men.

X. But from philosophy there arose two schools: one derived from Anaximander, the other from Pythagoras. Thales had been the tutor of Anaximander, and Pherecydes the tutor of Pythagoras. One school was called the Ionian because Thales—an Ionian from Miletus—had been the tutor of Anaximander. The other was called the Italian from Pythagoras, because he spent the chief part of his life in Italy. The Ionic school ends with Clitomachos, Chrysippus, and Theophrastus; the Italian school ends with Epicurus. Anaximander succeeded Thales; he was succeeded by Anaximenes, then Anaxagoras, then Archelaus, who was the master of Socrates, the originator of moral philosophy. Socrates was the master of the Socratic philosophers and of Plato, the founder of the Old Academy. Plato’s pupils were Speusippus and Xenocrates; Polemo was the pupil of Xenocrates; Crantor and Crates were pupils of Polemo. Crates was the master of Arcesilaus, the founder of the Middle Academy, and his pupil was Lacydes, who gave the New Academy its distinctive principles. His pupil was Carneades, and he in turn was the master of Clitomachos. Thus, this school ends with Clitomachos and Chrysippus.

Antisthenes was a pupil of Socrates and the master of Diogenes the Cynic; the pupil of Diogenes was Crates the Theban; Zeno the Citiean was his pupil, then Cleanthes, then Chrysippus. Again, it ends with Theophrastus in the following manner: