Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Vol. 1 (Loeb)

he had read the most famous among them—such as Hermippus, Sotion, Apollodorus, and Demetrius Magnes—whom he cites so freely. The same, or at all events a similar, tale was told from generation to generation: the later compiler had a greater number of predecessors upon whom to draw. Much the same thing happens in modern times, for example with the histories of Greece and Rome, which are always being rewritten. Originality comes out in selection and arrangement rather than in research. The materials are in the main the same, but the structure varies with the fashion of the day. Now, in our author’s day, the fashion favored personal details, anecdotes, and witty sayings. Of these, there are choice specimens in Books VI and VII. This fashion encouraged in authors a peculiar species of research, which is best exemplified in Athenaeus, though Aelian and the biographer of the Ten Orators are also tinged with it. These writers would seem to have ransacked earlier literature in order to discover anything novel and startling: a variant on an old story, a fresh presentation of events, unpublished memoirs, or surprising episodes. It has been said that Plutarch would willingly exchange a whole dull volume of annals for a single golden anecdote; in his judgment, “a small action, a remark, or a joke often revealed character better than battles with thousands of men, the greatest troop formations, or the sieges of cities.” Original: Vita Alex. p. 665 init. πρᾶγμα βραχὺ πολλάκις καὶ ῥῆμα καὶ παιδιά τις ἔμφασιν ἤθους ἐποίησεν μᾶλλον ἢ μάχαι μυριόνεκροι καὶ παρατάξεις αἱ μέγισται καὶ πολιορκίαι πόλεων. Laertius was of the same mind, only he is sometimes content with baser metal.

He was uncritical and wrote for an uncritical age.