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

The ten books are of unequal length. The Seventh is the longest, and yet it has come down to us in a sadly mutilated condition. The evidence for this is the Index to the "Lives" prefixed by the scribe of the Paris manuscript known as P. The philosophers listed there agree with our text for the other books; however, the list for Book VII contains 22 names, of which only the first three are still extant in P or any other known manuscript. The titles of the lost "Lives" are: Zeno of Tarsus, Diogenes, Boethus, Apollodorus, Mnesarchides, Mnesagoras, Nestor, Basilides, Dardanus, Antipater, Heraclides, Sosigenes, Panaetius, Cato, Posidonius, Athenodorus, a second Antipater, Arius, and Cornutus. If all these were treated with even average fullness, the book would be double its current size. Whether this explains the mutilation is a matter of conjecture.

The disproportionate treatment of Plato and Epicurus is not due so much to a mass of biographical detail as to the insertion of supplementary material. Book III includes a sort of introduction to the philosophy of Plato—very similar to that of Albinus—followed by a summary of Platonic doctrine. Meanwhile, Book X is made up largely of extracts from the writings of Epicurus, which are by far the most valuable items preserved in this collection of odds and ends.

The Lives of Pythagoras and Empedocles are relatively valuable contributions, owing to the author's use of the Sicilian historian Timaeus for Empedocles, and Alexander Polyhistor for Pythagoras. The summary of Stoic doctrine in Book VII (39-160) is comprehensive and trustworthy. The Lives of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the three great Stoics make up articles that would not be unworthy of an encyclopedia.