5. An obscure person in more recent times who is mentioned by Dionysius in his Critical Writings. Thales the Sage died as he was watching an athletic contest from heat, thirst, and the weakness incident to advanced age. And the inscription on his tomb Sot Here in a narrow tomb great Thales lies ; Yet his renown for wisdom reached the skies. I may also cite one of my own, from my first book, Epigrams in Various Metres ° : As Thales watched the games one festal day The fierce sun smote him, and he passed away ; Zeus, thou didst well to raise him ; his dim eyes Could not from earth behold the starry skies.¢ To him belongs the proverb “ Know thyself,” which Antisthenes in his Successions of Philosophers attributes to Phemonoé, though admitting that it was appropriated by Chilon. This seems the proper place for a general notice of the Seven Sages, of whom we have such accounts as the following. Damon of Cyrene in his History of the Philosophers carps at all sages, but especially the Seven. Anaximenes remarks that they all applied themselves to poetry; Dicaearchus that _ they were neither sages nor philosophers, but merely