Cuapter 8. ARISTIPPUS (c. 435-350 B.C.) Aristippus was by birth a citizen of Cyrene and, as Aeschines informs us, was drawn to Athens by the fame of Socrates. Having come forward as a lecturer or sophist, as Phanias of Eresus, the Peripatetic, informs us, he was the first of the followe rs of Socrates to charge fees and to send money to his master. And on one occasion the sum of twenty minae which he had sent was returned to him, Socrates declaring that the supernatural sign would not let him take it; the very offer, in fact, annoye d him. Xenophon was no friend to Aristippus ; and for this reason he has made Socrates direct against Aristippus the discourse in which he denounces pleasure.t Not but what Theodorus in his work On Sects abuses him, and so does Plato in the dialogue On the Soul,’ as has been shown elsewhere. He was capable of adapting himself to place, time and person, and of playing his part appropriately under whatever circumstances. Hence he found more favour than anybody else with Dionysius, because he could always turn the situation to good account. He derived pleasure from what was present, and did not toil to procure the enjoyment of something not present. Hence Diogenes called him the king’s poodle. Timon, too, sneered at him for luxury in these words ¢ : that Diogenes Laertius refers to the Life of Plato as already written ; see iii. 36.