levy tribute on them and collect it whether they will orno.’* According to Diodorus in the first book of his Memorabilia, Speusippus was the first to discern the common element in all studies and to bring them into connexion with each other so far as that was possible. And according to Caeneus he was the first to divulge what Isocrates called the secrets of his art, and the first to devise the means by which fagots of firewood are rendered portable. When he was already crippled by paralysis, he sent a message to Xenocrates entreating him to come and take over the charge of the school.? They say that, as he was being conveyed to the Academy in a tiny carriage, he met and saluted Diogenes, who replied, “‘ Nay, if you can endure to live in such a plight as this, I decline to return your greeting.” At last in old age he became so despondent that he put an end to his life. Here follows my epigram upon him °¢: Had I not learnt that Speusippus would die thus, no one would have persuaded me to say that he was surely not of Plato’s blood ; for else he would never have died in despair for a trivial cause. Plutarch in the Lives of Lysander and Sulla makes his malady to have been “‘ morbus pedicularis.”’ 4 That his body wasted away is affirmed by Timotheus in his book On Lives. Speusippus, he says, meeting a rich man who was in love with one who was no beauty, said to him, ‘‘ Why, pray, are you in such sore need of him? For ten talents I will find you a more handsome bride.”
The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.
Diodorus — a candidate entry Isocrates — a candidate entry Memorabilia — a candidate entry Plato — a life
Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume I (Books I-V), Diogenes Laertius — translated by R. D. Hicks, 1925
Apparatus shelf — Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, vol. I (R. D. Hicks translation, Loeb L184) · R. D. Hicks, Loeb Classical Library, London: William Heinemann / New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, MCMXXV (1925)
license: public-domain (US: published 1925, pre-1930 — the MCMXXV title page verified by the 2026-07-08 acquisition lane, pin in ops/sources/MANIFEST.md; only the English rectos are served, Hicks's translation)