He became very ready also at repartee in verbal debates, as is evident from what has been said above. Further, when he was sold as a slave, he endured it most nobly. For on a voyage to Aegina he was captured by pirates under the command of Scirpalus, a conveyed to Crete and exposed for sale. When the auctioneer asked in what he was proficient, he replied, " In ruling men." Thereupon he pointed to a certain Corinthian -with a fine purple border to his robe, the man named Xeniades above-mentioned, and said, " Sell me to this man ; he needs a master." Thus Xeniades came to buy him, and took him to Corinth and set him over his own children and entrusted his whole household to him. And he administered it in all respects in such a manner that Xeniades used to go about saying, " A good genius has entered my house." Cleomenes in his work entitled Concerning Pedagogues says that the friends of Diogenes wanted to ransom him, whereupon he called them simpletons ; for, said he, lions are not the slaves of those who feed them, but rather those who feed them are at the mercy of the lions : for fear is the mark of the slave, whereas wild beasts make men afraid of them. The man had in fact a wonderful gift of persuasion, so that he could easily vanquish anyone he liked in argument. At all events a certain Onesicritus of Aegina is said to have sent to Athens the one of his two sons named Androsthenes, and he having become a pupil of Diogenes stayed there ; the father then sent the other also, the aforesaid Philiscus, who was the elder, in search of him ; but Philiscus also was detained in the same way. When, thirdly, the father himself arrived, he was just as much attracted to the