ἱστορίαι Historiai
D.L. 7.4 Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume II (Books VI-X), Diogenes Laertius; served verbatim
across Crates was this. lie was shipwrecked on a voyage from Phoenicia to Peiraeus with a cargo of purple. He went up into Athens and sat down in a bookseller's shop, being then a man of thirty. As he went on reading the second book of Xenophon's Memorabilia, he was so pleased that he inquired where men like Socrates were to be found. Crates passed by in the nick of time, so the bookseller pointed to him and said, " Follow yonder man." From that day he became Crates's pupil, showing in other respects a strong bent for philosophy, though with too much native modesty to assimilate Cynic shamelessness. Hence Crates, desirous of curing this defect in him, gave him a potful of lentil-soup to carry through the Ceramicus ; and when he saw that he was ashamed and tried to keep it out of sight, with a blow of his staff he broke the pot. As Zeno took to flight wibh the lentil-soup flowing down his legs, " Why run away, my little Phoenician ? " quoth Crates, " nothing terrible has befallen you." For a certain space, then, he was instructed by Crates, and when at this time he had written his Republic, some said in jest that he had written it on Cynosura, i.e. on the dog's tail. a Besides the Republic he wrote the following works : Of Life according to Nature. Of Impulse, or Human Nature. Of Emotions. Of Duty.

The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.

← D.L. 7.1-4 contents D.L. 7.4-5 →

Filed here — the addresses this episode attests; counted by the house’s first pass
Crates — a candidate entry Cynic — a candidate entry Xenophon — a life Zeno — a candidate entry

Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume II (Books VI-X), Diogenes Laertius — translated by R. D. Hicks, 1925
Apparatus shelf — Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, vol. II (R. D. Hicks translation, Loeb L185) · 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 from the scan itself; only the English rectos are served, Hicks's translation)