It does enslave a man, however bold His speech may be.
And another was that we ought to keep our friends, whatever sort of people they may be, so that we may not seem to have been intimate with wicked men, or to have abandoned good men.
Very early in his career he abandoned the school of the Academy, and at the same time became a disciple of Crates. Then he passed over to the sect of the Cynics, taking their coarse cloak and wallet. For what else could ever have changed his nature into one of such apathy? After that he adopted the Theodorean principles, having become a disciple of Theodorus the Atheist, who was used to employ every kind of reasoning in support of his system of philosophy. After leaving him, he became a pupil of Theophrastus, the Peripatetic.
He was very fond of theatrical entertainments, and very skillful in distracting his hearers by exciting a laugh, giving things disparaging names. And because he used to avail himself of every species of reasoning, they relate that Eratosthenes said that Bion was the first person who had clothed philosophy in a flowery robe.
He was also very ingenious in parodying passages, and adapting them to circumstances as they arose. As for instance, I may cite the following:
Tender Archytas, born of tuneful lyre, Whom thoughts of happy vanity inspire; Most skilled of mortals in appeasing ire.
And he jested on every part of music and geometry.
He was a man of very expensive habits, and on this account he used to go from city to city, and at times he would contrive the most amazing devices.
Accordingly, in Rhodes, he persuaded the sailors to put on the habiliments of philosophical students and follow him about; and then he made himself conspicuous by entering the gymnasium with this train of followers.
He was accustomed also to adopt young men as his sons, in order to derive assistance from them in his pleasures, and to be protected by their affection for him. But he was a very selfish man, and very fond of quoting the saying “The property of friends is common;” owing to which it is that no one is spoken of as a disciple of his, though so many men attended his school. And he made some very shameless; accordingly, Betion, one of his intimate acquaintances, is reported to have said once to Menedemus: “So Menedemus constantly spends the evening with Bion, and I see no harm in it.” He used also to talk with great impiety to those who conversed with him, having derived his opinions on this subject from Theodorus.
And when at a later period he became afflicted with disease, as the people of Chalcis said, for he died there, he was persuaded to wear amulets and charms, and to show his repentance for the insults that he had offered to the Gods. But he suffered fearfully for want of proper people to attend him, until Antigonus sent him two servants. And he followed him in a litter, as Phavorinus relates in his Universal History. And the circumstances of his death we have ourselves spoken of in the following lines:
We hear that Bion the Borysthenite, Whom the ferocious Scythian land brought forth, Used to deny that there were Gods at all. Now, if he’d persevered in this opinion, One would have said he speaks just as he thinks; Though certainly his thoughts are quite mistaken. But when a lengthened sickness overtook him, And he began to fear lest he should die; This man who heretofore denied the Gods,
And would not even look upon a temple, And mocked all those who e’er approached the Gods With prayer or sacrifice; who ne’er, not even For his own hearth, and home, and household table, Regaled the Gods with savoury fat and incense, Who never once said, “I have sinned, but spare me.” Then did this atheist shrink, and give his neck To an old woman to hang charms upon, And bound his arms with magic amulets,
With laurel branches blocked his doors and windows, Ready to do and venture anything Rather than die. Fool that he was, who thought To win the Gods to come into existence, Whenever he might think he wanted them. So wise too late, when now mere dust and ashes, He put his hand forth, Hail, great Pluto, Hail!
There were ten people of the name of Bion. First of all, the one who flourished at the same time with Pherecydes of Syros, and who has left two books behind him, which are still extant; he was a native of Proconnesus. The second was a Syracusan, the author of a system of rhetoric. The third was the man of whom we have been speaking. The fourth was a pupil of Democritus, and a mathematician, a native of Abdera, who wrote in both the Attic and Ionic dialect. He was the person who first asserted that there were countries where there was night for six months, and day for six months. The fifth was a native of Soli who wrote a history of Aethiopia. The sixth was a rhetorician who has left behind him nine books, inscribed with the names of the Muses, which are still extant. The eighth was a Milesian statuary who is mentioned by Polemo. The ninth was a tragic poet of the number of those who are called Tarsicans. The tenth was a statuary, a native of Clazomenae or Chios, who is mentioned by Hipponax.
Lacydes, the son of Alexander, was a native of Cyrene. He it is who was the founder of the New Academy, having succeeded Arcesilaus; and he was a man of great gravity of character and demeanour, and one who had many imitators.
He was industrious from his very childhood, and poor, but very pleasing and sociable in his manners.
They say that he had a pleasant way of managing his housekeeping affairs. For when he had taken anything out of his store-chest, he would seal it up again, and throw in his seal through the hole, so that it should be impossible for anything of what he had laid up there to be stolen from him or carried off. But his servants, learning this contrivance of his, broke the seal and carried off as much as they pleased, and then they put the ring back through the hole in the same manner as before; and though they did this repeatedly, they were never detected.
Lacydes now used to hold his school in the Academy in the garden which had been laid out by Attalus the king, and it was called the Lacydeum after him. And he was the only man who, while alive, resigned his school to a successor; but he resigned this to Telicles and Evander, of Phocis; and Hegesinus of Pergamus succeeded Evander; and he himself was in his turn succeeded by Carneades.
There is a witty saying which is attributed to Lacydes. For they say that when Attalus sent for him, he answered that statues ought to be seen at a distance. On another occasion, as it is reported, he was studying geometry very late in life, and some said to him: “Is it then a time for you to be learning now?”—“If it is not,” he replied, “when will it be?”
And he died in the fourth year of the hundred and thirty-fourth Olympiad, when he had presided over his school twenty-six years. And his death was caused by paralysis, which was brought on by drinking. And we ourselves have jested upon him in the following language.
’Tis an odd story that I heard of you— Lacydes, that you went with hasty steps, Spurred on by Bacchus, to the shades below. How then, if this be true, can it be said, That Bacchus e’er trips up his votaries’ feet ’Tis a mistake his being named Lyaeus.
Carneades was the son of Epicomus—or Philocomus, as Alexander states in his Successions—and a native of Cyrene.
He read all the books of the Stoics with great care, and especially those of Chrysippus; and then he wrote replies to them, but did it at the same time with such modesty that he used to say: “If Chrysippus had not lived, I should never have existed.”
He was a man of as great industry as ever existed; not, however, very much devoted to the investigation of subjects of natural philosophy, but more fond of the discussion of ethical topics, on which account he used to let his hair and his nails grow, from his entire devotion of all his time to philosophical discussion. And he was so eminent as a philosopher that the orators would quit their own schools and come and listen to his lectures.