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(Μενέδημος; Menédēmos). [German version] [1] Functionary of Alexander the Great, 329 BC sent by Alexander [4] the Great in 329 BC, with a 1500-strong mercenary infantry, Caranus with 800 mounted mercenaries and Andromachus with 60 hetairoi, to relieve the fortress of Maracanda, which was under siege by Spitamenes. Pharnuches, a Lycian (but certainly descended from Persian settlers) interpreter, was provided to them as he was familiar with the inhabitants and their language (Arr. An. 4,3,7). Through the inco…

(Δημήτριος; Dēmḗtrios). Well-known personalities: the Macedonian King D. [2] Poliorketes; the politician and writer D. [4] of Phalerum; the Jewish-Hellenistic chronographer D. [29]. I. Politically active personalities [German version] [1] Officer under Alexander the Great Officer under Alexander [4], fought at Gaugamela as commander of a troop ( ile) of  Hetairoi and in India he commanded a hipparchy. Badian, Ernst (Cambridge, MA) Bibliography Berve 2, no. 256. [German version] [2] D. Poliorketes Son of  Antigonus [1], born 337/6 BC (Diod. Sic. 19,96,1). In 320 he m…

(Ἡράκλειος; Hērákleios). Two prominent Sicilians known from the trial of  Verres in 70 BC: [German version] [1] Citizen of Syracuse, 1st cent. BC The son of a certain Hieron, a wealthy citizen of Syracuse. In 73 BC he inherited from a homonymous relative a magnificent house including furnishings and 3 million sesterces (Cic. Verr. 2,14,35). Because of the machinations of Verres, who contested the will, H. lost his wealth and the inheritance. The real estate was returned to him by L. Caecilius [I 13] Metellus, the successor of Verres (Cic. Verr. 2,19,47-50; 25,62). Meister, Klaus (Berlin) …

[German version] (Μητροκλῆς/ Mētroklês). From a rich family in Maronea in Thrace, 3rd cent. BC. In turn a pupil of the Peripatetic Theophrastus, the Academician Xenocrates and the Cynic Crates [4] of Thebes, who married his sister Hipparchia (Teles, Diatribe 4 A). M., who was accustomed to luxury, learned under Crates to lead a simple and economical life, sleeping in temples in the summer and in the baths in the winter. His saying that wealth was damaging if it was not put to appropriate use indica…

(Φιλίσκος; Philískos). [German version] [1] Poet of Middle Comedy Poet of Middle Comedy, to whom the Suda attributes 7 play titles: Ἄδωνις (Á dōnis), Διὸς γοναί ( Diòs gonaí/ 'The Birth of Zeus'; Adespoton 1062 K.-A. is sometimes assigned to this play [4]), Θεμιστοκλῆς ( Themistoklês/ ' Themistocles'; title probably incorrectly included in the list [3. n. 37]), Ὄλυμπος ( Ólympos; ' Olympus'), Πανὸς γοναί ( Panòs gonaí; 'The Birth of Pan'), Ἑρμοῦ καὶ Ἀφροδίτης γοναί ( Hermoû kaì Aphrodítēs gonaí/ ' The Births of Hermes and Aphrodite'; possibly two plays [3. n. 24]), Ἀρτέμιδος καὶ Ἀ…

[German version] (Ἱππαρχία; Hipparchía). Cynic philosopher from Maronea in Thrace ( floruit 111th Olympiad = 336-333 BC), of a wealthy family, sister of the Cynic  Metrocles, and pupil of  Crates of Thebes. H. wanted to marry Crates and threatened suicide if her parents refused permission (Diog. Laert. 6,96). She lived the life of a Cynic and constantly accompanied Crates. She had sexual intercourse with him in public (designated as κυνογαμία; kynogamía ‘marriage of dogs’) to demonstrate her indifference (ἀδιαφορία; adiaphoría) to the act. She amazed  Theodorus of Cyrene b…

[German version] This modern term refers to a collective ancient cultural tradition that is a product of ethical philosophy and consists primarily of topoi. These topoi were developed in the schools of the Hellenistic and Imperial periods, particularly in Cynicism and Stoicism, as well as by itinerant preachers. They hark back to the older Sophists, the philosophical literature of the 4th cent. BC and Greek poetry (philosophical literature, genres of), but their subjects were taken primarily from daily life: wealth, ban…

(Οἰνόμαος/ Oinómaos). [German version] [1] King of Pisa Mythological king of Pisa in the region of Elis, son of Ares and Asterope, father of Hippodamia [1] and Leucippus [2]. He forced his daughter's suitors to undergo a test by taking part in a chariot race. He used to kill the defeated suitors, until Pelops defeated O. with the help of his crafty charioteer Myrtilus [1], who replaced the linchpins holding the wheels on O.'s chariot with ones made of wax. Pelops won the race and the hand of Hippodamia,…

(Βίων; Bíōn). [German version] [1] Of Borysthenes Peripatetic philosopher (c. 335-c. 245 BC) Eclectic, peripatetic philosopher ( c. 335- c. 245 BC) born in the city of Olbia at the river Borysthenes' outlet into the Black Sea. Details of his life are known to us principally from Diog. Laert. 4,46-58: the son of a freedman selling pickled fish and a hetaera, he was at a young age sold into slavery with his family when his father evaded taxes. He was bought by a rhetor and received a rhetorical education; he later t…

[German version] (Τέλης; Télēs). A Cynic of the mid-third cent. BC, who taught philosophy at Athens and Megara [2]. Eight extracts from the Diatribes of Teles are preserved in Stobaeus' Anthology, after the epitome of a certain Theodoros. They have the following themes: being and appearance (Περὶ τοῦ δοκεῖν καὶ τοῦ εἶναι), autarky (Περὶ αὐταρκείας), exile (Περὶ φυγῆς), poverty (two untitled extracts), pleasure (Περὶ τοῦ μὴ εἶναι τέλος ἡδονήν), the circumstances of life brought about by fate (Περὶ περιστάσεων) and the state o…

(Θεαγένης/ Theagénēs). [German version] [1] Tyrant of Megara, 7th cent. BC Tyrant of Megara [2] in the last quarter of the 7th cent. BC; he probably descended from a noble family and maintained hospitality with aristocrats all over Greece. According to a later tradition, when he seized power, he is said to have won the people's confidence in his fight against the city's landowners (by slaughtering their flocks: Aristot. Pol. 5,1305a 21-26) and to have been granted a body guard by the assembly (Aristot. Rh.…

[German version] The theory of cosmopolitanism (etymology: kósmos, ‘world’, and polítēs, ‘citizen’) had already been developed in the pre-Hellenistic period by the sophist  Hippias [5] of Elis (late 5th cent. BC), who disputed the authority of positive law in favour of unwritten laws.  Democritus [1] of Abdera declared that the entire earth was open to the wise man and that the home of a good soul is the universe (fr. 247 DK). If one wishes to believe Cicero (Tusc. 5,108), Socrates, a contemporary of Democritus, also considered himself a ‘citizen of the World’ ( mundi incolam et civem). The …

(Μόνιμος/ Mónimos). [German version] [1] From Syracuse, pupil of Diogenes M. from Syracuse, slave of a Corinthian banker, heard Xeniades, a rich citizen of Corinth, extol the virtue of Diogenes [14] of Sinope, who lived with him. In order to be able to leave his master and follow Diogenes, M. made out that he was insane; he was dismissed and so became Diogenes' pupil. He also stayed with Crates [4] for a long time and imitated his way of life (Diog. Laert. 6,82). M. must have been famous, as he appears in…

[German version] (Σφοδρίας; Sphodrías). Cynic philosopher, author of a Téchnē erōtikḗ ('art of love') mentioned in Ath. 4,162b-c. The otherwise unknown author is mentioned l.c. along with Archestratus [2] of Gela, the author of a Gastrología ('treatise about the care of the stomach') and with Protagorides, who is attributed with Akroáseis erōtikaí ('lectures about love'), as well as with Zeno's student Persaeus who wrote Sympotikoí diálogoi ('conversations with dinner guests'). Goulet-Cazé, Marie-Odile (Antony)

(Δημῶναξ; Dēmônax or Δαμῶναξ; Damônax). [German version] [1] D. of Mantinea Arbitrator in Cyrene about 550 BC Respected aristocrat who was appointed as ‘arbitrator’ (καταρτιστήρ; katartistḗr) in  Cyrene about 550 BC on the advice of the Delphic Oracle (Hdt. 4,161). To resolve the internal conflicts, D. reformed the three phylai in which he redistributed the different groups of colonists and immigrants, the Theraeans and Perioeci, Peloponnesians and Cretans, ‘Nesiotai’, i.e. people from the (Ionian?) islands [1]. D. restricted the royal power o…

[German version] (Περεγρῖνος Πρωτεύς; Peregrînos Prōteús). Lived c. AD 100-165, born in Parium in Mysia. P. was a philosopher who is known to us primarily through Lucian's (Lucianus [1]) critical, tendentious work 'On the Death of Peregrinus' ( De morte Peregrini). According to Lucian (De morte Peregrini 1), P. himself introduced his byname of Proteus. To the satirist, it was an apposite choice, as like Proteus in the Odyssey, P. underwent numerous transformations (lastly in the fire at his death on a funeral pyre). P. was said to hav…

(Κυνισμός; Kynismós). [German version] A. Introduction The philosophical protest movement of Cynicism originated in Greece in the 4th cent. BC centred on  Diogenes [14] of Sinope and his students; it existed until the 5th cent. AD. As almost none of the older literature of the Cynics is extant, our knowledge comes mainly from anecdotes and remarks -- the authenticity of which is hard to test -- which however mirror a coherent and uniform philosophy. As early as antiquity the term ‘Cynicism’ was explained through two different etymologies. The first links the movement …

(Διογένης; Diogénēs). Known personalities: the Cynic D. [14] of Sinope, the philosophical historian D. [17] Laertius. I. Politically active personalities [German version] [1] Macedonian troop commander in Attica since 233 BC Athenian (?) [1. 341,1], Macedonian troop commander in Attica since 233 BC, who is supposed to have demanded Corinth from the Achaeans (Plut. Arat. 34,1-4) [2. 168,63] at the rumour of the death of  Aratus [2]; after the death of  Demetrius [3] II in 229, he facilitated the liberation of Athens from Maced…

(Κράτης; Krátēs). [German version] [1] Writer of comedies, 5th cent. BC Athenian, the poet of the Old Comedy who began giving performances c. 450 BC [1. test. 7]. Previously an actor with  Cratinus [1], [1. test. 2 and 3]. Certain sources claim that he wrote seven plays [1. test. 1 and 2], other sources claim eight [1. test. 4]. Altogether nine titles of plays have survived (although the Μέτοικοι ‘The Metoikoi’ and Πεδῆται ‘The Prisoners’ may be wrongly attributed to him). On the list of Dionysian winners, C. is list…

[German version] (Ὀνησίκριτος/ Onēsíkritos) of Astypalaea. 380/375-305/300 BC. Cynic philosopher and Alexander historian, pupil of Diogenes [14] of Sinope (Plut. de Alexandri magni fortuna aut virtute 10,331e; Plut. Alexander 65,701c). Ever since antiquity, attempts have been made - certainly incorrectly - to identify him with O. of Aegina, another pupil of Diogenes mentioned in Diog. Laert. 6,75 (cf. 84; see [1] and Philiscus). O. took part in the eastern conquests of Alexander the Great, and was …