Chapter 4. CRATES (of Athens)
(Head of the Academy in third century B.C.)
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Crates, whose father was Antigenes, was an
Athenian belonging to the deme of Thria. He was
a pupil and at the same time a favourite of Polemo,
whom he succeeded in the headship of the school.
The two were so much attached to each other that
they not only shared the same pursuits in life but
grew more and more alike to their latest breath, and,
dying, shared the same tomb. Hence Antagoras,
writing of both, employed this figure
1:
Passing stranger, say that in this tomb rest godlike
Crates and Polemo, men magnanimous in concord, from
whose inspired lips flowed sacred speech, and whose pure
life of wisdom, in accordance with unswerving tenets, decked
them for a bright immortality.
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Hence Arcesilaus, who had quitted Theophrastus
and gone over to their school, said of them that they
were gods or a remnant of the Golden Age. They
did not side with the popular party, but were such
as Dionysodorus the flute-player is said to have
claimed to be, when he boasted that no one ever
heard his melodies, as those of Ismenias were heard,
either on shipboard or at the fountain. According
to Antigonus, their common table was in the house
of Crantor; and these two and Arcesilaus lived in
harmony together. Arcesilaus and Crantor shared
the same house, while Polemo and Crates lived with
Lysicles, one of the citizens. Crates, as already
stated, was the favourite of Polemo and Arcesilaus
of Crantor.
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According to Apollodorus in the third book of his
Chronology, Crates at his death left behind him
works,
some of a philosophical kind, others on comedy,
others again speeches delivered in the assembly or
when he was envoy. He also left distinguished
pupils; among them Arcesilaus, of whom we shall
speak presently--for he was also a pupil of Crates;
another was Bion of Borysthenes, who was afterwards
known as the Theodorean, from the school which he
joined; of him too we shall have occasion to speak
next after Arcesilaus.
There have been ten men who bore the name of
Crates: (1) the poet of the Old Comedy; (2) a
rhetorician of Tralles, a pupil of Isocrates; (3) a
sapper and miner who accompanied Alexander; (4)
the Cynic, of whom more hereafter; (5) a Peripatetic
philosopher; (6) the Academic philosopher described
above; (7) a grammarian of Malos; (8) the author of
a geometrical work; (9) a composer of epigrams;
(10) an Academic philosopher of Tarsus.
