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Chapter 4. ONESICRITUS (flor. 330 B.C.)

[84] Onesicritus some report to have been an Aeginetan, but Demetrius of Magnesia says that he was a native of Astypalaea. He too was one of the distinguished pupils of Diogenes. His career seems to have resembled that of Xenophon ; for Xenophon joined the expedition of Cyrus, Onesicritus that of Alexander ; and the former wrote the Cyropaedia, or Education of Cyrus, while the latter has described how Alexander was educated : the one a laudation of Cyrus, the other of Alexander. And in their diction they are not unlike : except that Onesicritus, as is to be expected in an imitator, falls short of his model.

Amongst other pupils of Diogenes were Menander, who was nicknamed Drymus or "Oakwood," a great admirer of Homer ; Hegesias of Sinope, nicknamed "Dog-collar" ; and Philiscus of Aegina mentioned above.

Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Diogenes Laertius. R.D. Hicks. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1972 (First published 1925).

National Endowment for the Humanities Division of Preservation and Access provided support for entering this text.

This text was converted to electronic form by Data Entry and has been proofread to a low level of accuracy.

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