Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
R.D. Hicks, Ed.

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Chapter 8. MENIPPUS

[99] Menippus,¹ also a Cynic, was by descent a Phoenician--a slave, as Achaïcus in his treatise on Ethics says. Diocles further informs us that his master was a citizen of Pontus and was named Baton. But as avarice made him very resolute in begging, he succeeded in becoming a Theban.

There is no seriousness² in him ; but his books overflow with laughter, much the same as those of his contemporary Meleager.³

Hermippus says that he lent out money by the day and got a nickname from doing so. For he used to make loans on bottomry and take security, thus accumulating a large fortune. [100] At last, however, he fell a victim to a plot, was robbed of all, and in despair ended his days by hanging himself. I have composed a trifle upon him⁴:

May be, you know Menippus,

Phoenician by birth, but a Cretan hound :

A money-lender by the day--so he was called--

At Thebes when once on a time his house was broken into

And he lost his all, not understanding what it is to be a Cynic,

He hanged himself.

Some authorities question the genuineness of the books attributed to him, alleging them to be by Dionysius and Zopyrus of Colophon, who, writing them for a joke, made them over to Menippus as a person able to dispose of them advantageously.

[101] There have been six men named Menippus : the first the man who wrote a History of the Lydians and abridged Xanthus ; the second my present subject ; the third a sophist of Stratonicea, a Carian by descent⁵; the fourth a sculptor; the fifth and sixth painters, both mentioned by Apollodorus.

However, the writings of Menippus the Cynic are thirteen in number :

Necromancy.

Wills.

Epistles artificially composed as if by the gods.

Replies to the physicists and mathematicians and grammarians ; and

A book about the birth of Epicurus ; and

The School's reverence for the twentieth day.

Besides other works.