Extract

In *Thrace, b. 460–57 bce (Apollod. in Diog. Laert. 9. 41), 40 years after *Anaxagoras according to his own statement quoted by *Diogenes (6). He travelled widely, according to various later accounts, and lived to a great age. In later times he became known as ‘the laughing philosopher’, probably because he held that ‘cheerfulness’ (euthymiē) was a goal to be pursued in life. There is a story that he visited Athens—‘but no one knew me’ (Diog. Laert. 9. 36); this may be a reflection of the undoubted fact that *Plato (1), although he must have known his work, never mentioned him by name.

Diogenes Laertius 9. 46–9 mentions 70 titles, arranged in tetralogies by *Thrasyllus like the works of Plato, and classified as follows: Ethics, Physics, Unclassified, Mathematics, Music (which includes philological and literary criticism), Technical, and Notes. None of these works survives. Of his physical theories, on which his fame rests, only meagre quotations and summaries remain; the majority of texts that have come down to us under his name are brief and undistinguished moral maxims.