SUCCESSION OF PHILOSOPHERS IN GREECE.
The Greeks say, that after Orpheus and Linus, and the most ancient
of the poets that appeared among them, the seven, called wise, were
the first that were admired for their wisdom. Of whom four were of
Asia--Thales of Miletus, and Bias of Priene, Pittacus of Mitylene, and
Cleobulus of Lindos; and two of Europe, Solon the Athenian, and Chilon
the Lacedæmonian; and the seventh, some say, was Periander of Corinth;
others, Anacharsis the Scythian; others, Epimenides the Cretan, whom
Paul knew as a Greek prophet, whom he mentions in the Epistle to Titus,
where he speaks thus: “One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said,
_The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies._ And
this witness is true.”[925] You see how even to the prophets of the
Greeks he attributes something of the truth, and is not ashamed, when
discoursing for the edification of some and the shaming of others,
to make use of Greek poems. Accordingly to the Corinthians (for this
is not the only instance), while discoursing on the resurrection of
the dead, he makes use of a tragic Iambic line, when he said, “What
advantageth it me if the dead are not raised? Let us eat and drink, for
to-morrow we die. Be not deceived;
_Evil communications corrupt good manners._”[926]
Others have enumerated Acusilaus the Argive among the seven wise
men; and others, Pherecydes of Syros. And Plato substitutes Myso the
Chenian for Periander, whom he deemed unworthy of wisdom, on account
of his having reigned as a tyrant. That the wise men among the Greeks
flourished after the age of Moses, will, a little after, be shown. But
the style of philosophy among them, as Hebraic and enigmatical, is now
to be considered. They adopted brevity, as suited for exhortation, and
most useful. Even Plato says, that of old this mode was purposely in
vogue among all the Greeks, especially the Lacedæmonians and Cretans,
who enjoyed the best laws.
The expression, “Know thyself,” some supposed to be Chilon’s. But
Chamæleon, in his book _About the Gods_, ascribes it to Thales;
Aristotle to the Pythian. It may be an injunction to the pursuit of
knowledge. For it is not possible to know the parts without the essence
of the whole; and one must study the genesis of the universe, that
thereby we may be able to learn the nature of man. Again, to Chilon the
Lacedæmonian they attribute, “Let nothing be too much.”[927] Strato,
in his book _Of Inventions_, ascribes the apophthegm to Stratodemus of
Tegea. Didymus assigns it to Solon; as also to Cleobulus the saying, “A
middle course is best.” And the expression, “Come under a pledge, and
mischief is at hand,” Cleomenes says, in his book _Concerning Hesiod_,
was uttered before by Homer in the lines:
“Wretched pledges, for the wretched, to be pledged.”[928]
The Aristotelians judge it to be Chilon’s; but Didymus says the advice
was that of Thales. Then, next in order, the saying, “All men are bad,”
or, “The most of men are bad” (for the same apophthegm is expressed
in two ways), Sotades the Byzantian says that it was Bias’s. And the
aphorism, “Practice conquers everything,”[929] they will have it to
be Periander’s; and likewise the advice, “Know the opportunity,” to
have been a saying of Pittacus. Solon made laws for the Athenians,
Pittacus for the Mitylenians. And at a late date, Pythagoras, the pupil
of Pherecydes, first called himself a philosopher. Accordingly, after
the fore-mentioned three men, there were three schools of philosophy,
named after the places where they lived: the Italic from Pythagoras,
the Ionic from Thales, the Eleatic from Xenophanes. Pythagoras was
a Samian, the son of Mnesarchus, as Hippobotus says: according to
Aristoxenus, in his life of Pythagoras and Aristarchus and Theopompus,
he was a Tuscan; and according to Neanthes, a Syrian or a Tyrian. So
that Pythagoras was, according to the most, of barbarian extraction.
Thales, too, as Leander and Herodotus relate, was a Phœnician; as
some suppose, a Milesian. He alone seems to have met the prophets of
the Egyptians. But no one is described as his teacher, nor is any one
mentioned as the teacher of Pherecydes of Syros, who had Pythagoras
as his pupil. But the Italic philosophy, that of Pythagoras, grew old
in Metapontum in Italy. Anaximander of Miletus, the son of Praxiades,
succeeded Thales; and was himself succeeded by Anaximenes of Miletus,
the son of Eurustratus; after whom came Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ, the
son of Hegesibulus. [930] He transferred his school from Ionia to
Athens. He was succeeded by Archelaus, whose pupil Socrates was.
“From these turned aside, the stone-mason;
Talker about laws; the enchanter of the Greeks,”
says Timon in his _Satirical Poems_, on account of his quitting physics
for ethics. Antisthenes, after being a pupil of Socrates, introduced
the Cynic philosophy; and Plato withdrew to the Academy. Aristotle,
after studying philosophy under Plato, withdrew to the Lyceum, and
founded the Peripatetic sect. He was succeeded by Theophrastus, who
was succeeded by Strato, and he by Lycon, then Critolaus, and then
Diodorus. Speusippus was the successor of Plato; his successor was
Xenocrates; and the successor of the latter, Polemo. And the disciples
of Polemo were Crates and Crantor, in whom the old Academy founded by
Plato ceased. Arcesilaus was the associate of Crantor; from whom, down
to Hegesilaus, the Middle Academy flourished. Then Carneades succeeded
Hegesilaus, and others came in succession. The disciple of Crates
was Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Stoic sect. He was succeeded
by Cleanthes; and the latter by Chrysippus, and others after him.
Xenophanes of Colophon was the founder of the Eleatic school, who,
Timæus says, lived in the time of Hiero, lord of Sicily, and Epicharmus
the poet; and Apollodorus says that he was born in the fortieth
Olympiad, and reached to the times of Darius and Cyrus. Parmenides,
accordingly, was the disciple of Xenophanes, and Zeno of him; then came
Leucippus, and then Democritus. Disciples of Democritus were Protagoras
of Abdera, and Metrodorus of Chios, whose pupil was Diogenes of Smyrna;
and his again Anaxarchus, and his Pyrrho, and his Nausiphanes. Some say
that Epicurus was a scholar of his.
Such, in an epitome, is the succession of the philosophers among the
Greeks. The periods of the originators of their philosophy are now to
be specified successively, in order that, by comparison, we may show
that the Hebrew philosophy was older by many generations.
It has been said of Xenophanes that he was the founder of the Eleatic
philosophy. And Eudemus, in the _Astrological Histories_, says
that Thales foretold the eclipse of the sun, which took place at the
time that the Medians and the Lydians fought, in the reign of Cyaxares
the father of Astyages over the Medes, and of Alyattus the son of
Crœsus over the Lydians. Herodotus in his first book agrees with him.
The date is about the fiftieth Olympiad. Pythagoras is ascertained to
have lived in the days of Polycrates the tyrant, about the sixty-second
Olympiad. Mnesiphilus is described as a follower of Solon, and was a
contemporary of Themistocles. Solon therefore flourished about the
forty-sixth Olympiad. For Heraclitus, the son of Bauso, persuaded
Melancomas the tyrant to abdicate his sovereignty. He despised the
invitation of king Darius to visit the Persians.