Text
Diogenes Laërtius, Vitae Philosophorum 2.5.45-46:
Aristotle relates that a magician came from Syria to Athens and, among other evils with which he threatened Socrates, predicted that he would come to a violent end.
Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes 4.80:
Zopyrus, who claimed to discern every man’s nature from his appearance, accused Socrates in company of a number of vices which he enumarated, and when he was ridiculed by the rest who said they failed to recognize such vices in Socrates, Socrates himself came to his rescue by saying that he was naturally inclined to the vices named, but had cast them out of him by the help of reason.
Cicero, De Fato 10-11:
Again, do we not read how Socrates was stigmatized by the physiognomist Zopyrus, who professed to discover men’s entire characters and natures from their body, eyes, face and brow? He said that Socrates was stupid and thick-witted, because he had not got hollows in the neck above the collar-bone - he used to say that these portions of his anatomy were blocked and topped up: he also added that he was addicted to women - at which Alcibiades is said to have given a loud guffaw! But it is possible that these defects may be due to natural causes; but their eradication and entire removal, recalling the man himself from the serious vices to which he was inclined, does not rest with natural causes, but with will, effort, training: and if the potency and the existence of fate is proved from the theory of divination, all of these will be done away with.
Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Cicero, De Fato 10-11
Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes 4.80
Diogenes Laërtius, Vitae Philosophorum 2.5.45-46
Bibliography
| Hicks 1950, I 174-177 | Hicks, R. D. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers. 2 Vols. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, London: Heinemann 1950. |
| King 1960, 418-419 | King, J. E. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, London: Heinemann 1960. |
| Rackham 1960, I 202-205 | Rackham, H. Cicero, De Oratore. 2 Vols. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, London: Heinemann 1960. |
Amar Annus
URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000755.php
|
