DIOGENES. 



DION. 



eoo 



He adopted Plato's doctrine, that there should be a community of 

 wires and children, and held with the Dorian lawgivers, that order 

 (nifffuis) wa the bads of civil government. 



DIO'GENES of Apollonia, so called from hi* birthplace, a town in 

 Crete, was a pupil of Anaximenes and a contemporary of Anaxagoras. 

 The jean in which be was born and died are not known, as is the 

 ease also with bis master Anaximenea, But the birth-year of hit 

 contemporary and fellow-pupil Anaxagoras is known to be B.C. 500; 

 and Dioxenrs would most probably be about the same age, or perhaps 

 rather younger. Sidonius Apollinoris (XT. 91) speaks of Diogenes a* 

 younger than Anaxagoras. Schleiermacher, who is followed by 

 Schaubaeh, the editor of the fragments of Anaxagoraa, affirms from 

 the internal evidence of the fragments of the two philosophers, that 

 Diogenes preceded Anaxagoras. But Diogenes might havo written 

 before Anaxigoras, and yet have been his junior, as we know was the 

 case with Empedoclea. (Aristotle, 'Met' i. Hi , p. 843 B.) 



Diogenes followed Anaxiinenea in making air the primal element of 

 all thing*, that out of which the whole material universe was formed; 

 but he invested this air with the property of intelligence, or with 

 what is called by St Augustin a divine virtue, thus approximating 

 but not attaining to the system of Anaxagoras. It was reserved for 

 this last philosopher to separate mind from matter. "As the con- 

 templation of animal life," says Thirlwall, " had led Anaximeues to 

 adopt air as the basis of his system, a later philosopher, Diogenes of 

 Apollonia, carried this analogy farther, and regarded the universe as 

 issuing from an intelligent principle, by which it was at once vivified 

 and ordered a rational as well as sensitive soul still without recog- 

 nising any distinction between matter and mind.". (' Hist, of Greece,' 

 vol. ii.. p. 134.) Cicero ('De Nat. Dcor.,' i. 12) represents Diogenes as 

 making air his deity. 



He wrote several books on Cosmology ; and the first sentence of 

 his work is given by Diogenes Laertius in two places (vi. 81 ; ix. 57). 

 The fragments which remain have been recently collected and edited 

 by Panzerbeiter. 



There is an essay on the philosophy of Diogenes, by Schleiermacher, 

 in the Memoirs of ti.e Berlin Academy for 1815; and a contribution 

 to the chronology of his life in an article on the early Ionic philoso- 

 phers, by Mr. Clinton, in the 'Philological Museum,' vol. i., p. 92. 



(For general information concerning him the reader is referred to 

 Diogenes Laertius, ix. 9; Bayle, Dictionary; Fabricii, Bibliothcca 

 Grata, ed. Ilarles, voL ii., p. 656.) 



DIO'QENES, surnamed Lscrtiun, because he was born at Laertes, 

 in Cilicia, is well known as the biographer of the Greek philosophers. 

 But though he has described the lives of others, he has given us no 

 account of liimself, and we know nothing about him. It is supposed 

 that he lived in the rrigu of Sevcrus or CaracaUo, and that he was an 

 Epicurean. The work by which Diogenes is known is a crude con- 

 tribution towards the history of philosophy. It contains a brief account 

 of the lives, doctrines, and sayings of most persons who had been called 

 philosophers ; and though the author is evidently a most unfit person 

 for the tak which be imposed upon himself, and has shown very little 

 judgment and discrimination in the execution, the book is useful as a 

 collection of facts which we could not otherwise have learned, and 

 entertaining as a sort of ' omniana' on the subject. The article on 

 Epicurus is valuable as containing some original letters of that philo- 

 sopher, which comprise a pretty satisfactory epitome of the Epicurean 

 doctrines, and are very useful to the renders of Lucretius. The most 

 convenient tuition of Diogenes is that by H. G. Hubuer, Lips., 182S-31, 

 in 2 vols, 8vo. The commentaries of Casaubon, Menage, and others, 

 on Diogenes Laertius were printed in 2 vols. Svo, 1831, uniformly with 

 the edition of Hubncr. 



DION, surnamed Chryiostomus, or the Golden-mouthed, on account 

 of the beauty of his style, the son of Paaicrates, a man of considera- 

 tion at Prusa in Bitbynio, was a sophist and stoic. He was in Egypt 

 when Vespasian, who had been proclaimed emperor by his own army, 

 came there, and was consulted by that prince on the proper course to 

 be adopted under the circumstances. Dion Lad the candour, or, as 

 some may think, the want of judgment, to advise him to restore the 

 republic. Afterward* be resided for some years at Home, till one of 

 his friends, having engaged in a conspiracy against Domitian, was con- 

 demned to death, and Dion, fearing for himself, fled to the modern 

 Moldavia, where he remained till the tyrant 1 1 death, labouring for his 

 subsistence with his own bauds, and possessing no books but the 

 ' Pbscdon' of Plato and Demosthenes wtpl napawpto&itat. Domitian 

 having been assassinated, the legions quartered on the Danube were 

 about to revolt, when Dion got upon an altar and harangued them so 

 effectually that they submitted to the decision of the senate. Dion 

 was in high favour with Nerva and Trajan, and when the latter 

 triumphed after his Dacian victories the orator sat in the emperor's 

 car in the procession. lie returned to Bithynia, where he spent the 

 remainder of bis life. Accusations of peculation and treason were 

 brought against him, but rejected as frivolous. Dion died at an 

 advanced age, but it is not known in what year. We have eighty 

 orations attributed to him, which are very prettily written, but not 

 of much intrinsic value. The best edition in that of lieiske, 2 vols. 

 bvo, Lips., 1784. The name Cocceianus, which I'liuy (' Kpist' x. 86, 86) 

 gives to Dion, probably refers to his connection with the emperor 

 Cocccius Nerva. 



DION CA'SSIUS COCCEIA'NUS, or Cocceius, was the son of 

 Cassius Aproniouui, a Itomou senator, and born at Nicto in P.ithyuia 

 about A.D. 155. On his mother's side ho was descended from Dion 

 Chrysostom, and it was from this branch of his family that he took 

 the name of Dion. Thus though he was on his mother's side of Greek 

 descent, and though in bis writings he adopted the then prevailing 

 language of his native province, he must be considered as a Roman. 

 Under Commodus he lived in Rome, where he enjoyed the rank of 

 senator. After the death of Septimius Severus and'Caracalla, under 

 whom he held no public office, he was made governor of Smyrna and 

 Pergamus by Macriuus. lie was afterwards consul and procou-nl in 

 the provinces of Africa and Paunonia, probably under Alexander 

 Severus (Suidus, AiW), who esteemed him BO highly as to make him 

 consul for the second time with himself. In his old age he is said to 

 have returned to his native country. (Photius, ' Dion Cassia.'.') 



Dion wrote a history of Rome in Greek, from the ariival of .Eneas 

 in Italy and the foundation of Alba and Rome to A.D. 229. To the 

 time of Julius Cu.-s.ir his history was only a rapid sketch, but from 

 that date, and more particularly from the time of Commodus, when 

 he is a contemporary writer, his narrative is very complete. Of the 

 first 36 books there are only fragments extant ; but there is a consider- 

 able fragment of the 85th book on the war of Lucullus against 

 Mithridates, and of the 36th, on the war with tbe Pirates and the 

 expedition of Pompey against Mithri<lates. The following books to 

 the 54th inclusive are nearly nil entire ; they comprehend a pi-rio.l 

 from D.C. 65 to B.C. 10, or from the eastern campaign of Pompry and 

 tbe death of Mithridates to the death of Agrippa, Tha 55th book 

 boa a considerable gap in it. The 56th to the 60th, both include'), 

 which comprehend the period from A.D. 9 to 54, are complete, and 

 contain the events from the defeat of Varus in Germany to the reign 

 of Claudius. Of the following 20 books we have only fragments, and 

 the meagre abridgment of Xiphilinus. The 80th or lost book com- 

 prehends the period from A.D. 222 to 229, in the reign of Alexander 

 Severus. Tbe abridgment of Xiphilinus, as now extant, commences 

 with the 35th and continues to the end of the 80th book : it is a very 

 indifferent performance. 



The fragments of the first 36 books, a? now collected, are 1, those 

 called ' Valraiana,' which were collected by Henri of Valois from 

 various scholiasts, lexicographers, and grammarians; 2, the 'Fragment 

 a Peireseiaus,' taken from tbe great work or compilation of Couston- 

 tinus Porphyrogenetus [BY/.AXTI.NL HISTORIANS] ; 3, ' Fragment a 

 Ursiniana,' also token from the same compilation of Count,, utinus 

 Porphyrogenetus ; 4, ' Excerpta Vaticano," by Mai, which contain 

 fragments of books 1-35 and 61-SO, have been published iu the 

 second volume of the ' Scriptorum Veterum Nova Collectio,' 

 pp. 135-233. To these are added the fragments of an unknown 

 coutiuuator of Dion (pp. 234-246), which go down to the time of 

 Constantino. Other fragments from Dion, belonging chiefly to the 

 first 35 books, also published in the same collection (pp. 527-567), 

 were found by Mai in two Vatican tnanuscripts^which contain a 

 sylloge or collection made by Maxiuius Flanudes. 



The annals of Xouaras contain numerous extracts from Dion. 



Dion as an historian is not characterised by any great critical 

 power or judgment; indeed his own remarks arc sometime* trifling. 

 His style is generally clear, though there are occasionally obscure 

 passages where there appears to be no corruption in the text. His 

 diligence is unquestionable, and from his opportunities he was well 

 acquainted with tbe circumstances of the empire during the period 

 for which he is a contemporary authority, and indeed wo may assign 

 a high value to his history of the whole period from the time of 

 Augustus to his own age. Nor is his history without value for the 

 earlier periods of Roman history, in which, though he has fallen into 

 errors, like all the Greek and Roman writers who have handled the 

 same obscure subject, be stilt enables us to correct some erroneous 

 statements of Livy and Dionysius. 



Other writings arc attributed to Dion; among them a life of Arrian 

 by Suidag. 



The first edition of the Greek text of Dion was by R. Stephen?, 

 Paris, 1548, foL, from one manuscript, and that very incorrect ami 

 defective. Between this edition and that of Keirnar there were several 

 editions. J. Alb. Fabricim undertook a new edition of Dion, but 

 dying before he had completed his labour, his papers came into the 

 hands of H. S. Reimar, his son-in-law, who published the new edition 

 at Hamburg, 1751-62, 2 vols. fol., with a Latin translation. The 

 edition of Reimar is valuable, as he availed himself of the labours of 

 all his predecessors, arranged the fragments in order, and improved 

 the text and translation, to which he added notes. Some fragments 

 were afterwards discovered in a manuscript iu the library of St Mark, 

 by Morelli, and published by him at Bassano in 1793, Svo. They were 

 reprinted at Paris in 1800, fol., in a form to accompany the edition of 

 Reimar. The small Tauchnitz print of Dion Cassius, 4 vols. 16uio, 

 contains the fragments. The most recent, anil perhaps most useful 

 edition is by F. W. Stnrz, Leipzig, 1824-25, 8 vols. Svo; a ninth 

 volume, published in 184 3, contains the 'Excerpta Vaticana,' dis- 

 covered and first published by Mai 



DION, of Syracuse, son of Hipparinus, one of tbe chief men in that 

 city, lived under the reigns of both the Dionysii. He was originally 

 introduced to Dionyeius the El UT by his sister AristomucUe, oue of 



