Diogenes Laërtius

Diogenes Laërtius was a Greek biographer of the philosophers, probably writing in the first half of the third century CE. Almost nothing is known about his life. His Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, in ten books, gathers anecdotes, sayings, doctrines and lists of writings for more than eighty thinkers, from the early sages to Epicurus. Its reliability varies, but it is often our main or only source for whole schools, and its tenth book preserves three letters of Epicurus and his Principal Doctrines. Anyone tracing the history of ancient philosophy soon relies on his lively, gossip-filled compilation.

Key ideas

• He divided Greek philosophy into an Ionian succession beginning with Anaximander and an Italian succession beginning with Pythagoras.
• He presented philosophers through their lives, sayings and deaths as much as through their doctrines.
• He preserved complete primary texts, including Epicurus' letters to Herodotus, Pythocles and Menoeceus and the Principal Doctrines.
• He drew on many earlier Hellenistic sources now lost, so his book is a window onto vanished scholarship.

Major works

• Lives of the Eminent Philosophers (3rd century CE)
• Pammetros, a lost collection of epigrams (3rd century CE)

In the Book corner

• Lives of the Eminent Philosophers c. 3rd century CE · Beginner
  A compilation in ten books of the lives, sayings and doctrines of Greek philosophers from the earliest sages to Epicurus. Little is…

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