The first nine probably date from the 3rd century BC, they are usually included among the Cynic epistles, and reflect how the Cynic philosophers viewed him as prefiguring many of their ideas ; the tenth letter is quoted by Diogenes Laertius, it is addressed to Croesus, the proverbially rich king of Lydia, it too is fictitious:

There are many later tales about the infamous Cynic Diogenes of Sinope dogging Antisthenes ' footsteps and becoming his faithful hound, but it is no means certain that the two men ever met.

Some scholars, drawing on the discovery of defaced coins from Sinope dating from the period 350-340 BCE, believe that Diogenes only moved to Athens after the death of Antisthenes, and it has been argued that the stories linking Antisthenes to Diogenes were invented by the Stoics in a later period in order to provide a succession linking Socrates to Zeno, via Antisthenes, Diogenes, and Crates.

It is also possible that Diogenes visited Athens and Antisthenes before his exile, and returned to Sinope.

Antisthenes certainly adopted a rigorous ascetic lifestyle, and he developed many of the principles of Cynic philosophy which became an inspiration for Diogenes and later Cynics.

In an episode of In our time broadcast on Thu, 20 Oct 2005, 21: 30 on BBC Radio 4, Angie Hobbs, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Warwick ; Miriam Griffin, Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford ; and John Moles, Professor of Latin, University of Newcastle discussed with Melvyn Bragg the idea that Antisthenes and Diogenes in ancient Greece practiced a form of performance art and that they acquired the epithet of cynic which means " dog " due to Diogenes behaving repeatedly like a dog in his performances.

* Cynicism: Antisthenes, Diogenes of Sinope, Crates of Thebes ( taught Zeno of Citium, founder of Stoicism )

In this, they are akin to Cynic philosophers such as Antisthenes and Diogenes in denying the importance to eudaimonia of external goods and circumstances, such as were recognized by Aristotle, who thought that severe misfortune ( such as the death of one ’ s family and friends ) could rob even the most virtuous person of eudaimonia.

When Diogenes asked Antisthenes to mentor him, Antisthenes ignored him and reportedly " eventually beat him off with his staff ".

" Diogenes became Antisthenes ' pupil, despite the brutality with which he was initially received.

Along with Antisthenes and Crates of Thebes, Diogenes is considered one of the founders of Cynicism.

Lucian ranks Menippus with Antisthenes, Diogenes, and Crates as the most notable of the Cynics.

Diogenes Laertius attributes it to Thales ( Lives I. 40 ), but also notes that Antisthenes in his Successions of Philosophers attributes it to Phemonoe, a mythical Greek poetess, though admitting that it was appropriated by Chilon.

Diogenes relates a legend that Zeno was a merchant and that after surviving a shipwreck, Zeno wandered into a bookshop in Athens and was attracted to some writings about Socrates.

Around 387 BC, at the age of 23, he traveled with the physician Theomedon, who according to Diogenes Laërtius some believed was his lover, to Athens to study with the followers of Socrates.

In comparison, Socrates accepted no fee, instead professed a self-effacing posture, which he exemplified by Socratic questioning ( i. e. the Socratic method, although Diogenes Laertius wrote that Protagoras — a sophist — invented the " Socratic " method ).

Later writers, such as Diogenes Laërtius who cite Aristotle as the earliest source, say that Socrates had a second wife called Myrto.

In The Clouds of Aristophanes, the views of Diogenes are transferred to Socrates.

When Plato gave Socrates ' definition of man as " featherless bipeds " and was much praised for the definition, Diogenes plucked a chicken and brought it into Plato's Academy, saying, " Behold!

" Although Socrates had previously identified himself as belonging to the world, rather than a city, Diogenes is credited with the first known use of the word " cosmopolitan ".

Diogenes shared Socrates ' belief that he could function as doctor to men's souls and improve them morally, while at the same time holding contempt for their obtuseness.

Plato once described Diogenes as " a Socrates gone mad.

Diogenes Laërtius is the only authority for the claim that Plato, shortly after the death of Socrates, traveled to Italy where he met with Philolaus and Eurytus.

Socrates would swear by dogs and Diogenes and Varro made less than respectful comments concerning the deities.

Our only source for the actual numbers of these votes is Diogenes Laertius, who says that 80 more voted for the death sentence than had voted for Socrates ' guilt in the first place ( 2. 42 ); but the details of this account have been disputed.

The later Greek historian Diogenes Laërtius dubiously reported that after the execution of Socrates " Athenians felt such remorse " that they executed Meletus and banished his associates from the city.

Though Clement of Alexandria, Sextus Empiricus, and Diogenes Laertius all quote the same passage from Timon, where Socrates is termed a laxoos or lithoxoos in ancient Greek, Timon's work is polemical and not a serious attempt to transmit literal, historical facts.

Diogenes (/ dīˈäjəˌnēz /; Διογένης ) is a Greek name shared by several important historical figures:

" Diogenes in his barrel and Crates of Thebes who gives up wealth for virtue.

Diogenes of Sinope, a major figure in the ancient Greek philosophy of Cynicism, claimed that a simple life was necessary for virtue, and purportedly lived in a jar.

Diogenes made a virtue of poverty.

It is not known whether Diogenes was insulted with the epithet " doggish " and made a virtue of it, or whether he first took up the dog theme himself.

Diogenes Laertius narrates a failed attempt Phryne made on the virtue of the philosopher Xenocrates.

Diogenes Laertius ' list of Speusippus ' works includes titles on justice, friendship, pleasure, and wealth.

Diogenes was a person sent by Orophernes, usurper of Cappadocia, together with Timotheus, as ambassador to Rome in 157 BC, to carry to Rome a golden crown, and to renew the friendship and alliance with the Roman Republic.

Under one of these emperors, Romanos IV Diogenes ( 1067 – 1071 ), Alexios served with distinction against the Seljuq Turks.

" Diogenes Laertius also says that Nicocreon, the tyrant of Cyprus, commanded him to be pounded to death in a mortar, and that he endured this torture with fortitude and Cicero relates the same story.

A similar belief was attributed by some ancient sources to Diogenes Apolloniates ( late 5th century BCE ), who also linked air with intelligence and soul ( psyche ), but other sources claim that his arche was a substance between air and fire.

His dates of birth and death are based on a life span of 60 years, the age at which Diogenes says he died, with the floruit in the middle.

Diogenes says that Heraclitus used to play knucklebones with the youths in the temple of Artemis and when asked to start making laws he refused saying that the constitution ( politeia ) was ponêra, which can mean either that it was fundamentally wrong or that he considered it toilsome.

Alexander the Great realized that the cynic Diogenes was happier than himself while living in his pottery home, since Alexander ’ s anxieties and dangers matched his ambitions, while Diogenes was content with what he had and could easily replace.

The subject of this type evidently refers to a story related by Diogenes Laertius that the Selinuntines were afflicted with a pestilence from the marshy character of the lands adjoining the neighboring river, but that this was cured by works of drainage, suggested by Empedocles.

A July, 1967 Time Magazine study on hippie philosophy credited the foundation of the hippie movement with historical precedent as far back as the counterculture of the Ancient Greeks, espoused by philosophers like Diogenes of Sinope and the Cynics also as early forms of hippie culture.

On Diogenes ' first list of seven, which he introduces with the words " These men are acknowledged wise ," Periander appears instead of Myson ; the same substitution appears in The Masque of the Seven Sages by Ausonius.

Unlike with Aristotle, we have no complete works by the Megarians or the early Stoics, and have to rely mostly on accounts ( sometimes hostile ) by later sources, including prominently Diogenes Laertius, Sextus Empiricus, Galen, Aulus Gellius, Alexander of Aphrodisias and Cicero.

Although Presian was blinded and then sent to a monastery, Theodora was not condemned, but in 1031 she was again implicated in another conspiracy, this time with Constantine Diogenes, the Archon of Sirmium.

He was struck with horror, along with many other Romans of the graver stamp, at the licence of the Bacchanalian mysteries, which he attributed to the influence of Greek manners ; and he vehemently urged the dismissal of the philosophers ( Carneades, Diogenes, and Critolaus ), who came as ambassadors from Athens, on account of the dangerous nature of the views expressed by them.

Diogenes Laërtius preserves several different accounts of this story ; one of them has Crates giving his money away to the citizens of Thebes, apparently after seeing the beggar king Telephus in a tragedy ; whereas another account has him placing his money in the hands of a banker, with the agreement that he should deliver it to his sons, unless they too became philosophers, in which case he should distribute it among the poor.

* Diogenes of Babylon or " Diogenes the Stoic " ( c. 230 – c. 150 BC ), Stoic philosopher from Seleucia, frequently confused with the following

Note: " Diogenes " is sometimes confused with the name of Digenes Akritas, the hero of a famous Byzantine epic.

On the other hand, modern scholars advise that we treat Diogenes ' testimonia with care, especially when he fails to cite his sources: " Diogenes has acquired an importance out of all proportion to his merits because the loss of many primary sources and of the earlier secondary compilations has accidentally left him the chief continuous source for the history of Greek philosophy.

While tending his father's sheep, he is said to have fallen asleep for fifty-seven years in a Cretan cave sacred to Zeus, after which he reportedly awoke with the gift of prophecy ( Diogenes Laertius i. 109 – 115 ).

Aristotle is said, in a brief epitome of his Magicus given by Diogenes Laertes, to have compared Zalmoxis with the Phoenician Okhon and Libyan Atlas.

Under his guidance the school flourished greatly — there were at one period more than 2000 students, Diogenes affirms, and at his death, according to the terms of his will preserved by Diogenes, he bequeathed to it his garden with house and colonnades as a permanent seat of instruction.