He taught a simple asceticism, which seems to have been milder than that of his predecessor Diogenes:

simple: Diogenes

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.

simple: Diogenes of Sinope

Between 1424 and 1433 he worked on the translation of the Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius, which came to be widely circulated in manuscript form and was published at Rome in 1472 ( the first printed edition of the Lives ; the Greek text was printed only in 1533 ).

** Diogenes Laërtius, Vitae philosophorum ( Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers )

The main source for the life of Heraclitus is Diogenes Laërtius, although some have questioned the validity of his account as " a tissue of Hellenistic anecdotes, most of them obviously fabricated on the basis of statements in the preserved fragments.

Timon of Phlius calls him " the riddler " ( ainiktēs ) according to Diogenes Laërtius, who had just explained that Heraclitus wrote his book " rather unclearly " ( asaphesteron ) so that only the " capable " should attempt it.

Diogenes Laërtius ascribes to Theophrastus the theory that Heraclitus did not complete some of his works because of melancholia.

Diogenes Laërtius divides the physiologoi into two groups, Ionian and Italiote, led by Anaximander and Pythagoras, respectively.

The knowledge we have of them derives from accounts of later philosophical writers ( especially Aristotle, Plutarch, Diogenes Laërtius, Stobaeus and Simplicius ), and some early theologians, ( especially Clement of Alexandria and Hippolytus of Rome ).

Most of the details known about his life come from the anecdotes preserved by Diogenes Laërtius in his Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.

Diogenes Laërtius has preserved many clever and witty remarks by Zeno, the veracity of which cannot be ascertained.

According to Persaeus ( Diogenes Laërtius vii.

A plausible chronology for his life is as follows: He was born 334 / 3 BC, and came to Athens in 312 / 11 BC at the age of 22 ( Diogenes Laërtius, vii.

He studied philosophy for about 10 years ( Diogenes Laërtius, vii.

Diogenes Laërtius gives two different accounts of his death.

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.

Diogenes Laërtius, however, wrote that Protagoras invented the “ Socratic ” method.

But most modern scholars, following the suggestion of Diogenes Laërtius, consider them to be forgeries, some forged by the philosopher Heraclides Ponticus, others by or altered by Christian writers:

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.

Crates wrote a book of letters on philosophical subjects, the style of which is compared by Diogenes Laërtius to that of Plato ; but these no longer survive.

* Diogenes Laërtius ( between 200 – 500 CE ), historian

* Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, translated by Charles Duke Yonge ( 1853 ) ( Uses a different method of enumerating the sections from the modern editions.

nl: Diogenes Laërtius

Diogenes Laërtius says that his works filled ten volumes, but of these, only fragments remain.

Most of the biographical information we have of Theophrastus was provided by Diogenes Laërtius ' Lives of the Philosophers, written more than four hundred years after Theophrastus ' time.

From the lists of Diogenes Laërtius, giving 227 titles, it appears that the activity of Theophrastus extended over the whole field of contemporary knowledge.