254 When he was sold into slavery he bore it with great nobility of spirit. For while sailing to Aegina, he was captured by pirates* under the command of Skirpalos,* and was carried off to Crete to be offered for sale there. When the auctioneer asked him what he was skilled at, he replied, ‘Governing men’;* and he then pointed to a Corinthian who was wearing a fine purple-bordered robe, the man called Xeniades* mentioned above, and said, ‘Sell me to that man, he could do with a master.’ So Xeniades bought him, took him to Corinth, and put him in charge of his children and entrusted his entire household to him.* And he administered it so well in every regard that Xeniades used to go around saying, ‘A good guardian-spirit* has entered my house.’
(Diogenes Laertius 6.74–5; G70)
255 Diogenes the Cynic philosopher showed such elevation of mind and greatness of spirit that, when he was captured by pirates and they were mean in their treatment of him, barely giving him enough to keep himself alive, he neither allowed himself to be bowed down by his present ill-fortune, nor to be intimidated by the brutality of his captors, but spoke out as follows: ‘How extraordinary it is that if one has pigs or sheep which one is intending to sell, one fattens them up with choice food until they are plump, and yet when one has charge of that finest of creatures, a human being, one lets him starve and constantly keeps him short of food until he has been reduced to a skeleton, and then sells him for a song.’ He was then given enough to eat, and when the time came for him to be sold with the other captives, he sat down beforehand and took a bite to eat in the most cheerful spirits, sharing some of his meal with his neighbours; and when one of them could not endure the pressure and became thoroughly despondent, he said, ‘Do please stop worrying, just take the moment as it comes,
For even Niobe with the beautiful hair remembered to eat,
Although her twelve children had perished in her halls,
Six daughters, and six sons, in the bloom of their youth.’*
(Philo, That Every Good Man is Free 121–2; G74)
256a Menippos tells in his Sale of Diogenes* how, when he was captured and offered up for sale, he was asked what he could do, to which he replied, ‘Govern men’; and he then told the auctioneer to make an announcement to ask ‘if anyone wanted to buy a master for himself’.
(Diogenes Laertius 6.29; G70)
256b When he was sold at Corinth, the auctioneer asked him, ‘What do you know how to do?’, and he replied, ‘How to govern men.’ The auctioneer said with a laugh, ‘Then I’ll do excellent business, if anyone wants to buy a master!’
(Stobaeus 3.3.52; G75)
257a When he was forbidden to sit down, he said, ‘It really makes no difference, people will buy fish however they are lying.’
(Diogenes Laertius 6.29; G70)
257b When Diogenes was being offered up for sale, he made fun of the auctioneer by lying down; and when told to stand up, he declined to do so, saying in a playful and mocking tone, ‘And what if you were selling a fish?’
(Plutarch, On Tranquillity of Mind 4, 466e; G72)
258 He said he found it extraordinary that if we are buying a pot or a plate, we test it to see whether it rings true, but if we are buying a man, we are satisfied merely to look him over.*
(Diogenes Laertius 6.30; G70)
259a It is said that when he observed that one of the purchasers, who was suffering from the female disease,* was not at all masculine in his appearance, he went up to him and said, ‘Why don’t you buy me, since it seems to me that you could do with a man.’
(Philo, That Every Good Man is Free 124; G74)
259b Diogenes, when he was put up for sale, rebuked one of those degraded creatures in true pedagogical fashion, saying to him with great boldness, ‘Come on, young fellow, buy a man for yourself’, using that ambiguous expression to encourage him to put a curb on his shameless ways.
(Clement of Alexandria, Pedagogy 3.3.16.1; G74)
260 Diogenes the Cynic also served as a slave; but he was sold into slavery after having previously been a free man. When Xeniades of Corinth, who wanted to buy him, asked him whether he had any special knowledge, he replied, ‘I know how to govern free men [liberis].’ Impressed by his response, Xeniades bought him, restored his freedom, and entrusted his sons to him, saying, ‘Here are my children [liberos]* for you to govern.’
(Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 2.18, 9–10; G77)
261 He used to say to his purchaser Xeniades that he should obey him even though he was a slave; for if a doctor or a steersman were a slave, one would still need to obey him.
(Diogenes Laertius 6.30; G70)
262 He said to Xeniades, who had bought him, ‘Be sure that you do as you are told’; and when Xeniades quoted the verse, ‘backwards flow the streams to their sources’,* he replied, ‘And if you had been ill and had bought a doctor, would you have refused to obey him, saying, ‘backwards flow the streams to their sources’?
(Diogenes Laertius 6.36; G70)
263 Tell me, my friend, when Diogenes was exiled to Athens, or when he was sold by the pirates and came to Corinth, was there anyone else in those days who showed greater frankness of speech than Diogenes? Well then? Or was there anyone else among the men of that time who was freer than Diogenes? Than this man who governed Xeniades, who had purchased him, as a master governs his slave?
(Musonius Rufus, 9, p. 49, 3–9; G73)
264 Such is the way in which Diogenes was set free by Antisthenes,* and said that thenceforth he could never be enslaved again by anyone. And in consequence, how did he conduct himself when he was captured by the pirates? He never called any of them master, did he? And here I am not speaking of the name, for it is not the mere word that I fear, but the state of mind from which the word proceeds. How he rebuked them for not giving enough food to their captives! And how he behaved when he was put up for sale! Did he look for a master? Not at all, but for a slave. And once he had been sold, how he behaved toward his master! He at once began to argue with him, saying that he ought not to be dressed as he was, or have his hair cut in the way that he did, and talked to him about his sons and how they should live their lives. And is there anything so strange in that? After all, if he had bought a trainer, would he have treated him as a servant or a master when it came to gymnastic exercises? And similarly, if he had bought a doctor, or an architect. Correspondingly, in whatever field, it is necessary that the person who possesses the requisite skill should exercise authority over one who lacks it.
(Epictetus 4.1.114–18; G73)
265 When he was an old man, he was captured by the pirate Skirtalos and sold at Corinth to a certain Xeniades; and he remained with his purchaser, choosing not to be ransomed by the Athenians or his relations and friends.
(Suda s.v. Diogenes; G71)
266 Cleomenes* recounts in his book On Pedagogues that the friends of Diogenes wanted to ransom him, but he responded by telling them that they were utterly naive; for lions, he explained, are not the slaves of those who feed them, but rather it is those who feed them that are the slaves of the lions;* for fear is what characterizes a slave, and wild beasts make men afraid of them.
(Diogenes Laertius 6.75; G70)
267 Euboulos* reports in his Sale of Diogenes that this was the course that he followed in educating the sons of Xeniades. After their other studies, he taught them to ride, to shoot with a bow, to use a sling, and to hurl javelins; and later, at the wrestling-school, he did not allow the instructor to give them a full athletic training, but only as much as was needed to bring some colour to their cheeks and keep them fit and well. The boys learned by heart many passages from the poets and historians, and from the works of Diogenes himself, and he trained them in every short cut to the development of a good memory. In the house he taught them to serve themselves, and to make do with a simple diet, with water as their drink. He made them wear their hair short and unadorned, and go out dressed in nothing but a cloak, with no shoes on their feet; as they walked, they had to keep silent, and not look around them in the street. He would also take them out hunting with him. They for their part had the highest respect for Diogenes, and would seek favours for him from their parents.
(Diogenes Laertius 6.30–1; G70)
268 The same author tells us that Diogenes grew old in the house of Xeniades, and that when he died, he was buried by the sons of Xeniades. He had once been asked by Xeniades how he wanted to be buried, and had replied, ‘Face downwards.’ ‘And why is that?’, asked Xeniades. ‘Because after no great while, down will be turned into up.’ He said this because the Macedonians now had the upper hand, and had thus risen to great heights from a humble beginning.
(Diogenes Laertius 6.31–2; G102)