Xeniades
Encyclopedia
Xeniades was the name of two people from Corinth
who lived in the time of Ancient Greece
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Ancient Corinth
Corinth, or Korinth was a city-state on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece, roughly halfway between Athens and Sparta. The modern town of Corinth is located approximately northeast of the ancient ruins...
who lived in the time of Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
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- A Greek philosopher from Corinth who lived in the time of DemocritusDemocritusDemocritus was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera, Thrace, Greece. He was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher and pupil of Leucippus, who formulated an atomic theory for the cosmos....
, c. 400 BC. The little that we know of him is derived from Sextus EmpiricusSextus EmpiricusSextus Empiricus , was a physician and philosopher, and has been variously reported to have lived in Alexandria, Rome, or Athens. His philosophical work is the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman skepticism....
, who represents him as holding the most ultrascepticalPhilosophical skepticismPhilosophical skepticism is both a philosophical school of thought and a method that crosses disciplines and cultures. Many skeptics critically examine the meaning systems of their times, and this examination often results in a position of ambiguity or doubt...
opinions, and maintaining that all notions are false, and that there is absolutely nothing true in the universeUniverseThe Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
. What Sextus knew of him seems to have been derived from Democritus. He more than once couples him with XenophanesXenophanesof Colophon was a Greek philosopher, theologian, poet, and social and religious critic. Xenophanes life was one of travel, having left Ionia at the age of 25 he continued to travel throughout the Greek world for another 67 years. Some scholars say he lived in exile in Siciliy...
. - A Corinthian who lived c. 350 BC, and who became the purchaser of Diogenes the Cynic, when he was captured by pirates and sold as a slaveSlavery in Ancient GreeceSlavery was common practice and an integral component of ancient Greece throughout its rich history, as it was in other societies of the time including ancient Israel and early Christian societies. It is estimated that in Athens, the majority of citizens owned at least one slave...
. Two separate fictionalised accounts are used by Diogenes LaërtiusDiogenes LaertiusDiogenes Laertius was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is known about his life, but his surviving Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is one of the principal surviving sources for the history of Greek philosophy.-Life:Nothing is definitively known about his life...
in his account of Diogenes, one by MenippusMenippusMenippus of Gadara, was a Cynic and satirist. His works, which are all lost, were an important influence on Varro and Lucian. The Menippean satire genre is named after him.-Life:...
, and one by an otherwise unknown Eubulus, both of whom wrote in the 3rd century BCE. We are told that Diogenes said to Xeniades that "You must obey me, although I am a slave, for a physician or a steersman would find men to obey them even though they might be slaves." Eubulus recounts that Diogenes educated Xeniades' sons, eventually growing old in Xeniades' house. Xeniades is supposed to have remarked "A good spirit has entered my house." It is impossible to say whether any of this is accurate, or even whether Xeniades actually existed, but another Cynic, CleomenesCleomenes the CynicCleomenes was a Cynic philosopher. He was a pupil of Crates of Thebes, and is said to have taught Timarchus of Alexandria and Echecles of Ephesus, the latter of whom would go on to teach Menedemus....
, also made use of the theme of Diogenes being sold into slavery, and Xeniades was supposed to have been the man who persuaded MonimusMonimusMonimus of Syracuse, was a Cynic philosopher.According to Diogenes Laërtius, Monimus was the slave of a Corinthian money-changer who heard tales about Diogenes of Sinope from Xeniades, Diogenes' master. In order that he might become the pupil of Diogenes, Monimus feigned madness by throwing money...
to become a follower of Diogenes.