Reading room

Life of Diogenes (Diogenes Laertius, Book VI)

Diogenes of Sinope

The longest surviving biography of Diogenes and the source of almost everything known about him: the exile from Sinope, the jar in the Metroon, the sale to Xeniades, the versions of his death, the list of his writings and some two hundred anecdotes. Laertius cites his sources and often notes discrepancies, which allows modern criticism partly to separate the layers of the tradition.