Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/926

Rh 914 STIMULA. to Alexandria. We are further told that Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, honoured him no less, spared his house at the capture of Megara (01. 121, 3), and offered him indemnity for the injury which it had received, which, however, Stilpo declined. (Diog. Laert. ii. 115.. Plut. Demetr. c. 9, «&c.) Uniting elevated sentiment {^p6viixa) with gentle- ness and patience U6Tpjo7ra0€(o), he, as Plutarch says {adv. Colot. c. 22), was an ornament to his country and friends, and had his acquaintance sought by kings.' His original propensity to wine and voluptuousness he is said to have entirely overcome (Cic. de Fato, c. 5) ; in inventive power and dialectic art {aocpKneia.) to have surpassed his contemporaries, and to have inspired almost all Hellas with a devotion to the Megarian philosophy. A number of distinguished men too are named, whom he is said to have drawn away from Aristotle, Theophrastus, and others, and attached to himself (Diog. Laert. ii. 113, comp. 119, 120); among others Crates the Cynic, and Zeno, the founder of the Stoic school, (ib. 114.) Not less commendation is bestowed upon his political wisdom, his simple, straightforward disposition, and the equanimity with which he endured the fate of being the father of a degenerate daughter (ib. 114, comp. Plut. de tranqu. a/mni, c. 6). Of the nine dia- logues, which were ascribed to him, and which are described as being of a somewhat frigid kind, we learn only the titles, two of which seem to point to a polemical disquisition on Aristippus and Aristotle. (Diog. Laert. ii. 120.) In like manner, we obtain exceedingly scanty disclosures respecting his doctrines in the few propositions and sayings of his which are quoted, torn as they are from their connection. Only we can scarcely fail to re- cognize in them the direction which the Megaric philosophy took, to demonstrate that the pheno- menal world is unapproachable to true knowledge. For it is probably in this sense that we are to un- derstand the assertion, that one thing cannot be predicated of another, that is, the essence of things cannot be reached by means of predicates (Plut. adv. Colot. 22, 23 ; comp. Sirapl. in Phys. Ausc. f. 26) ; and that the genus, the universal, is not contained in the individual and concrete. (Diog. Laert. ii. 119.) H-e seems, however, especially to have made the idea of virtue the object of his con- sideration (Crates, ap. Diog. La'trt. 118), and to have placed in a prominent point of view the self- sufficiency of it. He maintained that the wise man ought not only to overcome every evil, but not even to be affected by any, not even to feel it. (Seneca, Epist 9, comp. Plut. de Tranqu. animi, 6, Diog. Laert. ii. 114), and in that way outbids not only the Stoics, but even the Cynics. Thence too, probably, his collisions with Crates, referred to in the verses of the latter (ap. Diog. Laert. ii. 118), and in the otherwise very tasteless anecdote re- peated by Diogenes Laertius. (ii. 117, &c.) Whether he was in earnest in his antagonism to the popular polytheistic faith, and whether and how the Areiopagus in Athens stepped in, cannot be gathered from the childish statements of such a silly writer as Diogenes. (Diog. Laert. ii. 116, &c.) [Ch. A. B.] STl'MULA, the name of Semele, according to the pronunciation of the Romans. (Liv. xxxix. 12 ; Augustin. De Civ. Dei, iv. 11, 16 ; Ov. Fast. vi. fi03.) Augustin is wrong in deriving the name from stimulus. (MuUer, Etrusk. ii. p. 77.) [L. S.] STOBAEUS. STIPAX. [Stypax]. STOBAEUS, JOANNES Clccdwvs 6 Sto- gatos), derived his surname apparently from being a native of Stobi in Macedonia. Of his personal history we know nothing. Even the age in which he lived caimot be fixed with accuracy. He lived, at all events, later than Hierocles, whom he quotes. Probably he did not live very long after him, as he quotes no writer of a later date. His studious avoidance of all Christian writers seems to render it probable that Stobaeus was a heathen, though his name would rather indicate a Christian, or at least the son of Christian parents. Though Sto- baeus is to us little more than a name, we are in- debted to him for a very valuable collection of extracts from earlier Greek writers. Stobaeus was a man of extensive reading, in the course of which he noted down the most interesting passages. The materials which he had collected in this way he arranged, in the order of subjects, as a repertory of valuable and instructive sayings, for the use of his son Septimius. This collection of extracts he di- vided into four books, and published under the title 'Iwduvov 'S,To§aiov iKKoySv, ano(pQcyjj.a.Twv^ virodrjKwv fii€ia riaaapa. This, however, is not exactly the form in which the work has come down to us. In most of the manuscripts there is a divi- sion into three books, forming two distinct works ; the first and second books forming one work under the title ^'E.Kko'yal (pvaiKoi SiaXeKTiKal Kol i)diKai, the third book forming another work, called ^Av9o- koyiov {Florilegium or Sermones). Some have supposed in consequence that the fourth book is lost. This, however, is not the case. Photius {Cod. 167) has preserved a detailed table of contents of all four books ; and on comparing the contents of the Flo- rilegium with the table of the contents of the third and fourth books of the original arrangement, it is perfectly evident that the Florilegium consists of both those books combined in one. It is true that according to Photius the third and fourth books together contained 100 chapters, while the Flori- legium contains 126 (ed. Gaisford). This, how- ever, may easily have arisen from a subdivision of some of the longer chapters by the copyists. There seems no sufficient reason for supposing that Sto- baeus originally arranged his extracts in two sepa- rate works. The table of contents in Photius is sufficiently full to allow of the restoration of the original subdivision of the Florilegium or Sermones into two books, answering precisely to those which were in the edition of Stobaeus used by Photius. The two books of Eclogues consist for the most part of extracts conveying the views of earlier poets and prose writers on points of physics, dialectics, and ethics. The Florilegium, or Sermones, is de- voted to subjects of a moral, political, aitd econo- mical kind, and maxims of practical wisdom. We learn from Photius that the first book of the Eclogues was preceded by a dissertation on the advantages of philosophy, an account of the diffe- rent schools of philosophy, and a collection of the opinions of ancient writers on geometry, music, and arithmetic. The greater part of this introduc- tion is lost. The close of it only, where arithmetic is spoken of, is still extant. The first book was divided into sixty chapters, the second into forty- six, of which we only possess the first nine. The third book originally consisted of forty-two chap- ters, and the fourth of fifty-eight. Each chapter of the Eclogae and Sermones is headed by a title de-