Timon 297
assigning equal force to each appearance. In reply to them, the sceptics
say that when various presentations strike them, we say that each one
appears; and for this reason, we posit that the appearances appear.
The sceptics say the goal is suspension of judgement, upon which
freedom from anxiety follows like a shadow, as Timon and Aenesidemus
and their followers put it. 108. For we shall neither choose this nor avoid
that in matters which are up to us; as for matters not up to us, but which
happen of necessity, like hunger, thirst, and pain, these we cannot avoid,
for they cannot be removed by argument. And when the dogmatists say
that the sceptic's position is such that he will live a life in which, were
he commanded, he would not shrink from cannibalizing his father, the
sceptics reply that he will be able to live so that he can suspend judgement
about dogmatic questions, but not about matters of everyday life and of
observance. So, we can choose and avoid something according to habit
and we can follow customs. Some say that the sceptics say that the goal
is freedom from passions; others say that they say it is gentleness.Timon
Diogenes Laertius 9.109-116 [III-23]
- Our Apollonides ofNicaea says in the first book of his commentary
On the Satires, dedicated to Tiberius Caesar, that Timon, son of Timar-
chus, was born in Phlius. Having been orphaned as a youth, he became
a dancer, but later rejected this occupation, migrated to Megara to be
with Stilpo, and after spending some time with him, returned home and
married. Next, he migrated with his wife to Elis to be with Pyrrho, and
spent time there until his children were born, the older of whom he
named Xanthus; he taught his son medicine and made him heir to
his livelihood. - He was a highly regarded man, as Sotion says in his eleventh
book. Being without means of support, he sailed to the Hellespont and
Propontis. At Chalcedon he made his living as a sophist, and his reputation
increased. He became prosperous there and sailed for Athens, where he
spent his time until his death, except for a small amount of time spent
in Thebes. He was acquainted with King Antigonus and Ptolemy Phila-
delphus/2 as he himself indicates in his iambics.
Antigonus says he liked drink and if he had time to spare from philoso-
phy he used to write poems; [he wrote] epics, tragedies, satyr-plays (and
there were 30 comic dramas, while the tragedies numbered 60), satires, - Kings of Macedon and Alexandria respectively.