Diogene ̄s of Babylo ̄n (ca 200 – 150 BCE)
Born ca 240 BCE, fifth head of the Stoa; student of C and Ze ̄no ̄n of Tarsos,
teacher of P and A T, among others. Diogene ̄s was instru-
mental in introducing Stoicism to Rome during his visit in 156– 155 BCE. He contributed to
political theory, ethics, logic, and the theory of language, among other subjects. His work on
music was largely concerned with questions of moral education. G (PHP 2.5.9, 2.8.40
= CMG 5.4.1.2, pp. 130, 138) cites Diogene ̄s’ defense of Chrysippus’ theory that the
he ̄gemonikon is located in the heart. Diogene ̄s wrote a work On Divination in which he
argued for the Chrysippean position that if there are gods, then there is divination, a
position also held later by Antipatros of Tarsos. In his On Voice, Diogene ̄s claimed that sound
was corporeal and that it was a percussion of the air, one effected by impulse in animals but
by reason in people, at least after age 14. Diogene ̄s followed Chrysippus in dividing lan-
guage into only five parts: names, common nouns, verbs, conjunctions, and articles, though
Diogene ̄s may have given a fuller explanation of these terms than Chrysippus did insofar as
D L (7.58) cites Diogene ̄s of Babylo ̄n rather than Chrysippus for def-
initions of the parts of speech. New work on the Herculaneum papyri (as-yet unpublished) is
raising the possibility that Diogene ̄s may have been responsible for other important devel-
opments in Stoicism.
Ed.: SVF 3.210–243.
D. Obbink and P.A. Vander Waerdt, “Diogenes of Babylon: the Stoic sage in the city of fools,”
GRBS 32 (1991) 355–396; J. Brunschwig, “Did Diogenes Invent the Ontological Argument?” in Idem,
ed., Papers in Hellenistic Philosophy (1994) 170–189.
Daryn Lehoux
Diogene ̄s of Oinoanda (ca 120 – 200 CE)
Epicurean philosopher: little is known of his life, other than what he tells us in the massive
Epicurean inscription he erected for his fellow citizens sometime in the 2nd c. CE. He was
near the end of his life when he had the inscription erected in a prominent stoa in
Oinoanda; the cost of such an undertaking suggests he was wealthy. Fragments of the
inscription first came to light in 1884. Only about one third of the whole has been
recovered (now about 200 fragments, but more pieces continue to come to light), and the
reconstruction of many fragments and their original arrangement on the wall is still dis-
puted. The inscription, arranged in a number of rows and columns on a wall some 80– 100
meters in length, was erected by Diogene ̄s, he tells us, as a benefit for the citizens of
Oinoanda and for visitors to the city. Topics Diogene ̄s treated were Epicurean ethics (on
the lowest level), Epicurean physics (on the next level), and old age (on the top level). He
also included letters to friends (Letter to Antipatros, Letter to Dionusios), Maxims, and Directions to
Family and Friends. In the section on ethics, he treats the goal of life, the nature of happiness,
pleasure, pain, fear, the nature of death, mortality of the soul, dreams, necessity and free-
dom of action, and an Epicurean golden age. In the section on physics he attacks the
physical theories of earlier philosophers, including D, and discusses images,
dreams, the development of human society, astronomy, meteorology, and the nature of the
gods. The inscription provides additional evidence for many of E’ doctrines known
from other sources, and a unique glimpse into the state of Epicurean philosophy in the
2nd c. CE.
DIOGENE ̄S OF OINOANDA