Diocles of Magnesia ( el, Διοκλῆς ὁ Μάγνης) was an

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

writer from

Magnesia ad Sipylum Magnesia Sipylum ( el, Mαγνησία ἡ πρὸς Σιπύλῳ or ; modern Manisa, Turkey) was a city of Lydia, situated about 65 km northeast of Smyrna (now İzmir) on the river Hermus (now Gediz) at the foot of Mount Sipylus. The cit ...

, who probably lived in the 2nd or 1st century BC. The claim that he is the Diocles to whom

Meleager of Gadara Meleager of Gadara ( grc-gre, Μελέαγρος ; fl. 1st century BC) was a poet and collector of epigrams. He wrote some satire, satirical prose, now lost, and some sensual poetry, of which 134 epigrams survive. Life Meleager was the son of E ...

dedicated his anthology is questionable. He authored works entitled Ἐπιδρομὴ τῶν φιλοσόφων (''Philosophers overview'') and Περὶ βίων φιλοσόφων (''On the lives of philosophers''), both important sources for

Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Ancient Greece, Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a ...

's work about the lives and opinions of eminent Greek philosophers, especially the Cynics and

Stoics Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting that th ...

(see Diogenes Laërtius 2.82; 6.12, 13, 20, 36, 87, 91, 99, 103; 7.48, 162, 166, 179, 181; 9.61, 65; 10.12). For example, Diocles is cited by

Diogenes Laertius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal sour ...

as a source in his biography of

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; grc, wikt:Ξενοφῶν, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Anci ...

that would otherwise be unknown.D. H. Kelly, ''Xenophon’s Hellenika: a Commentary'' (ed. J. McDonald), Amsterdam, 2019, pp. 45-7. Nothing more is known about the life and works of Diocles.

References

Sources

* Ancient Greek biographers {{AncientGreece-writer-stub