The coins were deliberately defaced in order to render them worthless as legal tender. During this time there was much counterfeit money circulating in Sinope. This aspect of the story seems to be corroborated by archaeology: large numbers of defaced coins (smashed with a large chisel stamp) have been discovered at Sinope dating from the middle of the 4th century BC, and other coins of the time bear the name of Hicesias as the official who minted them. It seems likely that Diogenes was also enrolled into the banking business aiding his father.Īt some point (the exact date is unknown), Hicesias and Diogenes became involved in a scandal involving the adulteration or debasement of the currency, and Diogenes was exiled from the city and lost his citizenship and all his material possessions.
Nothing is known about Diogenes's early life except that his father, Hicesias, was a banker. No writings of Diogenes survive but there are some details of his life from anecdotes ( chreia), especially from Diogenes Laërtius' book Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers and some other sources. There he passed his philosophy of Cynicism to Crates, who taught it to Zeno of Citium, who fashioned it into the school of Stoicism, one of the most enduring schools of Greek philosophy. ĭiogenes was captured by pirates and sold into slavery, eventually settling in Corinth. Diogenes was also noted for having mocked Alexander the Great, both in public and to his face when he visited Corinth in 336 BC. He criticized Plato, disputed his interpretation of Socrates, and sabotaged his lectures, sometimes distracting listeners by bringing food and eating during the discussions. He became notorious for his philosophical stunts, such as carrying a lamp during the day, claiming to be looking for a man (often rendered in English as "looking for an honest man"). He begged for a living and often slept in a large ceramic jar, or pithos, in the marketplace. ĭiogenes Searching for an Honest Man (1640–1647) by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione held at the National Gallery of Artĭiogenes made a virtue of poverty. There are many tales about his dogging Antisthenes' footsteps and becoming his "faithful hound". He declared himself a cosmopolitan and a citizen of the world rather than claiming allegiance to just one place. He had a reputation for sleeping and eating wherever he chose in a highly non-traditional fashion, and took to toughening himself against nature. He used his simple lifestyle and behavior to criticize the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt, confused society.
He modeled himself on the example of Heracles, and believed that virtue was better revealed in action than in theory. After his hasty departure from Sinope he moved to Athens where he proceeded to criticize many cultural conventions of the Athens of that day. He was the son of the mintmaster of Sinope, and there is some debate as to whether or not he alone had debased the Sinopian currency, whether his father had done this, or whether they had both done it. He was allegedly banished from, or fled from Sinope, for debasement of currency. He was born in Sinope, an Ionian colony on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia ( Asia Minor ) in 412 or 404 BC and died at Corinth in 323 BC. Crates of Thebes, other Cynics, Epicurus, the Stoics, Han Ryner, Michel Onfray, Søren Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Max Stirner, Nussbaum, Appiahĭiogenes ( / d aɪ ˈ ɒ dʒ ɪ n iː z/ dy- OJ-in-eez Ancient Greek: Διογένης, romanized: Diogénēs ), also known as Diogenes the Cynic ( Διογένης ὁ Κυνικός, Diogénēs ho Kynikós), was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy.
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