Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "ASSOS Ancient city TURKEY" .
ASSOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Cleanthes (Kleanthes), a Greek philosopher, a native of Assos in Asia
Minor. He was originally a boxer (Diog. Laert. vii. 168), and while attending
at Athens the lectures of Zeno, the founder of the Stoic philosophy, gained a
livelihood at night by carrying water. He was Zeno's disciple for nineteen years,
and in B.C. 263 succeeded him as head of the Stoic school. He died in his eightyfirst
year by voluntary starvation. A beautiful Hymn to Zeus is the only one of his
writings that has come down to us, of which a good edition is that of Pearson
(London, 1891). The titles of the others are given by Diogenes Laertius.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Cleanthes (Kleanthes), a Stoic, born at Assos in Troas about B. C. 300, though
the exact date is unknown. He was the son of Phanias, and entered life as a boxer,
but had only four drachmas of his own when he felt himself impelled to the study
of philosophy. He first placed himself under Crates, and then under Zeno, whose
faithful disciple he continued for nineteen years. In order to support himself
and pay Zeno the necessary fee for his instructions, he worked all night at drawing
water from gardens, and in consequence received the nickname of Phreantles. As
he spent the whole day in philosophical pursuits, he had no visible means of support,
and was therefore summoned before the Areiopagus to account for his way of living.
The judges were so delighted by the evidence of industry which he produced, that
they voted him ten minae, though Zeno would not permit him to accept them. By
his fellow-pupils he was considered slow and stupid, and received from them the
title of the Ass, in which appellation he said that he rejoiced, as it implied
that his back was strong enough to bear whateverZeno put upon it. Several other
anecdotes preserved of him shew that he was one of those enthusiastic votaries
of philosophy who naturally appeared from time to time in an age when there was
no deep and earnest religion to satisfy the thinking part of mankind. We are not
therefore surprised to hear of his declaring that for the sake of philosophy he
would dig and undergo all possible labour, of his taking notes from Zeno's lectures
on bones and pieces of earthenware when he was too poor to buy paper, and of the
quaint penitence with which he reviled himself for his small progress in philosophy,
by calling himself an old man "possessed indeed of grey hairs, but not of a mind".
For this vigour and zeal in the pursuit, he was styled a second Hercules; and
when Zeno died, B. C. 263, Cleanthes succeeded him in his school. This event was
fortunate for the preservation of the Stoical doctrines, for though Cleanthes
was not endowed with the sagacity necessary to rectify and develop his master's
system, yet his stern morality and his devotion to Zeno induced him to keep it
free from all foreign corruptions. His poverty was relieved by a present of 3000
minas from Antigonus, and he died at the age of eighty. The story of his death
is characteristic. His physician recommended to him a two days' abstinence from
food to cure an ulcer in his mouth, and at the end of the second day, he said
that, as he had now advanced so far on the road to death, it would be a pity to
have the trouble over again, and he therefore still refused all nourishment, and
died of starvation.
The names of the numerous treatises of Cleanthes preserved by Laertius
(vii. 175) present the usual catalogue of moral and philosophical subjects: peri
areton, peri hedones, peri theon, &c. A hymn of his to Zeus is still extant, and
contains some striking sentiments. His doctrines were almost exactly those of
Zeno. There was a slight variation between his opinion and the more usual Stoical
view respecting the immortality of the soul. Cleanthes taught that all souls are
immortal, but that the intensity of existence after death would vary according
to the strength or weakness of the particular soul, thereby leaving to the wicked
some apprehension of future punishment; whereas Chrysippus considered that only
the souls of the wise and good were to survive death (Plut. Place. Phil. iv. 7).
Again, with regard to the ethical principle of the Stoics, to " live in unison
with nature", it is said that Zeno only enunciated the vague direction, homologoumenos
zein, which Cleanthes explained by the addition of tei phusei (Stob. Ecl. ii.
p. 132). By this he meant the universal nature of things, whereas Chrysippus understood
by the nature which we are to follow, the particular nature of man, as well as
universal nature (Diog. Laert. vii. 89). This opinion of Cleanthes was of a Cynical
character, and held up as a model of an animal state of existence, unimproved
by the progress of civilization. Accordingly we hear that his moral theory was
even stricter than that of ordinary Stoicism, denying that pleasure was agreeable
to nature, or in any way good. The direction to follow universal nature also led
to fatalist conclusions, of which we find traces in the lines agou de m o Zeu,
kai su g he Pepromene, hopoi poth' humin eimi diatetagmenos, k. t. l.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Aug 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hermias (or Hermeias). A Mysian eunuch, tyrant of Assos, and the friend
and patron of Aristotle, who married his adopted daughter Pythias. In B.C. 344
Hermias was seized by Mentor, the Greek general of the king of Persia, and by
him sent to the Persian court, where he was put to death.
Hermeias or Hermias. Tyrant or dynast of the cities of Atarneus and Assos, in
Mysia, celebrated as the friend and patron of Aristotle. He is said to have been
an eunuch, and to have begun life as a slave, but whether he obtained his liberty
or not, he appears to have early risen to a confidential position with Eubulus,
the ruler of Atarneus and Assos. If, however, Strabo's statement, that he repaired
to Athens, and there attended the lectures of both Plato and Aristotle, be correct,
we cannot doubt that he had at that time obtained his freedom, though he remained
attached to the service of Eubulus, who had raised himself from the situation
of a banker to the undisputed government of the two cities already mentioned.
In this position Eubulus maintained himself till his death, in defiance, it would
appear, of the authority of Persia (see Arist. Pol. ii. 4), and on that event
Hermias seems to have succeeded to his authority without opposition. The exact
period of his accession is unknown, and we know not how long he had held the sovereign
power when he invited Aristotle and Xenocrates to his little court, about the
year B. C. 347. The long sojourn of Aristotle with him, and the warm attachment
which that philosopher formed towards him, are strong arguments in favour of the
character of Hermias: yet the relations between them did not escape the most injurious
suspicions, for which there was doubtless as little reason as for the obloquy
with which Aristotle was loaded when, after the death of Hermias, he married Pythias,
the niece, or, according to other accounts, the adopted daughter of his friend
and benefactor (Strab. xiii.; Pseud. Ammon. vit. Aristot.; Aristocles ap. Euseb.
Praep. Ev. xv. 2; Diog. Laert. v. 3).
Of other occurrences under the rule of Hermias we know nothing; but
he appears to have maintained himself in the undisputed sovereignty of his little
state, and in avowed independence of Persia, until the year 345, when the Greek
general, Mentor, who was sent down by the Persian king to take the command in
Asia Minor, decoyed him, by a promise of safe conduct, to a personal interview,
at which, in defiance of his pledge, he seized and detained him as a prisoner.
After making use of his signet to enforce the submission of the governors left
in the cities subject to his rule, Mentor sent him as a captive to the court of
Artaxerxes, where he was soon after put to death (Diod. xvi. 52; Strab. xiii.;
Diog. Laert. v. 6).
Aristotle testified his reverence for the memory of his friend, not
only by erecting a statue to him at Delphi, but by celebrating his praises in
an ode or hymn, addressed to Virtue, which has fortunately been preserved to the
present day (Athen. xv.; Diog. Laert. v. 6, 7.) Concerning the relations of the
philosopher with Hermias, and the injurious imputations to which they gave rise,
see the article Aristotle at Stageira.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Aug 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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