DIogenes Laertius, so called from Laertia, in Cilicia,
where he was born, an ancient Greek author, who wrote
ten books of the Lives of the Philosophers, still extant.
In what year he flourished it is not easy to determine. The
oldest writers who mention him are Sopater Alexandrinus,
who lived in the time of Constantine the Great, and
Hesychius Milesius, who lived under Justinian. Diogenes
often speaks in terms of approbation of Plutarch and Pha-
vorinus; and therefore, as Plutarch lived under Trajan,
and Phavorinus under Hadrian, it is certain that he could
not flourish before the reigns of those emperors. Ménage
has fixed him as contemporary with Severus, that is, about
the year of Christ 200. From certain expressions of his,
some have fancied him to have been a Christian; but, as
Ménage observes, the immoderate praises he bestows upon
Epicurus will not permit us to believe this, but must in-
cline us rather to suppose that he was an Epicurean. He
divided his Lives into books, and inscribed them to a
learned lady of the Platonic school, as he himself inti-
mates in his life of Plato. Montaigne was so fond of this
author, that, instead of one Laertius, he wishes we had
a dozen; and Vossius says that his work is as precious as
gold. Without doubt, we are greatly obliged to him for
what we know of the ancient philosophers; and if he had
been as exact in writing as he was judicious in the choice
of his subject, we should have been still more obliged
to him. Bishop Burnet, in the preface to his life of Sir
Matthew Hale, speaks of him in the following proper
manner; "There is no book the ancients have left us,
which might have informed us more than Diogenes Laer-
tius's Lives of the Philosophers, if he had had the art of
writing equal to that great subject which he undertook;
for if he had given the world such an account of them as