Capítulo 8
[6.8.99] Menippus,Menippus ille, nobilis quidem canis, Varro apud Nonium 333. Cf. Lucian, Icaromenippus 15, Bis Accusatus 33. Varro’s Saturae Menippeae, a mixture of prose and verse, were an imitation of the style of Menippus, although their subject matter was original and genuinely Roman. also a Cynic, was by descent a Phoenician—a slave, as Achaïcus in his treatise on Ethics says. Diocles further informs us that his master was a citizen of Pontus and was named Baton. But as avarice made him very resolute in begging, he succeeded in becoming a Theban.
There is no seriousnessStrabo, however (xvi. p. 759), speaks of him as σπουδογέλοιος. in him; but his books overflow with laughter, much the same as those of his contemporary Meleager.For a fragment from his Banquet see Athenaeus 502 c.
Hermippus says that he lent out money by the day and got a nickname from doing so. For he used to make loans on bottomry and take security, thus accumulating a large fortune.
[6.8.100] At last, however, he fell a victim to a plot, was robbed of all, and in despair ended his days by hanging himself. I have composed a trifle upon himAnth. Plan. v. 41.: May be, you know Menippus, Phoenician by birth, but a Cretan hound: A money-lender by the day—so he was called— At Thebes when once on a time his house was broken into And he lost his all, not understanding what it is to be a Cynic, He hanged himself.
Some authorities question the genuineness of the books attributed to him, alleging them to be by Dionysius and Zopyrus of Colophon, who, writing them for a joke, made them over to Menippus as a person able to dispose of them advantageously.
[6.8.101] There have been six men named Menippus: the first the man who wrote a History of the Lydians and abridged Xanthus; the second my present subject; the third a sophist of Stratonicea, a Carian by descent Cf.Cic.Brut.91, § 315 post a me tota Asia peragrata est, [fuique]cum summis quidem oratoribus, quibus-cum exercebar ipsis lubentibus; quorum erat princeps Menippus Stratonicensis meo iudicio tota Asia illis temporibus disertissimus, and Strabo xvi. 660.; the fourth a sculptor; the fifth and sixth painters, both mentioned by Apollodorus.
However, the writings of Menippus the Cynic are thirteen in number: Necromancy. Wills. Epistles artificially composed as if by the gods. Replies to the physicists and mathematicians and grammarians; and A book about the birth of Epicurus; and The School’s reverence for the twentieth day.
Besides other works.