ed.
Diodotus Soter appears also on coins struck in his memory by the later
Graeco-Bactrian kings Agathocles and Antimachus. Cf. A. v. Sallet, _Die
Nachfolger Alexanders d. Gr. in Baktrien und Indien_; Percy Gardner,
_Catal. of the Coins of the Greek and Scythian Kings of Bactria and
India_ (Brit. Mus.); see also BACTRIA. (ED. M.)

DIOGENES, "the Cynic," Greek philosopher, was born at Sinope about 412
B.C., and died in 323 at Corinth, according to Diogenes Laertius, on the
day on which Alexander the Great died at Babylon. His father, Icesias, a
money-changer, was imprisoned or exiled on the charge of adulterating
the coinage. Diogenes was included in the charge, and went to Athens
with one attendant, whom he dismissed, saying, "If Manes can live
without Diogenes, why not Diogenes without Manes?" Attracted by the
ascetic teaching of Antisthenes, he became his pupil, despite the
brutality with which he was received, and rapidly excelled his master
both in reputation and in the austerity of his life. The stories which
are told of him are probably true; in any case, they serve to
illustrate the logical consistency of his character. He inured himself
to the vicissitudes of weather by living in a tub belonging to the
temple of Cybele. The single wooden bowl he possessed he destroyed on
seeing a peasant boy drink from the hollow of his hands. On a voyage to
Aegina he was captured by pirates and sold as a slave in Crete to a
Corinthian named Xeniades. Being asked his trade, he replied that he
knew no trade but that of governing men, and that he wished to be sold
to a man who needed a master. As tutor to the two sons of Xeniades, he
lived in Corinth for the rest of his life, which he devoted entirely to
preaching the doctrines of virtuous self-control. At the Isthmian games
he lectured to large audiences who turned to him from Antisthenes. It
was, probably, at one of these festivals that he craved from Alexander
the single boon that he would not stand between him and the sun, to
which Alexander replied "If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes."
On his death, about which there exist several accounts, the Corinthians
erected to his memory a pillar on which there rested a dog of Parian
marble. His ethical teaching will be found in the article CYNICS (q.v.).
It may suffice to say here that virtue, for him, consisted in the
avoidance of all physical pleasure; that pain and hunger were positively
helpful in the pursuit o