cter. He taught, for instance, that
there was nothing really wrong or disgraceful in theft, adultery, or
sacrilege; but that they were branded by public opinion to restrain fools.
He is also reproved with utter atheism; and Cicero classes him with
Diagoras, as a man who utterly denied the existence of any Gods at all.

_Pyrrho_ was a contemporary of Alexander the Great, whose expedition into
Asia he joined. He appears, as far as his philosophy went, to have been an
universal sceptic. He impeached, however, none of the chief principles of
morality, but, regarding Socrates as his model, directed all his
endeavours towards the production in his pupils of a firm well-regulated
moral character.

_Crantor_ was a native of Soli in Cilicia; we do not know when he was born
or when he died, but he came to Athens before B.C. 315. He was the first
of Plato's followers who wrote commentaries on the works of his master. He
died of dropsy, and left Arcesilaus his heir.

_Arcesilaus_, or _Arcesilas_, flourished about B.C. 280; he was born at
Pitane, but came to Athens and became the pupil of Theophrastus and of
Crantor, and afterwards of some of the more sceptical philosophers. On the
death of Crantor he succeeded to the chair of the Academy, in the
doctrines of which he made so many innovations that he is called the
founder of the New Academy. What his peculiar views were is, however, a
matter of great uncertainty. Some give him the credit of having restored
the doctrines of Plato in an uncorrupted form; while, according to Cicero,
on the other hand, (Acad. i. 12,) he summed up all his opinions in the
statement that he knew nothing, not even his own ignorance. He, and the
New Academy, do not, however, seem to have doubted the existence of truth
in itself, but only the capacity of man for arriving at the knowledge of
it.

_Carneades_ was born at Cyrene about B.C. 213. He went early to Athens,
and at first attended the lectures of the Stoics; but subsequently
attached himself to the Academy, and succeeded to the chair on the death
of Hegesinus. In the year B.C. 155, he came to Rome on an embassy, but so
offended Cato by speaking one day in praise of justice as a virtue, and
the next day, in answer to all his previous arguments, that he made a
motion in the senate, that he should be ordered to depart from Rome. He
died B.C. 129.

_Philo_ of Larissa, who is often mentioned by Cicero, was his own master,
having removed to Rome after t