Diogenes of Sinope
c. 412 BCE–c. 323 BCE · Sinope
Diogenes the Cynic (c. 412–323 BCE), the most famous Cynic philosopher, who made poverty and shamelessness a deliberate philosophy and, asked where he came from, answered 'I am a citizen of the world' (kosmopolitēs) — coining cosmopolitanism.
“Stand a little out of my sun.”
Did you know?
Diogenes and Alexander the Great died in the same year
Diogenes the Cynic — who, when Alexander the Great offered to grant him any wish, is said to have asked only that the king step out of his sunlight — died in 323 BCE, the very same year as Alexander himself. One ancient tradition even holds they died on the same day, though scholars treat that as legend.
How we know
Diogenes of Sinope c. 412–323 BCE; Alexander the Great 356–323 BCE (d. June 323 BCE, Babylon). Same-day death is a tradition in Diogenes Laërtius, treated as legend.
The philosopher who was auctioned off as a slave
Ancient biographers report that Diogenes of Sinope, the founding figure of the Cynics, was captured by pirates and put up for sale as a slave. Asked at the auction what he could do, he is said to have answered “govern men” — and told the seller to offer him to a buyer in need of a master.
How we know
Diogenes of Sinope c. 412–323 BCE; the enslavement anecdote is from Diogenes Laërtius, Lives 6.29ff (sold to Xeniades of Corinth), a traditional and possibly apocryphal report.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→
SinopePontus
What they did here
Born at Sinope on the Black Sea c.412 BCE, son of Hicesias, a banker/money-changer. Diogenes Laertius (6.20) reports he was exiled after a scandal involving defacing or adulterating the coinage (paracharaxis).
About Sinope
Sinope, modern Sinop on the Black Sea coast of northern Turkey, was founded by Ionian Greek settlers from Miletus and became one of the chief ports of the region. It was the birthplace of Diogenes the Cynic, who was exiled from the city and went on to live in Athens and Corinth, and it later served as capital of the kingdom of Pontus, whose king Mithridates VI Eupator was born and buried there. In the 2nd century CE the city produced the Christian teacher Marcion, said by Epiphanius to be the son of a local bishop, who was excommunicated by the church of Rome around 144. Sinope later passed under Byzantine, Seljuk and Turkish rule.
In Sinope at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Diogenes of Sinope’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
Sophocles, Gorgias of Leontini, Euripides, Antiphon, Socrates, Prodicus, Democritus, Thucydides, Critias, Antisthenes, Aristophanes, Lysias, Andocides, Isocrates, Alcidamas, Xenophon, Plato, Isaeus
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Diogenes of Sinope’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.