Stilpo

Aren't you ashamed of that? Seneca explains in his book that the wise man is out of reach precisely because he has withdrawn his desires from everything others can take away.

And he tells the story of Stilpo, a philosopher from Megara.

When King Demetrius conquered and sacked his city, Stilpo lost everything: his house, his possessions, and according to the account, his family as well.

The king, full of admiration, asked him whether he had lost anything, and Stilpo replied, "All that is mine is with me." He meant his character, his judgment, his virtue.

The only thing that was truly his could not be carried off by any army.

Look at the mechanism.

Of the doctrines of the Elean sect, little is known.

Menedemus is presumed to have been inclined toward the teachings of Stilpo and the Megarian sect.

When Menedemus' opinions were demanded, he answered that he was free, thus intimating that most men were enslaved to their opinions.

Menedemus was apparently of a somewhat belligerent temperament and often returned from his lectures in a badly bruised condition.

Eupantus, who lived to great age and wrote many tragedies, was among the foremost followers of Eubulides.

Diodorus is usually included in the Megarian school, having heard Eubulides lecture.

According to legend, Diodorus died of grief because he could not answer instantly certain questions asked him by Stilpo, at one time master of the Megarian school.

Diodorus held that nothing can be moved, since to be moved it must be taken out of the place in which it is and put into the place where it is not, which is impossible because all things must always be in the places where they are.

Again, some philosophers left writings behind them, while others wrote nothing at all.

This was the case, according to some authorities, for Socrates, Stilpo, Philippus, Menedemus, Pyrrho, Theodorus, Carneades, Bryson.

Some add Pythagoras and Aristo of Chios, except that they wrote a few letters.

Others wrote no more than one treatise each, as Melissus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras.

When this was admitted, he would press the argument to the conclusion, namely that he who uses anything for the purpose for which it is useful does no wrong.

And by some such interrogatories he would carry his point.

He appears to have been called God in consequence of the following argument addressed to him by Stilpo.

Are you, Theodorus, what you declare yourself to be? To this he assented, and Stilpo continued, And do you say you are God? To this he agreed.

Seneca tells a story that points in exactly that direction.

When King Demetrius conquered the city of Megara, the philosopher Stilpo lost everything, his homeland, his possessions, even his family.

The king, who admired him, asked whether he had lost anything, and Stilpo replied, "I have lost nothing.

Everything that is mine is with me." He meant his character, his wisdom, his way of looking at life.

What had been taken from him was enormous, and it hurt, but it wasn't him.