Xeniades

Xeniades (Greek: Ξενιάδης) was the name of two people from Corinth who lived in the time of Ancient Greece:

1. A Greek philosopher from Corinth who lived in the time of Democritus, c. 400 BC. The little that is known of him is derived from Sextus Empiricus, who represents him as holding the most ultrasceptical opinions, and maintaining that all notions are false, and that there is absolutely nothing true in the universe.^[1] What Sextus knew of him seems to have been derived from Democritus.^[2] He more than once couples him with Xenophanes.^[3]
2. A Corinthian who lived c. 350 BC, and who became the purchaser of Diogenes the Cynic, when he was captured by pirates and sold as a slave. Two separate fictionalised accounts are used by Diogenes Laërtius in his account of Diogenes,^[4] one by Menippus, and one by an otherwise unknown Eubulus, both of whom wrote in the 3rd century BCE. It is told that Diogenes said to Xeniades, "You must obey me, although I am a slave, for a physician or a steersman would find men to obey them even though they might be slaves."^[5] Eubulus recounts that Diogenes educated Xeniades's sons, eventually growing old in Xeniades' house.^[6] Xeniades is supposed to have remarked "A good spirit has entered my house."^[7] It is impossible to say whether any of this is accurate or even whether Xeniades actually existed, but another Cynic, Cleomenes, also made use of the theme of Diogenes being sold into slavery,^[8] and Xeniades was supposed to have been the man who persuaded Monimus to become a follower of Diogenes.^[9]

Notes

1. Sextus Empiricus, Adv. Math. vii. 388, 399
2. Sextus Empiricus, Adv. Math. vii. 53
3. Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrh. Hyp. ii. 18, adv. Math. vii. 48
4. Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 29-32, 36, 74
5. Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 30
6. Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 31
7. Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 74
8. Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 75
9. Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 82