The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

17. ANTISTHENES. _Philosopher._

[Date and place of birth unknown. Died at Athens. Aged 70.] He is the founder of the Cynic philosophy and flourished about B.C. 375. He taught the love of poverty and labour, the renunciation of all the pleasures and conveniences of life, and contempt for everything but virtue, in which only he allowed true happiness to consist. It is said that Antisthenes left more books than scholars. But Socrates was his friend and Diogenes his pupil. His countenance did credit to his creed: it was severe, and looked the more terrible from his dishevelled hair and hanging beard. He taught in the Gymnasium at Athens, called Cynosarges; and hence the name of his school--the Cynic. [From the marble in the Vatican. It was found in the ruins of Hadrian’s Villa, and is of great beauty. It resembles another bust in the Vatican, which was found in the villa of Cassius at Tivoli, but which is of less merit, except that it bears his name. The portrait agrees precisely with the descriptions given of Antisthenes by the ancients.]