# Dionysius of Heraclea — The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers character guide

> Dionysius of Heraclea in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Dionysius the Carthaginian

**First appearance:** 0067-dionysius

## Snapshot

Nicknamed 'the Deserter,' this Stoic defected to the Cyrenaics after an eye disease convinced him that pain was not, in fact, indifferent.

## Who they are

Dionysius is the great apostate of the early Stoic school, a man whose body overruled his doctrine. A former poet and devoted pupil of Zeno, he abandoned the porch for the Cyrenaic garden the moment his eyes began to torture him — a defection his rivals never let him forget. His career is a cautionary tale about how philosophy fares when suffering arrives, and his late-life starvation, after eighty years of luxury, gives his story a bleak, almost allegorical shape.

## In the story

### [Aristippus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/aristippus)

Tyrant at whose court Aristippus was favored; he tested Aristippus with courtesans and engaged in philosophical dialogues.

### [Euclides](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/euclides)

Referenced as Dionysius the Carthaginian who first called the Megarians 'Dialecticians'.

### [Book III: The Life, Will, and Legacy of Plato](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/book-iii)

Younger Dionysius of Sicily; Plato's interactions with him during his Sicilian travels are recounted.

### [Plato](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/plato)

Younger Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, who promised but failed to grant Plato land for his constitution.

### [Dionysius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/dionysius)

The subject of the chapter, known as the Deserter, who argued pleasure is the chief good due to his eye ailment.

### [Philolaus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/philolaus)

Plato visited his court in Sicily and obtained Philolaus's book.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/characters/dionysius
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/characters