The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers · Character
Lacydes
A Platonic head of the Academy whose doctrines — virtue as a weapon, prudence as the safest fortification — sound suspiciously like the Cynics and Stoics he preceded.
supporting
First appearance: Lacydes
As a supporting figure in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, Lacydes is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.
Founder of the New Academy, succeeded Arcesilaus; known for his gravity, industriousness, and a witty saying about statues and learning geometry late in life.
Lacydes leads the Academy but teaches like a proto-Stoic: the wise man is self-sufficient, virtue is the only good, obscurity of fame is as good as labor, and one should marry for children, choosing the most beautiful wife. He lectures at the Cynosarges gymnasium and is nicknamed 'Haplocyon' — the downright dog — for his plain cloak and wallet, and Diogenes Laërtius credits him with laying the foundations that Diogenes the Cynic, Crates, and Zeno would later build on. He matters as the hinge between Plato's school and the tougher, more ascetic ethics that followed.
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- Other
Character groups
- Later Academic Skeptics
- Major Philosophers and Biographers
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Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
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