# Lacydes — The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers character guide

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

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0043-lacydes

## Snapshot

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.

## Who they are

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.

## In the story

### [Lacydes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/lacydes)

Founder of the New Academy, succeeded Arcesilaus; known for his gravity, industriousness, and a witty saying about statues and learning geometry late in life.

### [Chrysippus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/chrysippus)

Academic philosopher; along with Arcesilaus, he influenced Chrysippus's dialectical approach.

## Links

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