VI. From Diognetus, not to busy myself about trifling things, and not to give credit to what was said by miracle-workers and jugglers about incantations and the driving away of daemons and such things; and not to breed quails for fighting, nor to give myself up passionately to such things; and to endure freedom of speech; and to have become intimate with philosophy; and to have been a hearer, first of Bacchius, then of Tandasis and Marcianus; and to have written dialogues in my youth; and to have desired a plank bed and skin, and whatever else of the kind belongs to the Grecian discipline.
His painting master. That he taught Marcus to paint, and turned him toward philosophy, is the whole of what survives about him.
Where they were from
Where they were fromNothing is recorded of Diognetus but that he taught him painting.
When, in his life
The boy who took up philosophy at about twelve.
Where it comes from
Quail-fighting was a gambling sport. Notice the company the entry keeps it in: miracle-workers, exorcists, incantations. They are all the same failure — letting yourself be taken in.