Diogenes
3 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Diogenes. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
di-oj'e-nes (412-323 B. C.), a Greek philosopher. He was a native of Sinope, Asia Minor . He traveled to Athens and became a cynic. He and his father were accused of tampering with gold coins and were expelled from the city. Of all his belongings, he kept only his cloak, purse, and a wooden bowl, declaring that the more a man had, the greater were his wants. Seeing a boy drink from the hollow of his hand, he even threw away his bowl. He lived in an empty cask, still spoken of as Diogenes' tub. As this circumstance is spoken of by satirists, rather than by historians, it is regarded sometimes as untrue. On one occasion Diogenes was seen walking through the streets of Athens with a lantern in broad daylight. On being asked what he was looking for, he replied, "I am seeking an honest man." On a trip to Aegina he was captured by pirates and carried to Crete. On being offered for sale as a slave he proclaimed that someone needing a master should buy him. He was purchased by a wealthy merchant of Corinth, who appears to have enjoyed his eccentricities, and to have retained him much as a medieval prince kept a jester. On one occasion Alexander the Great is said to have asked Diogenes what he could do for him. Diogenes replied that the only favor he could grant was not to stand between him and the sun. Alexander was so impressed with the cynic's content that he exclaimed, "If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes." A story runs to the effect that, Plato having defined man to be a two-legged animal without feathers, Diogenes plucked a cock, and bringing him into the school, said, "Here is Plato's man." Whereupon Plato deemed it well to add to his definition the words, "with broad, flat nails."
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A celebrated Cynic philosopher of Sinope, banished from his country for coining false money. From Sinope he retired to Athens , where he became the disciple of Antisthenes , who was at the head of the Cynics. He dressed himself in the garment which distinguished the Cynics, and walked about the streets with a tub on his head, which served him as a house. His singularity, joined to his great contempt for riches, gained him reputation, and Alexander the Great visited the philosopher and asked him if there was anything in which he could oblige him. "Get out of my sunshine," was the reply of the Cynic. Such independence pleased the monarch, who, turning to his courtiers, said, "Were I not Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes." He was once sold as a slave, and his magnanimity so pleased his master that he made him the preceptor of his children and the guardian of his estates. He died, B. c. 324, in the ninetysixth year of his age. The life of Diogenes does not bear strict examination: while boasting of his poverty, he was so arrogant that it has been observed that his virtues arose from pride and vanity, not from wisdom or sound philosophy. 2026 Editor's Note: Diogenes was exiled from Sinope following a scandal involving the debasement of coinage, an event that prompted his radical rejection of social conventions. His famous meeting with Alexander the Great has been reimagined across centuries of art and literature, including works by Henry Fielding and David Pinski. While the page records his death in 324 BC, other ancient accounts by Plutarch and Diogenes Laërtius claim he died on the exact same day as Alexander in 323 BC. (Ed: BR 2026-06-19)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a celebrated Greek cynic; was a native of Sinope, in Pontus, where he was born 413 B. C. He was banished from his country for coining false money, and repaired to Athens, where he studied philosophy under Antisthenes. He walked about the streets with a tub on his head, in which it is said he lodged at night. Being on a voyage, he was taken by pirates and sold into slavery at Corinth, where he became tutor to the sons of a rich citizen, but died in the greatest misery, 324 B. C. The inhabitants of Sinope raised statues to his memory, and the marble figure of a dog was placed on a high column erected on his tomb. DIOMEDEA (after Diomedes, one of the Greek warriors before Troy), a genus of birds belonging to the Procellaridæ, or petrels. rels. D. exulans is the albatross.