Stacked Blocks Built On Slander

"Those people are crazy. In fact, there are plenty who testify to the man’s unsurpassed goodwill toward everyone: his homeland, which honored him with statues of bronze; his friends, so numerous that whole towns could not contain them; his followers, who were all enthralled by the siren call of his doctrines, except Metrodorus of stratonicea, who retreated to Carneades, oppressed no doubt by his unsurpassed kindnesses; his line of successors, who, when nearly every other school has come to an end, forever persevere and deliver the school’s leadership countless times from one follower to another; his devotion to his parents, his beneficence to his brothers, and his decency toward his house-slaves, all evident both from his will and from their joining with him in philosophy, most famously Mys, as mentioned before; and in general, his fellow feeling toward everyone. In fact, his piety toward the gods and his fondness for his homeland are beyond words, and it was from a surplus of rectitude that he did not engage in civic affairs." (Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 10.89-104; translated by Stephan White)