CEBES, the name of two Greek philosophers. (I) CEBES OF CvzICUS, mentioned in Athenaeus (iv. 156 D), seems to have been a Stoic, who lived during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Some would attribute to him the Tabula Cebetis (see below), but as that work was well known in the time of Lucian, it is probably to be placed earlier. (2) CEBES OF THEBES, a disciple of Socrates and Philolaus. He is one of the speakers in the Phaedo of Plato, in which he is represented as an earnest seeker after virtue and truth, keen in argument and cautious in decision. Three dialogues, the , the 1.pvvLXos and the Hi.v4 or Tabula, are ascribed to him by Suidas and Diogenes Laertius. The two former are lost, and most scholars deny the authenticity of the Tabula on the ground of material and verbal anachronisms. They attribute it either to Cebes of Cyzicus (above) or to an anonymous author, of the Ist century A.D., who assumed the character of Cebes of Thebes. In the form of an interpretation of an allegorical picture in the temple of Cronus at Athens or Thebes, it develops the Platonic theory of pre-existence, and shows that true education consists in the formation of character.