ANTITTHENES, founder of the Cynic school of philosophy, was the son of A., an Athe nian. The date of his birth is not known, but be fought in his youth at Tanagra (420 u.c.), and he survived the battle of Leuctra (371 B.c.), and died at Athens at the age of 70. After listening to the teaching of Socrates, he gave up the profession of rhetoric, which he had followed at first as a disciple of Gorgias, in order to apply himself wholly to the study of moral philosophy. He was present at the death of Socrates, and never 'forgave his persecutors. A. held that virtue mainly consists in voluntary abstinence from pleas ure, and in a stern contempt of riches, honors, and. even learning. Opinions of still greater extravagance are ascribed to A., but it is probable that they were rather extreme views, which he put into the mouths of the interloeutorS in his dialogues, than expres sions of those which he himself entertained. Even in his condemnation of pleasure, he
excepted such as springs from the soul, or is founded on true friendship. In consist ency with his teaching, A. appeared as a beggar, clad in ragged garments—an eccentri city which Socrates is said to have reproved by saying, "I see your pride through the holes in your cloak." The singularity affected by A. gained many imitators, and among them Diogenes, who chose to live in a tub, and surpassed the master himself in cynic practice. After the death of Socrates, A. taught moral and practical philosophy in the Athenian gymnasium Cynosargcs, from which, it is said, his school derived its title. Ills writings—among them a polemical work against Plato—have mostly perished. Such fragments as remain have been collected by Winekelmann (A. fragrnenta, Turici, 1842). Ritter classes A. with the "imperfect Socraticists."