Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
The Greek and Latin of Hermann Diels · New English translation and notes.
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Facing Pages · Branch 28 of 126
The Life · A 1 §§ 73–74
Ancient Greek and Latin
p. 46Diogenes Laertius VIII 72–73
Νεάνθης δ' ὁ Κυζικηνὸς ὁ καὶ περὶ τῶν Πυθαγορικῶν εἰπών φησι Μέτωνος τελευτήσαντος τυραννίδος ἀρχὴν ὑποφύεσθαι· εἶτα τὸν Ἐμπεδοκλέα πεῖσαι τοὺς Ἀκραγαντίνους παύσασθαι μὲν τῶν στάσεων, ἰσότητα δὲ πολιτικὴν ἀσκεῖν. ἔτι τε πολλὰς τῶν πολιτίδων ἀπροίκους ὑπαρχούσας αὐτὸν προικίσαι διὰ τὸν παρόντα πλοῦτον· διὸ δὴ πορφύραν τε ἀναλαβεῖν αὐτὸν καὶ στρόφιον ἐπιθέσθαι χρυσοῦν, ὡς Φαβωρῖνος ἐν Ἀπομνημονεύμασιν, ἔτι τ' ἐμβάτας χαλκᾶς καὶ στέμμα Δελφικόν. κόμη τε ἦν αὐτῶι βαθεῖα καὶ παῖδες ἀκόλουθοι· καὶ αὐτὸς ἀεὶ σκυθρωπὸς ἐφ' ἑνὸς σχήματος ἦν. τοιοῦτος δὴ προήιει, τῶν πολιτῶν ἐντυχόντων καὶ τοῦτο ἀξιωσάντων οἱονεὶ βασιλείας τινὸς παράσημον.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II: The Life
p. 47Purple, gold and bronze; a broken thigh; and how old he was
Diogenes Laertius VIII 72–73
Neanthes of Cyzicus, the same who wrote about the Pythagoreans, says that after the death of Meton the beginnings of a tyranny began to grow up, and that Empedocles then persuaded the people of Acragas to have done with faction and practise political equality. He also says that Empedocles provided dowries, out of the wealth he had, for many of the women of the city who had none; and that this was why he took to wearing purple and put on a golden girdle — so Favorinus says in his Memoirs — and bronze boots besides, and a Delphic wreath. His hair was worn long, and boys walked in attendance on him; and he himself was always grave, and kept one unvarying bearing. This was how he went about, and the citizens, meeting him, thought this fitting, as a kind of badge of royalty.
Socrates
Reading Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II · The Life · A 1 §§ 73–74
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Empedocles survives not only through his poems but through the ancient writers who described his life, doctrines, medicine, cosmology, and extraordinary reputation. Volume II gathers the testimonia: ninety-nine numbered reports drawn from fifty-two authors across nine centuries. The English introduction appears full width; each Greek or Latin testimony then faces its new English translation.
Historical Text and Translation
The Greek and Latin reading text follows Hermann Diels’s third edition of Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (1912), retaining the supplied edition’s Diels-Kranz numbering and editorial signs. These witnesses must be read as a chain of transmission: many preserve valuable evidence, while others summarize, dispute, reshape, or repeat earlier accounts.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared the new English translation, introduction, notes, and reception appendices for this volume. The translation keeps each witness distinct and preserves its technical vocabulary, argumentative posture, and relationship to the surviving poetry in Volume I.
Rights
The ancient source works and Hermann Diels’s 1912 Greek and Latin edition are in the public domain. The 2026 English translation, introduction, notes, and editorial matter are original to this edition and remain © 2026 Diotimos.