Diogenes laertius anaxagoras biography

3rd-century Roman biographer of Greek philosophers

For other people named Diogenes, see Diogenes (disambiguation).

Diogenes Laërtius (dy-OJ-in-eez lay-UR-shee-əs;^[1]Ancient Greek: Διογένης Λαέρτιος, Laertios; fl. 3rd century AD) was a biographer of the Greekphilosophers.

Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek philosophy. His reputation is controversial among scholars because he often repeats information from his sources without critically evaluating it.

In many cases, he focuses on insignificant details of his subjects' lives while ignoring important details of their philosophical teachings and he sometimes fails to distinguish between earlier and later teachings of specific philosophical schools.