Sphaerus

¹ Sphærus, a native of the Bosphorus was a pupil of Cleanthes after the death of Zeno.

² When he made a considerable advance in philosophy he went to Alexandria, to the court of Ptolemy Philopater.

When there was a discussion concerning the question whether a wise man would allow himself to be guided by opinion, and when Sphærus affirmed that he would not, the king, wishing to refute him, ordered some pomegranates of wax to be set before him; and when Sphærus was deceived by them, the king shouted that he had given his assent to a false perception.

But Sphærus answered very neatly, that he had not given his assent to the fact that they were pomegranates, but to the fact that it was probable that they might be pomegranates. And that a perception which could be comprehended differed from one that was only probable.

Once, when Mnesistratus accused him of denying that[327] Ptolemy was a king, he said to him, “That Ptolemy was a man with such and such qualities, and a king.”[101]

³ He wrote the following books:

2 on the World
on the Elements of Seed
one on Fortune
one on the Smallest Things
one on Atoms and Phantoms
one on the Senses
5 Conversations about Heraclitus
one on Ethical Arrangement
one on Duty
one on Appetite
2 on the Passions
1 on Kingly Power
on the Lacedæmonian Constitution
3 on Lycurgus and Socrates
on Law
on Divination
one volume of Dialogues on Love
on the Eretrian Philosophers
on Things Similar
on Terms
on Habits
3 on Contradictions
on Reason
on Riches
on Glory
on Death
2 on the Art of Dialectics
on Categorems
on Ambiguity
a volume of Letters

Sphaerus

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