Diogenous Laertiou Peri biōn, dogmatōn kai apophthegmatōn tōn en philosophia eudokimēsantōn biblia 10

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TO THE MOST EXCELLENT
AND MOST DISTINGUISHED MAN,
WOLFGANG ZÜNDELIN;
HENR. STEPH. SENDS GREETINGS.

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I send to you, most distinguished sir, this later edition of my books of Diogenes, dedicated to you as a testimony of our friendship. You know well enough that I am not speaking of that Diogenes who stood as the prince of the Cynics (if indeed Cynicism was ever worthy of a principality) and whose life, among those of other philosophers, we have in this work. Certainly, if anyone were to deny him that title, he would have immediately burst into these words,
that is, as if

Sharply let me bark at the first seat and faith.

For let it be permitted for me to play with Horace in this way through parody, which I would have used with his good grace (as I think). For he would have gladly seen his own word, "bark," find such a fitting place in a Cynic philosopher. But to return to that principality among philosophers, and to speak of it seriously, there is no doubt that this principality should rather be owed to Aristippus, if indeed he should be considered a Cynic: as it seems to have pleased Diogenes, seeing as he called him the royal dog. For by honoring him with this title among dogs, he did not perceive that he was giving him the primacy among the Cynics. But far be it from me to cast into such a sordid place a man endowed with such great gifts of nature (even if he abused them more than he used them), and one truly such as Horace described in these words, Every color, and status, and circumstance became Aristippus (to which the corresponding words are read in this writer, at the beginning of his life).