Lives of Eminent Philosophers (2.8.99-2.8.103)

He said the world was his country. Theft, adultery, and sacrilege would be allowable upon occasion, since none of these acts is by nature base, if once you have removed the prejudice against them, which is kept up in order to hold the foolish multitude together. The wise man would indulge his passions openly without the least regard to circumstances. Hence he would use such arguments as this. Is a woman who is skilled in grammar useful in so far as she is skilled in grammar? Yes. And is a boy or a youth skilled in grammar useful in so far as he is skilled in grammar? Yes.

Again,

He appears to have been called θεός (god) in consequence of the following argument addressed to him by Stilpo. Are you, Theodorus, what you declare yourself to be? To this he assented, and Stilpo continued, And do you say you are god? To this he agreed. Then it follows that you are god. Theodorus accepted this, and Stilpo said with a smile, But, you rascal, at this rate you would allow yourself to be a jackdaw and ten thousand other things.

However, Theodorus, sitting on one occasion beside Euryclides, the hierophant, began, Tell me, Euryclides, who they are who violate the mysteries? Euryclides replied, Those who disclose them to the uninitiated. Then you violate them, said Theodorus, when you explain them to the uninitiated. Yet he would hardly have escaped from being brought before the Areopagus if Demetrius of Phalerum had not rescued him. And Amphicrates in his book Upon Illustrious Men says he was condemned to drink the hemlock.

For a while he stayed at the court of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, and was once sent by him as ambassador to Lysimachus. And on this occasion his language was so bold that Lysimachus said, Tell me, are you not the Theodorus who was banished from Athens? To which he replied, Your information

A similar anecdote is told of Diogenes and Aristippus, as mentioned above.[*]

Such was the character of Theodorus and his surroundings. At last he retired to Cyrene, where he lived with Magas and continued to be held in high honour. The first time that he was expelled from Cyrene he is credited with a witty remark: Many thanks,[*] men of Cyrene, said he, for driving me from Libya into Greece.

Some twenty persons have borne the name of Theodorus: (1) a Samian, the son of Rhoecus. He it was who advised laying charcoal embers under the foundations of the temple in Ephesus; for, as the ground was very damp, the ashes, being free from woody fibre, would retain a solidity which is actually proof against moisture. (2) A Cyrenaean geometer,