Ancient History Competition 40

America was discovered by Colombus and previously visited by the Vikings. But which ancient philosopher told to an ancient king “you cannot really become a king… not even if you cross the ocean and conquer a continent as big as Asia”?

Economic historian and numismatic consultant

6 Comments

  1. Diogenes?

  2. Okay, seriously, this drove me and several other folks absolutely BONKERS trying to answer. First I thought, maybe it was Solon? Then immediately scratched that and threw the question out to the hive mind that is Twitter. I got all kinds of answers, mostly, Aristotle to Alexander The Great. But Aristotle just doesn’t quite fit the tone. Diogenes, however, does. So, unless the answer is from Eastern Civilization OR Thucydides OR an ancient philosopher to one of Great Persian Kings, like Cyrus the Great…. I think Helfield there, has it right, Diogenes to Alexander. But for the life of me, I have yet to find the direct reference for citation. **PLEASE POST THE ANSWER SOON!!**

    Thank you for tweaking my brain—GW

  3. Okay, seriously, this drove me and several other folks absolutely BONKERS trying to answer. First I thought, maybe it was Solon? Then immediately scratched that and threw the question out to the hive mind that is Twitter. I got all kinds of answers, mostly, Aristotle to Alexander The Great. But Aristotle just doesn’t quite fit the tone. Diogenes, however, does.

    So, unless the answer is from Eastern Civilization OR Thucydides OR an ancient philosopher to one of Great Persian Kings, like Cyrus the Great…. I think Helfield there, has it right, Diogenes to Alexander. But for the life of me, I have yet to find the direct reference for citation. **PLEASE POST THE ANSWER SOON!!**

    Thank you for tweaking my brain—GW

  4. Plato?

  5. No, somebody may have said that to a Syracusan tyrant. No clue, really.

  6. This was a tiny bit difficult, wasn’t it? Diogenes is the right answer. He was talking to Alexander the Great at the time. The reference can be found in Dio Chrysostom.

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