Menippus

Menippus of Gadara, who flourished in the third century BC, was a Cynic satirist. Little is known about his life: he was of Syro-Phoenician descent from the Greek city of Gadara in Coele-Syria, began as a slave in the service of a citizen of Pontus, gained his freedom and settled in Thebes. Diogenes Laertius relates a dubious story that he amassed a fortune as a money-lender, lost it and killed himself. His works, written in a mixture of prose and verse, are all lost. They discussed serious subjects in a spirit of ridicule and attacked the Epicureans and Stoics, and Strabo and Stephanus called him the earnest-jester. The genre of Menippean satire is named after him, and he was an important influence on Varro and Lucian, who ranks him among the most notable Cynics.