<blockquote>Cercidas. A poet, philoso­pher, and legislator for his native city, Megalopolis. He was a disciple of Diogenes, whose death he re­corded in some Meliambic lines. (Diog. Laert. vi. 76.) He is mentioned and cited by Athenaeus (viii. p. 347, e., xii. 554, d.) and Stobaeus (iv. 43, Iviii. 10). At his death he ordered the first and second books of the Iliad to be buried with him. (Ptol. Hephaest. ap. Phot. Cod. 190, p. 15J, a., 14, ed. Bekker.) Aelian (V. H. xiii. 20) re­lates that Cercidas died expressing his hope of being with Pythagoras of the philosophers, Hecataeus of the historians, Olympus of the musicians, and Homer of the poets, which clearly implies that he himself cultivated these four sciences. He appears to be the same person as Cercidas the Arcadian, who is mentioned lay Demosthenes among those Greeks, who, by their cowardice and corruption, enslaved their states to Philip.
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<blockquote>Chap. XX. Of one who died chearfully through willingness to see some of the dead. A Megalipolite of Arcadia named Cercidas, dying, said to his friends that he parted with his life willingly, for that he hoped to converse with Pythagoras of the Wise ; with Hecataeus of the Historians ; with Olympus of the Musicians ; and with Homer of the Poets, and as soon as he had said this, died.
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