He studied in Aristotle’s Lyceum under Theophrastus, and eventually became a follower of Crates of Thebes, who married Metrocles’ sister Hipparchia.
[1] Metrocles had apparently farted while practicing a speech, and became so upset that he shut himself up in his home, attempting to commit suicide by starving himself.
As a pupil of Theophrastus he may have learned a lot of information, but he was still obsessed with social conventions and good manners, to the point of being ready to die from embarrassment.
Equally significant is a passage preserved in the writings of Teles, who tells how Metrocles as a young student of the Lyceum and the Academy could not keep up with the extravagant life-style requirements: When he was studying with Theophrastus and Xenocrates, although many things were being sent to him from home, he was in constant fear of dying from hunger and was always destitute and in want.
For in the former case he had to have shoes,... then a cloak, a following of slaves, and a grand house; for the common table he had to see that the breads were pure, the delicacies above the ordinary, the wine sweet, the entertainment appropriate, so that here there was much expense.