PART II. THE STOICS. CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF THE STOICS UNTIL THE END OF THE A STRIKING feature characteristic of the history of the post-Aristotelian philosophy, and one which at the same time brings home most forcibly to us the altered circumstances of Greece, is the fact that so many philosophers come from countries situated towards the East, in which Greek and Oriental modes of thought had already met and mingled. Nevertheless for centuries Athens still continued to have the glory of being the chief seat of Greek philosophy; nor did she renounce her claim to be the most important seminary of philosophy, even when she had to share that glory with other cities, such as J'exandria, Rome, Rhodes and Texts Yet even at Alcons Where were many teachers whose foreign extraction proved that the age of pure ének phiə sgèt was erget and sich teaches bellis being mul & songs the Moog stoNN KOR 2 Particular > to be met with in the ranks of the Stoics. An occur- CHAP. III. The founder of the Stoic School, Zeno' by name, A. Zeno. was the son of Mnaseas," and a native of Citium 3 in Cyprus. Leaving his home, he repaired to Athens,^ For the life of Zeno, Diogenes Citium, which the ancients CHAP. about the year 320 B.C., where he at first joined the Cynic Crates, but not till he had been previously disgusted by the extravagances of the Cynic mode of life. With a keen desire for knowledge, he could find no satisfaction in a teaching so scanty as that of the Cynics. To supply its defects he had repaired to Stilpo, who united to the moral teaching of the Cynics the logical accuracy of the Megarians. being shipwrecked. According to other accounts, he remained at Athens, after disposing of his merchandise, and devoted himself to philosophy. Demetrius of Magnesia (Themist. Or. xxiii. 295, D) further relates that he had already occupied himself with philosophy at home, and repaired to Athens to study it more fully-a view which seems most likely, because the least sensational. The dates in Zeno's life are very uncertain. He is said to have been thirty when he first came to Athens (Diog. 2). Per sæus, his pupil and countryman, however, says twenty-two. But these statements are of little use, since the date of his coming to Athens is unknown. If it is true that he was for ten years a pupil of Xenocrates, who died 314 B.C. (Diog. 2), he must have come to Athens not later than 328 B.C. But this fact may be doubted. Zeno's whole line of thought resembles that of Crates and Stilpo, How then can be have been for ten years a pupil in the Academy? He is moreover said to have frequentesi the schools of different philosophers for twenty years in all before opening his own Diog. 4). According to Apollon. in Diog. 28, he presided over his own school for fifty-eight years, which is hardly reconcileable with the above data, even if he attained the age of ninety-eight (Diog. 28; Lucian. Macrob. 19). According to Perseus (Diog. 28), he only attained the age of seventy-two, and was altogether only fifty years in Athens. In his own letter to Antigonus (Diog. 9), however, he distinctly calls himself eighty; but the genuineness of this letter may perhaps be doubted. The year of his death is likewise unknown. His relations to Antigonus Gonatas prove at least that he was not dead in 278 B.C., and probably not till long afterwards. It would appear from the caleulation of his age, that his death did not take place till 260 B.C. He may, then, have lived circa 350 to 260 B.C.: but these dates are quite uncertain. * Diog. vii. 2; vi. 105. * Diog. 3: ἐντεῦθεν ἤκουσε τοῦ Κράτητος, ἄλλως μὲν εὔτονος πρὸς φιλοσοφίαν, αἰδήμων δὲ ὡς πρὸς Thy Kuih àraio xuriar. Conf. Diog. 25 and 15: fr δὲ ζητητικὸς καὶ περὶ πάντων ἀκρι BodoyotμeIUS. He had also studied under Polemo; it is said likewise under Xenocrates and the captious Diodorus, and he was on terms of intimacy with Philo' the pupil of Diodorus. After a long course of intellectual preparation, he at last appeared as a teacher, soon after the beginning of the third, or perhaps during the last years of the fourth century B.C. From the Stoa Toukin, the place which he selected for delivering his lectures, his followers derived their name of Stoics, but previously they were called after their master Zenonians.2 The universal respect inspired by his earnestness, moral strictness, and simplicity of life, and the dignity, modesty, and affability of his conduct," was such that Antigonus Gonatas vied 1 Diog. vii. 2; 4; 16; 20; 24; ii. 114; 120. Numen. in Eus. Pr. Ev. xiv. 5, 9; 6, 6. Polemo is called his teacher by Cic. Fin. iv. 16, 45; Acad. i. 9, 35. Strabo, xiii. 1, 67. How ready he was to learn from others is proved by Diog. 25; Plut. Fragm. in Hesiod. ix. 1 Diog. 5, according to whom, he gave instruction walking to and fro, like Aristotle. It is not probable that he gave any formal lectures. Which, however, must be judged by the standard of that time and of Greek customs. Conf. Diog. 13; Athen. xiii. 607, e; 563, e. 4 See Musonius in Stob. Serm. 17, 43. His outward circumstances also appear to have been very simple. According to one account (Diog. 13), he brought to Athens the fabulous sum of 1000 talents, and put it out to interest. CHAP. III. CHAP. with the city of Athens in showing his appreciation of so estimable a philosopher. Although lacking smoothness of style and using a language far from pure,2 Zeno had nevertheless an extensive following. By a life of singular moderation he reached an advanced age untouched by disease, although he naturally enjoyed neither robust health nor an attractive person.3 A slight injury having at length befallen him, which he regarded as a work of destiny, he put an end to his own life. His numerous writings have 1 (Diog. 16). He bore the loss of 2 He himself (Diog. vii. 18) bilis verborum opifex,' and Chrysippus has a treatise Tepl TOû KUpiws кExpñσlaι Zńvwva Toîs Óvóμασιν. He is also charged with maintaining that nothing should be concealed, but that even the most indelicate things should be called by their proper names. He is further charged with having propounded no new theory, but with having appropriated the thoughts of his predecessors, concealing his plagiarism by the use of new terms. In Diog. vii. 25, Polemo says: KλÉжTWV Tà đóyματα Φοινικῶς μεταμφιεννύς; and Cicero frequently repeats the charge (Fin. v. 25, 74; iii. 2, 5; iv. 2, 3; 3.7; 26; 72; v. 8, 22; 29. 88. Acad. ii. 5, 15. Legg. i. 13, 38; 20; 53. Tusc. ii. 12, 29). * Diog. 28, 1. The statement that he was avooos must be taken with some limitation, according to Diog. vii. 162; Stob. Floril. 17, 43. Diog. 28; 31. Lucian, Macrob. 19. Lactant. Inst. iii. 18. Stob. Floril. 7, 45. Suid. The list of them in Diog. 4, to which additions are made Diog. 34; 39; 134. The AiαTρißal |