HISTORY OF THE STOICS UNTIL THE END OF THE SECOND CENTURY B.C.
A striking feature in the history of the post-Aristotelian philosophy,
and one which at the same time brings forcibly home the thorough change
in its surroundings, is the fact that so many of its representatives
come from eastern countries in which Greek and Oriental modes of
thought met and mingled. Although for centuries Athens still continued
to have the reputation of being the chief seat of Greek philosophy, and
did not cease to be one of the most important seminaries of philosophy,
even when it had to share that reputation with other cities, such as
Alexandria, Rome, Rhodes, and Tarsus, yet at Athens itself there were
teachers not a few whose foreign extraction indicates the age of
Hellenism. This remark applies primarily to the later Neoplatonic
School: next to it it is of none more true than of the Stoic. With this
fact may be also associated the world-citizenship of this School,
though it would be unfair to attribute a general characteristic of the
then state of the world to purely external circumstances. Nearly all
the most important Stoics before the Christian era belong by birth to
Asia Minor, to Syria, and to the islands of the Eastern Archipelago.
Then follow a series of Roman Stoics, by the side of whom the Phrygian
Epictetus occupies a prominent place; but Greece proper is represented
only by men of third or fourth rate capacity.
[A. Zeno.]
The founder of the Stoic School, Zeno [3] by name, was the son of
Mnaseas, [4] and a native of Citium [5] in Cyprus. Leaving his home, he
repaired to Athens, [6] about the year 320 B.C., [7] where he at first
joined the Cynic Crates. [8] He appears to have soon become disgusted
with the extravagances of the Cynics’ mode of life, [9] and his keen
desire for knowledge could find no satisfaction in a teaching so meagre
as theirs. [10] To supply their defects he had recourse to Stilpo, who
united to the moral teaching of the Cynics the logical acumen of the
Megarians. He also studied under Polemo, and it is said under
Xenocrates and Diodorus the logician, with whose pupil Philo [11] he
was on terms of intimacy. 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 ποικιλὴ, the place which he selected for delivering
his lectures, his followers derived their name of Stoics, having first
been called after their master Zenonians. [12] Such was the universal
respect inspired by his earnestness, moral strictness, [13] and
simplicity of life, [14] and the dignity, modesty, and affability of
his conduct, [15] that Antigonus Gonatas vied with the city of Athens
in showing appreciation of him. [16] Although lacking smoothness of
style and using a language far from pure, [17] Zeno had nevertheless an
extensive following. Leading a life of singular moderation, he reached
an advanced age untouched by disease, although he naturally enjoyed
neither robust health nor an attractive person. [18] A slight injury
having at length befallen him, which he regarded as a hint of destiny,
he put an end to his own life. [19] His not very numerous writings [20]
have been lost, with the exception of a few fragments, some no doubt
dating from the time when, as a pupil of Crates, he adhered more
strictly to Cynic ideas than was afterwards the case. [21] This point
ought not to be forgotten in sketching his teaching.
[B. Pupils of Zeno.]
[(1) Cleanthes.]
The successor to the chair of Zeno was Cleanthes, [22] a native of
Assos in the Troad, [23] a man of strong and firm character, of unusual
endurance, energy, and contentment, but also slow of apprehension, and
somewhat heavy in intellect. Resembling Xenocrates in mind, Cleanthes
was in every way adapted to uphold his master’s teaching, and to
recommend it by the moral weight of his own character, but he was
incapable of expanding it more completely, or of establishing it on a
wider basis. [24]
[(2) Aristo and Herillus.]
Besides Cleanthes, the best known among the pupils of Zeno are Aristo
of Chios, [25] and Herillus of Carthage, [26] who diverged from his
teaching in the most opposite directions, Aristo confining himself
rigidly to Cynicism, Herillus approximating to the leading positions
held by the Peripatetic School.
[(3) Other pupils.]
Other pupils of Zeno were Persæus, a countryman and companion of Zeno;
[27] Aratus, the well-known poet of Soli; [28] Dionysius of Heraclea in
Pontus, who afterwards joined the Cyrenaic or Epicurean School; [29]
and Sphærus from the Bosporus, who studied first in the School of Zeno,
and afterwards in that of Cleanthes, and was the friend and adviser of
Cleomenes, the unfortunate Spartan reformer. [30] Of a few other pupils
of Zeno the names are also known; [31] but nothing beyond their names.
No appreciable addition was made to the Stoic doctrine by any one of
them.
[C. Chrysippus and the later Stoics.]
[(1) Chrysippus.]
It was therefore fortunate for Stoicism that Cleanthes was followed in
the presidency of the School by a man of learning and argumentative
power like Chrysippus. [32] In the opinion of the ancients, Chrysippus
was the second founder of Stoicism. [33] Born [34] in the year 280
B.C., [35] at Soli in Cilicia, [36] after being a pupil of Cleanthes
[37] and it is said even of Zeno [38] himself, he succeeded, on the
death of Cleanthes, to the conduct of his School. [39] He is also said
to have attended the lectures of Arcesilaus and Lacydes, philosophers
of the Middle Academy; [40] whose critical methods he so thoroughly
appropriated, that later Stoics accused him of furnishing Carneades
with the necessary weapons for attacking them, [41] by the masterly
manner in which he raised philosophical doubts without being able to
answer them satisfactorily. This critical acuteness and skill, more
than anything else, entitle him to be regarded as the second founder of
Stoicism. [42] In learning, too, he was far in advance of his
predecessors, and passed for the most industrious and learned man of
antiquity. [43] Independent in tone, as his general conduct and
intellectual self-reliance [44] often proved, [45] he deviated from the
teaching of Zeno and Cleanthes, as might be expected, in many respects.
[46] Still, the fundamental principles of the system were not altered
by him; only their intellectual treatment was perfected and deepened.
In fact, the Stoic doctrine was expanded by him with such completeness
in details, that hardly a gleaning was left for his successors to
gather up. [47] In multitude of writings [48] he exceeded Epicurus;
[49] their titles, and a comparatively small number of fragments, being
all that have come down to us. [50] With such an extraordinary literary
fertility, it will be easily understood that their artistic value is
not very high. The ancients are unanimous in complaining of their
careless and impure language, of their dry and often obscure style, of
their prolixity, their endless repetitions, their frequent and lengthy
citations, and their too frequent appeals to etymologies, authorities,
and other irrelevant proofs. [51] But by Chrysippus the Stoic teaching
was brought to completeness; and when he died, in the year 206 B.C.,
[52] the form was in every respect fixed in which Stoicism would be
handed down for the next following centuries.
[(2) Later Stoics.]
A cotemporary of Chrysippus, but probably somewhat his senior, was
Teles, from whose writings a few extracts [53] have been preserved by
Stobæus, [54] in the shape of popular moral considerations written from
a Cynic or Stoical point of view. The same age also produced the
Cyrenaic Eratosthenes, [55] a man distinguished in every branch of
knowledge, but particularly celebrated for his mathematical
attainments, who was gained for Stoicism by Aristo. [56] Another
cotemporary of Chrysippus, and perhaps his fellow-student, [57] who in
many respects approximated to the teaching of the Peripatetics, [58]
was the Stoic Boëthus. The proper scholars of Chrysippus were without
doubt numerous; [59] but few of their names are known to us. [60] The
most important among them appear to have been Zeno of Tarsus, [61] and
Diogenes of Seleucia, [62] who succeeded Chrysippus in the presidency
of the School. [63] The pupil and successor of Diogenes, in his turn,
was Antipater of Tarsus, [64] in connection with whom Archedemus his
countryman is frequently mentioned. [65] Under Panætius, Antipater’s
scholar, Stoicism entered the Roman world, and there underwent internal
changes, to which attention will be drawn in the sequel. [66]