(331-232 B.C.)
Cleanthes, the immediate successor of Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, was
born at Assos, in the Troad, in B.C. 331. Of his early life we know
nothing, except that he was for a time a prize-fighter. About the age of
thirty he came to Athens with less than a dollar in his pocket, and
entered the school of Zeno, where he remained for some nineteen years.
At one time the Court of Areopagus, not seeing how he could make an
honest livelihood, summoned him to appear before it and give an account
of himself. He did so, bringing with him his employers, who proved that
he spent much of the night in carrying water for gardens, or in kneading
dough. The court, filled with admiration, offered him a pension, which
he refused by the advice of his master, who thought the practice of
self-dependence and strong endurance an essential part of education.
Cleanthes's mind was slow of comprehension but extremely retentive; like
a hard tablet, Zeno said, which retains clearest and longest what is
written on it. He was not an original thinker, but the strength and
loftiness of his character and his strong religious sense gave him an
authority which no other member of the school could claim. For many
years head of the Stoa, he reached the ripe age of ninety-nine, when,
falling sick, he refused to take food, and died of voluntary starvation
in B.C. 232. Long afterwards, the Roman Senate caused a statue to be
erected to his memory in his native town. Almost the only writing of his
that has come down to us is his noble Hymn to the Supreme Being.