Stoic and Epicurean

Front matter

Class

Book._ o_

THE EPOCHS OF PHILOSOPHY

Preface

The philosophical systems of Zeno and Epicurus may profitably be studied together. For, in spite of obvious differences, over which their adherents for centuries waged internecine., warfare, it is easy to discern the fundamental similarity between them. Both schools sought by devious paths one and the same goal. Both exalted practice above theory, and conceded to sense and experience their full right. Both, in short, were crude forms of realism, which for the time (and not for that time alone) had come into its inheritance and held full sway over the minds of men. The temper of the age favoured such a reaction from extreme intellectualism. The success of the new schools, if not immediate, was assured from the first, reaching its height when Hellenistic culture was taken up by the practical Romans. y My exposition of these two parallel systems of thought is primarily based on independent study of the original authorities. In this department of the history of philosophy much good work has been done in the last quarter of a century. I have made it my business to compare the results of recent investigation with the sources themselves, now rendered accessible, as they never have been before, through the labours of such competent scholars as Diels, Wachsmuth, Usener, and von Arnim. Even with these welcome aids, the task of research is by no means easy, owing to the scantiness and the peculiar nature of the materials which time has spared. To take the early vi PREFACE

Stoics, Zeno and Chrysippus; much of the evidence is derived from opponents who were naturally more alert to detect and expose inconsistencies than careful to state impartially the doctrines they impugned. When ampler means of information become available, new difficulties arise; for while it is certain that the Stoics of Cicero's time had diverged from the standards of orthodoxy prescribed by their predecessors, it is not equally certain wherein precisely this divergence consisted. Thus Cicero puts into the mouth of Cato a lucid exposition of Stoic ethics, but what particular Stoic was Cicero's authority, and how far this authority reproduced or modified the original doctrine of Zeno and Chrysippus, is matter of dispute. Nor are these difficulties removed by consulting Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, the authors whom we know at first hand and in fullest detail. It is difficult to see how, from a mass of precepts, exhortations and moral reflections the underlying structure of dogma can be inferred with such clearness and precision as readily to serve for comparison with other authorities. The most careful inquiry must, therefore, leave room for doubt, on questions of grave importance. In the first three chapters of this work the reader will find a nucleus of fact, well attested by documentary evidence, and my constant endeavour has been to bring him, wherever possible, face to face with the utterances of the Stoics themselves, so that he may judge for himself of the correctness of my interpretation.

In the fourth chapter I have followed substantially the same course, availing myself of the excellent versions of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius by Long and Rendall. Seneca, on the other hand, though still popular in France, has with us of late

PREFACE vii

fallen into neglect. Even of his epistles we have no standard translation, a fact which well deserves the attention of English and American scholars.

The rival school of Epicurus has been more fortunate. Not only have we the summaries of its founder, but the task of reconstruction is rendered comparatively easy by the poem of Lucretius, which the English reader can study for himself in the admirable prose version of H. A. J. Munro. Here, while reserving the right to form my own judgment from the evidence, I have, in the main, followed the guidance of Munro and Giussani. Some points of detail are obscure, but on the whole no ancient system is more easily comprehended or appraised. In my sixth chapter I have tried to render adequately one valuable Epicurean document, the letter to Herodotus, and occasional illustrations and parallels have been added to make its meaning clearer. In dealing with Epicurean theology in the seventh chapter, we quit the region of ascertained fact for dubious speculation and ingenious conjecture. Caution is therefore necessary, since the promised exploration of Herculaneum may some day bring to light the missing clue to this puzzling riddle.

Not the least noteworthy feature in these two philosophies is the long duration of their exclusive, if divided, supremacy. In the school of Epicurus there are no changes to record. Everything goes to show that the doctrine of the founder was guarded intact as he had left it. Even the genius of Lucretius did but enshrine it in an imperishable memorial. It was far otherwise with Stoicism, which provoked fierce opposition and was continually modified by pressure from without and within. /No narrative of its rise and development would be complete which viH PREFACE

failed to take account of these conflicts. It has, therefore, been incumbent upon me to linger awhile over the adversaries and critics of the Stoics, to describe the successive phases of Academic Scepticism and Eclecticism, and above all, to emphasise the influence of Carneades. In this way the eighth and ninth chapters may be regarded as forming an integral portion of my plan. For the last chapter a similar excuse may be tendered. After permitting the other opponents of the Stoics to state their objections it would have been inconsistent to pass over iEnesidemus and not to allow Sextus Empiricus and the Pyrrhoneans to say the last word. For the use of students a select bibliography has been appended, as well as a chronological table of the more noteworthy thinkers and writers. A historical sketch ranging over five centuries stands in need of some such aid, if it be no more than the merest framework of names and dates.

The proprietors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica have courteously granted me permission to use for my present purpose the article on Stoics, which I contributed to the Encyclopaedia some twenty years ago. I gratefully acknowledge my obligations to Mrs. Adam for allowing me to include in this volume a verse translation of the Hymn of Cleanthes, which her husband, the late Dr. James Adam, had privately printed. I am further indebted to Prof. H. N. Gardiner for his kindness in reading through the proofs and suggesting various improvements.

Contents

PAGE

Chronological Table xv

CHAPTER I The Earlier Stoics and Pantheism . . 3

Zeno, Cleanthes, Chrysippus, 4; Cynics and Stoics, 9; influence of Heraclitus, 10; Cleanthes's Hymn to Zeus, 14; its religious fervour, 16; Stoic pantheism, whence derived, 18; body the sole reality, 22; yet instinct with energy, 24; cosmology: force and matter, how related, 26; universal intermingling of qualities, 28; cosmogony, 30; the cycle of finite existence perpetually repeated, 33; natural theology, 39; moral order of the world, 41; the existence of moral evil, 43; how regarded by Chrysippus, 44; and by Marcus Aurelius, 46.

CHAPTER II Stoic Psychology and Epistemology . . 54

The art of life at once practical and comprehensive, 54; logic, 55; new table of categories, 56; Lekton, the matter or content of predication, 58; nature of the soul, 60; its unity, 62; its diverse functions miscalled "parts," 63; theory of knowledge: preconceptions and general notions, 66; presentations to sense and the test of their truth, 69; knowledge a system of presentations to sense or to reason, 72.

CHAPTER III Moral Idealism 74

The six heads of scientific ethics, 75; (1 and 2) the end of action determined by the teleological view of the universe, 76; "Follow Nature," how interpreted, 77; how x CONTENTS

PAGE

individual man, non-moral at birth, develops into a moral being, 80; instinctive impulse and rational choice, 81; fallacies in the argument considered, 82; (3) virtue disinterested, 85; one and indivisible, 86; admits of no degrees, 87; progress toward virtue, 88; (4) the conception of relative value in our estimate of external things, 90; the judgment of value converts them into material for the exercise of virtue, 92; (5) the suitable and consistent in the sphere of action, 93; the latent conception of duty and obligation thence evolved, 94; the suitable, how related to the right, 95; the circumstances of the agent and his environment a determining factor, 97; application to suicide, 98; (6) feelings classified, 102; vicious emotions voluntary: rational beings free to disobey reason, 104; originality of the Stoics, 105; their definitions compared, 106; rational emotions, e.g., joy, recognised, 107; other affections apparently intermediate, 108; physical pleasure, how regarded, no; its condemnation, if it is a necessary concomitant, unjustifiable, in.

CHAPTER IV The Teaching of the Later Stoics . . 113

Stoic propaganda, 113; the appeal of Epictetus, 114; need of philosophic instruction, 116; the stages of progress or probation, 118; probationers classified by Seneca, 120;

^ three stages in the course of instruction formulated by Epictetus, 121; the third and most advanced stage logical training, 123; duties to self, 125; personal dignity and modesty, 128; independence and the dignity of labour, 130; the essence of true piety, 132; polytheism, how interpreted, 135; prayer and offerings, how defended, 136; social duties rest on primary relationships, 137; defence of the family; female education, 138; civic duties present a dilemma: cosmopolitanism in conflict with restricted patriotism, 140; attitude to war and slavery, 142; the duty of goodwill to all men and of patience under injuries, 145; yet pity and forgiveness just as inexcusable as resentment and envy, 146; legal

CONTENTS xi

PAGE

penalties rigorously enforced, 148; morality culminates in active benevolence and the disinterested service of our fellowmen, 150.

CHAPTER V Epicurus and Hedonism 153

Career of Epicurus, 153; his character, 159; epitomes of his system, 161; his talent for organisation, 162; his earnestness and contempt for accomplishments, 163; happiness nominally identified with pleasure, 164; divergence from Aristippus and the Cyrenaics, 165 ; happiness negatively determined as freedom from pain, 166; influence of Democritus, 167; the letter to Menceceus, 168; the individual and society, 174; sketch of the rise of civilisation, 175; law and justice traced back to compact, 177; civil government on the whole beneficial, 180; but the compulsory ties of family and state inferior to the voluntary association of friendship, 181 ; benevolence, 183; the golden maxims, 184; fragments from (Enoanda, 189; other characteristic utterances, 190; contempt for fame, 195; strictures on Greek statesmen, 196; on Stoic virtue, 196; personality of Epicurus, 198; modern parallels: Bentham, 198; Herbert Spencer, 199.

CHAPTER VI The Atomic Theory 203

^.ncient atomism, how related to modern scientific theories, 203; unpopular in Greece, 205; adoption by Epicurus, 207; his rejection of contemporary mathematics and astronomy, 209; his canons or rules of evidence, 213; veracity of sensation, 215; importance of clear and distinct preconceptions, 217; the letter to Herodotus: the , sum total of existence, bodies and empty space, is neither increased nor diminished, but remains constant, 219; bodies are either composite wholes or their indivisible elements, the atoms, 220; infinity of atoms and of space, 221; shape and motion of atoms, 222; there are infinite worlds, 228; theory of sense-perception and of emanaxii CONTENTS

PAGE

tions from the surface of composite bodies, 229; seeing, 235; hearing and smelling, 238; unchangeable properties of atoms, 240; infinite divisibility of matter rejected, 243; discrete, perceptible minima, 246; discrete minima of the atom, 248; relativity of upward and downward motion, 253; velocity of atoms constant, 255 ; why atoms collide, 258; atomic declination as set forth by Lucretius, 261; nature of the soul, 264; the account of Lucretius compared, 267; permanent properties and variable accidents of composite things, 270; nature of time, 272; origin of language, 275; celestial and meteorological phenomena independent of divine agency, 276; rules to be followed in the investigation of their causes, 277, how the baneful effect of superstitious terrors and the fear of death may be removed, 279.

CHAPTER VII The Epicurean Theology 282

The gods of Epicurus not supernatural beings controlling nature from outside, 282; influence of Democritus, 283; modifications introduced by Epicurus, 286; grounds of his belief in gods, 288; their attributes, 289; the problem of their physical constitution, 291; Cicero's evidence, how interpreted by Lachelier and Scott, 293; difficulties in this interpretation, 296; attitude of Epicurus to the popular religion, 298; his conception of worship, 301; rejection of creation and Providence, 304; toleration of freethinkers in antiquity, 306; occasional outbursts of persecution, 307; the impostor Alexander of Abonuteichos, as described by Lucian, 308; Diogenes of CEnoanda, a zealous Epicurean: his last appeal cited, 309.

CHAPTER VIII Scepticism in the Academy: Carneades . 312

Scepticism a term of various meanings, 312; Pyrrho of Elis, 314; his disciple Timon, 315; the Old Academy and the innovations of Arcesilas, 317; Carneades, the adversary of the Stoics, 322; his negative and destructive

CONTENTS xiii

PAGE

criticism, 323; of Stoic epistemology, 324: theology, 326; and the doctrine of Providence, 334; his limitations as a critic, 337; positive side of his teaching, 341 ; his calculus of probability, 342; his defence of human freedom, 344; his formal classification of ethical theories, 347; general estimate of Carneades as a thinker, 351.

CHAPTER IX Eclecticism 353

Tendency to a fusion of conflicting doctrines, 353; the Academy under Philo of Larissa and Antiochus of Ascalon, 355; Cicero a typical Eclectic, 358; Plutarch of Chaeronea, 360; modifications of Stoicism, 361; its introduction to the Roman world, 363; Panaetius, 364; Posidonius, 366; later phases of Roman Stoicism, 367.

Chapter X

tEnesidemus and the Revival of Pyrrhonism 371

Sceptics in the medical profession, 371; writings of Sextus Empiricus, 372; his merits and defects, 373; ^Enesidemus, 374; his probable date, 375; the ten tropes, 376; the five tropes of Agrippa, 377; arguments of /Enesidemus to show that no truth exists, 380; estimate of their validity, 382, his arguments upon causality, 385; eight tropes in refutation of this notion, 386; defects in his assumptions, 388; his polemic against demonstrative signs, 389; his acceptance of reminiscent signs: how related to a scientific theory of induction, 393; originality of iEnesidemus, 395; Heracliteanism attributed to him by Sextus, 396, sceptical position of his successors unshaken, 397.

Index 405

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 1

RISE OF THE NEW SCHOOLS B.C.

341. Birth of Epicurus at Samos (Gamelion 7).

336/5. Birth of Zeno at Citium [348/7 Unger, 356/5 Brinker.]

333/2. Birth of Cleanthes at Assos.

330. Birth of Metrodorus at Lampsacus.

323. Epicurus a student at Athens.

322. Expulsion of Athenian settlers from Samos. Epicurus joins his father at Colophon.

314. Zeno at Athens studies under the Cynics, Megarians and Academics.

CONTEMPORARY EVENTS

B.C.

'347-

Death of Plato. With Speusippus his successor begins the Old Academy. 338. Chaeronea. Macedonian supremacy. Xenocrates succeeds Speusippus.

335-323. Aristotle at Athens.

Foundation of the Peripatetic School in the Lyceum.

334. Alexander sets out to conquer Asia. Pyrrho of Elis follows his march as far as India.

328. Crates of Thebes, a pupil of Diogenes the Cynic.

323. Death of Alexander at

Babylon. 322. Death of Aristotle. Theo-

phrastus succeeds. c. 320/16. Birth of Timon at

Phlius. 314. Death of Xenocrates. Po-

lemo succeeds.

1 The Roman civil year began, like our own, in January. The Attic civil year began after the summer solstice, say in July: hence the occasional double dating. Moreover, a Greek Olympiad covers a space of four years.

XVI

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

RISE OF THE NEW SCHOOLS B.C.

310. Epicurus teaches at Mitylene and Lampsacus.

307/6. Epicurus at Athens opens his school in the garden.

300/299. Epicurus completes Book XV of his work On Nature.

296/5. Epicurus completes Book XXVIII On Nature.

c. 294. Zeno lectures in the Stoa Pcecile at Athens.

277. Death of Metrodorus.

276. Zeno, invited to the Court of Macedonia, sends Persaeus in his place. Aratus of Soli at the same court.

270/69. Death of Epicurus.

Hermarchus succeeds.

264/3. Death of Zeno. Clean the s succeeds. Aristo, Herillus and Dionysius secede and found independent schools.

B.C.

3°7-

CONTEMPORARY EVENTS

D i o d o r u s Cronus and Stilpo famous in the Megarian School.

294. Siege of Athens and consequent famine.

288/4. Death of Theophrastus.

Strato of Lampsacus succeeds.

277/6. Antigonus Gonatas, now King of Macedonia. The kingdoms formed out of Alexander's conquests (Egypt, Syria, etc.) permanently established.

276/5. Death of Polemo.

Crates of Athens succeeds, followed a few years later by Arcesilas of Pitane.

c. 275/70. Death of Pyrrho at Elis.

275 (or later). Timon settles at Athens, where he writes his philosophic satires or Silli.

270/68. Death of Strato. Lyco succeeds.

241/0. Death of Arcesilas.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xvii

RISE OF THE NEW SCHOOLS B.C.

232/1. Death of Cleanthes.

Chrysippus third head

of the Stoa. 208/4. D e a t h of Chrysippus.

Zeno of Tarsus fourth

head of the Stoa.

CONTEMPORARY EVENTS B.C.

c. 230/225. Death of Timon.

202. Zama. Rome victorious over Carthage.

CONFLICT OF THE SCHOOLS AND DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTRINE

190/85. Birth of Panaetius at Rhodes.

? 180. Death of Zeno of Tarsus. Diogenes the Babylonian fifth head of the Stoa.

168. Pydna. Macedonia crushed by Rome.

166. Polybius arrives at Rome. (Returned to Greece 150.)

155. Diogenes the Stoic, Carneades the Academic and Critolaus the Peripatetic, at Rome as envoys from Athens.

? 152. Death of Diogenes the Babylonian. Antipater of Tarsus sixth head of the Stoa.

146. Destruction of Corinth and Carthage.

144. Panaetius and Polybius at Rome. Scipio the Younger a patron of Greek learning and philosophy.

141. Panaetius completes two books On Duty. He accompanies Scipio to the East (returns 139).

135. Birth of Posidonius at Apamea.

129. Death of Scipio the Younger.

129/8. Death of Carneades. Clitomachus (Hasdrubal) of Carthage the next head of the Academy.

? 128. Death of Antipater of Tarsus. Panaetius seventh head of the Stoa. Hecato and Posidonius pupils of Panaetius.

? in. Death of Panaetius. Mnesarchus and Dardanus his successors.

106. Birth of Cicero.

100-90. Posidonius travels in the West.

99. Approximate date of the birth of Lucretius [94 Jerome].

87/6. Mithridatic War. Visit of Posidonius to Rome. Philo of Larissa, now head of the Academy, removes to Rome. Antiochus of Ascalon protests in his Sosus against Philo's innovations. Triumph of Eclecticism over Scepticism in the Academy.

78. Cicero studies at Athens and Rhodes; attends lectures by Antiochus of Ascalon and Posidonius.

xviii CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

69. Antiochus of Ascalon present at the Battle of Tigranocerta,

not long before his death. 55. Death of Lucretius on the Ides of October, in his 44th year.

His poem De Rerum Natura subsequently edited by Cicero.

Philodemus of Gadara, the author of numerous Epicurean treatises, severely censured, though not by name, in Cicero's speech against his patron Calpurnius Piso. 54. Cicero, De Republica. 52. Cicero, De Legibus. c. 50. Death of Posidonius at Rhodes. 46. Death of Cato at Utica.

45. Cicero, Academica, De Finibus, Tusculan Disputations. 44. Cicero, De Natura Deorum, De Divinatione, De Officiis

Assassination of Caesar. 43. Death of Cicero. ? 42. /Enesidemus, Pyrrhonean Hypotyposes.

PHILOSOPHY UNDER THE EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE A.D.

34. Birth of the poet Persius.

41. Seneca writes Consolatio ad Marciam. He is banished to

Corsica. 49. Seneca, recalled from exile, becomes tutor of Nero, the future

Emperor. He writes De Ira, De Tranquillitate Animi, and

De Brevitate Vita.

54. Accession of Nero. Seneca becomes his minister. 54-59. Quinquennium Neronis. Seneca in power.

55. Seneca, De dementia.

c. 56. Seneca commences his Epistles to Lucilius.

62. Seneca attempts in vain to retire from the court. He writes

De Otio Sapientis.

Death of Persius.

63. Seneca writes the last four books of his Naturales Qucestiones.

65. Conspiracy of Piso betrayed, in which Lucan is implicated.

Many eminent Stoics, including Seneca, put to death. Others are exiled.

66. Death of Paetus Thrasea and Soranus Barea.

69. Musonius Rufus, the teacher of Epictetus, intervenes in the civil war between Vitellius and Vespasian.

75. Expulsion of philosophers from Rome. Helvidius Priscus is banished and afterward forced to commit suicide. Musonius Rufus is excepted from the decree.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xix

A.D.

c. 90. Plutarch lectures at Rome during the reign of Domitian.

93. Arulenus Rusticus put to death for eulogising Thrasea. Domitian issues a second edict for the expulsion of philosophers. Epictetus retires to Nicopolis, where he afterward worked successfully as a teacher for many years.

117. Accession of Hadrian. Epictetus still living, if, as is said, he was favoured by Hadrian.

130. Arrian, who had committed to writing the Discourses and

Encheiridion of his teacher Epictetus, while resident at Athens, becomes Consul Suffectus under Hadrian.

131. Birth of Galen.

161. Accession of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus; the philosopher on the throne.

164. Galen comes to Rome, where he resided for the rest of his life.

172-175. Campaigns of the Emperor Marcus on the Danube against the Quadi and Marcomanni. In the intervals of these campaigns he seems to have commenced his Meditations, or at least Books I and II, which are subscribed "among the Quadi" and "at Carnuntum."

176. Four chairs of philosophy at the University of Athens endowed by the Emperor for (1) Stoics, (2) Epicureans, (3) Academics, (4) Peripatetics.

180. Death of Marcus Aurelius.

180 (or shortly afterward). Lucian writes his Alexander.

180-200. Approximate date for the writings of Sextus Empiricus, the seventh in the Sceptical succession from ^Enesidemus.

c. 200. Approximate date of the inscription set up at (Enoanda by Diogenes, an Epicurean teacher.

201. Death of Galen.

221-235. Alexander Severus, Emperor. Approximate date for the Lives of Philosophers compiled by Diogenes Laertius, who ends his list of the Sceptics with Saturninus, the pupil of Sextus Empiricus.

Chapter I The Earlier Stoics And Pantheism

It is not often that a turning point in the history of thought synchronises with some great social or political change. But the age of the Diadochi, that period of stress and storm in which the Stoic and Epicurean systems took their rise, is severed by a wide gulf from the previous course of Greek civilisation. Alexander's conquests, while extending Hellenism to the farthest East, had rudely shattered the old order of the Greek world and made way for the new order of wide territorial kingdoms destined eventually to be swallowed up in the Roman empire. The city-states, which had played so honourable a part in the past, retained as a rule the control of their

unicipal affairs, but the virtual loss of independence tended inevitably to loosen the ties of civic and local patriotism in the fatherland itself. The change in the political system involved a corresponding change in the position of the individual. The very foundation of political theory, even to Plato and Aristotle, had been the life of a small civic community, and when this was undermined the alert Greek intelligence recognised the significant consequences for ethics. As the old, outworn sanctions disappeared, they were replaced by new social obligations at once more individual and more universal. The conception of the narrow canton-state enlarged to that of the nation, and in the process of time nationality tended to become cosmopolitan.

Already the course of philosophic inquiry had been profoundly changed. The earliest Greek thinkers started with the study of nature: as we might say in modern phrase, they set out to discover the constitution and properties of matter. Then in that age of enlightenment which we associate with the name of the Sophists there came a reaction, and attention was directed to literature and culture — in a word, to humanism. Socrates confined his inquiries to human conduct and to man, emphasising, as no one had done before him, the importance of opinion for determining action. Henceforth the main interest of speculation embraced the subject as well as the object, the problem of knowledge even more than the problem of nature. Socrates had declared knowledge, or correct opinion, the sole basis for moral conduct, and his commanding personality combined with the schools which sprang from him to perpetuate this untenable position. It is in Stoicism, and not in the schools founded by the immediate disciples of the master, that we find the Socratic tradition most faithfully represented. Accordingly, from this point of view we proceed to consider the historical antecedents of Stoicism.

Zeno, the founder of the school, was a native of Citium, a Greek colony in Cyprus. In that island the Greek settlers had a checkered history and found it difficult to make headway against men of alien, especially Semitic nationality. Possibly Zeno himself, in spite of his Greek name, may have been of mixed descent, for he was often taunted with being a Phoenician. The chronology is not quite certain, but we have the testimony of his disciple Persaeus that Zeno was twenty-two when he came to Athens, and died at the age of seventy-two. The year of his death may be fixed at 264 B. C, and, reckoning backward, we obtain 336 B. C. for his birth and 314 B. C. for his arrival at Athens. There he studied under Crates the Cynic, Stilpo and Diodorus Cronus of the Megarian school, and Polemo the Academic. After a long time spent in study (the precise statement of twenty years seems a round number), he opened a school of his own not later than 294 B. C. He selected for the scene of his lectures a public place in Athens memorable for the beauty of its decoration. This was the Stoa Poecile, a colonnade or cloister rather than a porch, on the north or south-east side of the Agora or market-place, which the genius of Polygnotus and Micon had adorned with magnificent paintings or frescoes, among them one representing the battle of Marathon. From the place of instruction the school derived its name — called at first Zenonians, they were ever afterward known as Stoics, men of the porch. The personal appearance of Zeno is minutely described for us.

He carried his head on one side, was lean, flabby, delicate, short in stature, with swarthy complexion and stout calves. After Demetrius, the besieger of cities, became king of Macedonia, he and his son, Antigonus Gonatas, made repeated visits to Athens, in consequence of which the latter became Zeno's pupil and remained his friend until his death. The personal relations of Zeno and Antigonus are honourable to both. By the Athenian people, also, Zeno was held in the highest esteem for the nobility of his character. The statement that they deposited the keys of their citadel with him is doubtless an invention, but the request of Antigonus that he should receive a public funeral may well have been granted, even if the decree to this effect preserved by our authority l be not genuine. The excessive frugality and even parsimony of his life impressed observers no less than his moral earnestness, dignity, and affability, and some may be disposed to see in them Semitic traits of character. Among his pupils Persaeus, also from Citium, lived in the same house with Zeno, who sent him as his substitute to the court of Antigonus when he declined the king's invitation for himself. Next may be mentioned Aristo of Chios, Herillus of Carthage, and Dionysius of Heraclea, in Pontus, all three of whom diverged in various ways from their master's teaching. Other pupils were Aratus of Soli, in Cilicia, the author of an extant astronomical poem, Sphaerus of Bosporus, the friend and adviser of the reforming Spartan king Cleomenes, and lastly Cleanthes of Assos, who succeeded to the headship of the school and held it from 264 to 232 B. C. The story goes that Cleanthes had been a pugilist; for nineteen years he attended the lectures of Zeno by day, while earning a frugal livelihood by toilsome occupations at night. To some he was known as the second Hercules, but others gave him the nickname of the Ass, on account of his patience and endurance and a certain slowness and dulness of intellect, of which he was himself painfully conscious. His was, in truth, a reflective, brooding nature not devoid of political imagination, a fact to which the extant fragments of his verse bear witness. The Stoics held that under certain circumstances suicide was 1 Diogenes Laertius, VII, 10-12.

justified, and, as our historical sources are both scanty and imperfect, this doctrine may be the only ground-work for the tradition that not only Cleanthes but also his master Zeno and his pupil Chrysippus, ended their days by suicide. We are told of Cleanthes that, when taunted with old age, he replied: "Yes, I am willing to be gone, but when I see myself sound in every part, writing and reading, I am again tempted to linger." At last, however, when he was suffering from an ulcer on the tongue, his physician advised him to abstain from food for a while as a means of cure. After two days of abstinence he was completely cured and advised by the physician to return to his ordinary way of life. But he said: "Since I have gone so far on the road, it would be a pity not to finish the journey." Accordingly, he continued his fasting and died.

At the time of Cleanthes the outlines of the system were still plastic. With all his reverence for his master, Cleanthes did not hesitate to introduce many modifications. In particular, he made the system more rigorously monistic and pantheistic, and we now meet with the doctrine of tension, which distinguishes Stoic materialism from all conception of matter as dead and inert. Under Cleanthes the school did not exactly flourish. In controversy it was pressed hard, not only by the Epicureans, from the first its uncompromising foes, but from another side by the Sceptics of the New Academy. But if the qualities of Cleanthes were not fitted to shine in polemic, the next head of the school made up for all such deficiencies. This was Chrysippus of Soli, in Cilicia, who lived till after 208 B. C. Of this extraordinary man the saying ran: "Had there been no Chrysippus, there had been no Porch"; which probably means, not that he saved the school from extinction, though this may well have been the case, but that he reduced its doctrine to a final and unalterable form. In doing so he exercised a moderating influence, mediating between extreme utterances, reconciling conflicting opinions, removing inconsistencies, obviating objections, and rounding off" the whole with numerous contributions of his own. His aim was avowedly to interpret Zeno's utterances, but occasionally, to avoid all risk of misunderstanding, he had to restate them. His ingenuity and acumen were unequalled. "Give me the doctrines," he is reported to have said to Cleanthes; "I will find out the proofs for myself." He was short of stature, so much so that a jesting Epicurean, seeing a statue of him in the Ceramicus eclipsed by a neighbouring equestrian figure, remarked that a more appropriate name than Chrysippus, "Gold-Horse," would have been Crypsippus, or "Horse-hidden." He was the most voluminous of all ancient writers, being credited with seven hundred separate rolls. He was not averse to padding, and made huge citations from other authors, if we may trust the anecdote that some one, being asked what he was reading, replied, "The Medea of Chrysippus," so largely had the Stoic drawn upon the drama of Euripides for illustration of his argument. The logic of Stoicism is almost entirely his creation, and he contributed much to recast its psychology and epistemology.