Stoicism was a popular school of philosophy for around 500 years during its prime in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. From Zeno of Citium in the year 300 BCE until Marcus Aurelius’s death in 179 AD, Stoic philosophy played a pivotal role in Europe.
Today we’ll see how this practical philosophy made its way from the Stoa of Athens to the Roman Empire and developed over time.
The Early Stoa in Ancient Greece
Stoicism started with Zeno of Citium around the year 301 BCE and, for nearly 200 years, found its centre in Athens. While none of the original work remains from this period, we find many references to the original Stoics from later philosophers.
For example, we know that the early Stoics prioritised logic. Unlike other animals they considered humans rational, and that for this reason, we should use our reason to live a “good life”. We also know that they developed a doctrine of Logic, Physics and Ethics.
Zeno of Citium
Zeno began his journey to philosophy with a shipwreck. Originally a wealthy merchant from Cyprus, Zeno lost many of his possessions in a ship wreck near Athens. He traveled to the city, came across a book shop and began reading the teachings of Socrates. Just as he asked the bookseller where he might find such an enlightened person, the Cynic philosopher Crates of Thebes walked by.
Zeno learned from Crates before moving onto study with various philosophers from the Megarian, Dialectical and Platonist schools. He began teaching his own eclectic philosophy around 301 BCE in the Stoa Poikile square, the place which gave the philosophy its name.
Logic, Physics & Ethics
In his explanation of Stoicism, Zeno split the Stoic doctrine into three components: Logic, Physics & Ethics.
Firstly, Zeno taught that logic is important because a wise person must be able to avoid deception. He claimed that there were four stages to achieving true knowledge. After perception, we can reach assent, comprehension (which he referred to as katalepsis) and finally knowledge.
In regards to Physics, Zeno believed the universe was God, a divine reasoning entity where all the parts belong to the whole. For this reason, Stoics believe we should act in accordance with nature. Therefore, there is a universal way to approach our existence.
“The goal of life is living in agreement with Nature.”
Zeno
Ultimately, Zeno taught that we can achieve happiness by following our ethics. Virtue, as he taught, can only exist with reason, so we can learn to think our way to an ethical life. For the early Stoics, Stoic virtue comprised several parts: wisdom, justice, courage and self-discipline.
Zeno also distinguished between the four negative emotions: desire, fear, pleasure and sorrow. He is also most-likely responsible for identifying the three positive emotions: will, caution and joy. According to Zeno’s logic and ethics doctrine, Stoics should reduce their negative emotions while increasing positive emotions.
Man conquers the world by conquering himself.
Zeno
Chrysippus of Soli
Chrysippus became the head of the Stoic school, in 230 BC when his former teacher Cleanthes died. Also known as the “second founder of Stoicism”, Chrysippus expanded on Zeno’s fundamental doctrines.
In hopes of defending Stoicism against future attacks (from other schools), he organised Zeno and Cleanthes’s teachings into a definitive system. Chrysippus’s logic system aimed to better understand the universe and humanity’s role within it. We know today that he spent most of his time writing for this purpose.
Logical Propositions
Chrysippus built on the Stoic idea of physics and theory of knowledge. He developed logical propositions to review knowledge empirically and better understand the universe. For example, he reasoned:
If A is true, then B must be true. We can see that A is true. Therefore, B is true.
Chrysippus invented several propositions that we still use today in modern logic, for example the conjunction, the disjunction and the conditional. These logical structures were the foundation of his logic system.
With these logic techniques, Chrysippus developed Stoicism into a concrete philosophy and ultimately helped it to begin to grow in popularity again. Stoicism had previously seen a decline under Cleanthes’s lead, and Chrysippus is wholly responsible for saving Stoicism from the Skepticism of the New Academy.
The Middle Stoa from Ancient Greece to Rome
After its founding in Athens, philosophers began exporting Stoicism to other regions. This is the era where Stoicism first made it to the Roman Empire where some of the most famous Stoics of all time will later come from. We also see the Stoic Greek centre moving away from Athens to Rhodes, following the death of Panaetius.
Panaetius and Poseidonius were largely responsible for the widespread popularity of Stoicism in Rome. Their re-focus of the doctrine as more of a moral philosophy and natural science appealed more to the Romans, who were significantly more practical than their Greek counterparts.
Panaetius
Born in Rhodes in Greece, Panaetius was a Stoic philosopher who studied under Diogenes of Babylon and Antipater of Tarsus in Athens. He became head of the Stoic school in Athens in 129 BCE.
Panaetius’s aim was to modernise the Stoic doctrine and make it more eclectic, which resulted in him prioritising Physics over Logic. He tried to bring the ultimate goal of life closer to natural impulses and show how inseparable the virtues were.
Panaetius rejected the idea of apatheia, which the Stoics had considered true since Zeno’s Cynic beginnings. Instead he thought certain pleasurable sensations could accord with nature. One did not have to live an ascetic lifestyle to consider themselves a Stoic.
In the end, Panaetius brought Stoicism to Rome where he worked to introduce it to the city. We owe him much of the credit for the existence of later Stoics, who were prolific during the Roman Empire. Panaetius was Stoicism’s last undisputed scholarch until his death in 110 BCE.
Posidonius
Posidonius was a student of Panaetius until his death in 110 BCE. At that time, Posidonius was 25 and started his own school in Rhodes. His institution became the leading Stoic school of its time, and the Stoic centre moved out of Athens for the first time.
In a fashion similar to Panaetius, Posidonius traveled and learned about the world along the way. A polymath similar to Aristotle and Eratosthenes, he mastered most of the knowledge of his time. However, for Posidonius, philosophy was always the most interesting.
Riches are a cause of evil, not because, of themselves, they do any evil, but because they goad men on so that they are ready to do evil.
Posidonius
In regards to Stoic philosophy, Posidonius taught that ethics is most importantly about practice and cannot only be reduced to the theory.
Similar to Panaetius, Posidonius regularly visited Rome to teach and was one of the core reasons for Stoicism’s adoption in the Roman Empire.
The Late Stoa in the Roman Empire
As we’ve discussed already, Stoicism made its way from Greece to the Roman Empire with the help of Panaetius and Posidonius bringing the philosophy along on their travels.
Compared to their Greek counterparts, Roman Stoics placed more emphasis on tranquility. While the Greeks believed we should study and practice virtue to live an “ethically good” life, the Romans thought we should practice ethics primarily to achieve tranquility. After all, tranquility leads to happiness and fulfilment of life. As tranquility became the goal of Stoicism, Stoic mindfulness began to play a larger part in the philosophy.
In this sense, the Romans focused more on practical elements of the philosophy, which is also why ethics became much more important to the Romans than the logic and physics pillars.
Luckily for us, many of the writings from this Roman period still exist today. I’ve personally read Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations on my Kindle and even heard Tim Ferris dictate Seneca’s letters. The wealth of information from this period means we can engage directly with the contributions of this time.
In the following section, we’ll touch on the lives and work of the four Great Stoics of the Roman Empire.
Seneca the Younger
Seneca was Rome’s leading intellectual in the mid-1st century before becoming tutor to the future emperor Nero. By the year 54, on Nero’s coronation, Seneca became an official advisor to the emperor.
Seneca was one of the most important philosophers of the Roman Empire. As a well-versed playwright, he made a large and lasting contribution to Stoic literature. He wrote dozens of philosophical essays as well as 124 letters on moral issues.
Seneca’s work was well-versed and encompassed a variety of topics even beyond the Stoic doctrine. A great starting point for Seneca are his essays Of a Happy Life, Of the Tranquility of Mind and On the Shortness of Life. I’ve personally listened to these as audiobooks on YouTube, which you’ll find below so feel free to give them a listen!
Role Models & the Stoic Sage
Compared to his predecessors, who thought we should live primarily in accordance with human nature, Seneca put much more emphasis on following role models. This concept is known as the Stoic sage and involves identifying good decisions based on what the ideal Stoic would do.
“Choose therefore a Cato; or, if Cato seems too severe a model, choose some Laelius, a gentler spirit. Choose a master whose life, conversation, and soul-expressing face have satisfied you; picture him always to yourself as your protector or your pattern. For we must indeed have someone according to whom we may regulate our characters; you can never straighten that which is crooked unless you use a ruler.”
(Letters XI.10)
Seneca made clear that, while he followed the Stoic doctrine, he set out to follow his own path. He refused to blindly follow the work of those who came before him:
“Will I not walk in the footsteps of my predecessors? I will indeed use the ancient road — but if I find another route that is more direct and has fewer ups and downs, I will stake out that one. Those who advanced these doctrines before us are not our masters but our guides. The truth lies open to all; it has not yet been taken over. Much is left also for those yet to come.”
(Letters to Lucilius, XXXIII.11)
Criticisms of Seneca
Seneca is sometimes criticised for his lack of adhering to Stoic ideals. After all, he was wealthy and powerful, despite Stoic philosophy preaching a modest life. In a relevant example, Seneca argued that others might feel like they had lost everything if they lost their possessions. Seneca, on the other hand, would only feel like he had lost these individual items.
While Seneca enjoyed the perks of great wealth, he also honoured his duty to the empire. He advised Nero to uphold moral order to the best of his ability until his retirement. When Nero ultimately condemned Seneca to death (for a crime he most likely did not commit), Seneca calmed his friends and loved ones who came to see him in his final hour.
“Where,” he asked again and again, “are your maxims of philosophy, or the preparation of so many years’ study against evils to come? Who knew not Nero’s cruelty? After a mother’s and a brother’s murder, nothing remains but to add the destruction of a guardian and a tutor.”
These were among Seneca’s last words before he was forced to commit suicide.
Some of Seneca’s most popular work includes the following:
Of a Happy Life
Of Tranquillity of Mind
On the Shortness of Life
Musonius Rufus
Gaius Musonius Rufus was already famous as a Stoic philosopher by the time Nero began his reign. Rufus regularly criticised the emperor as part of the Stoic opposition and was a well-known teacher to many students of Roman Stoicism, including most famously Epictetus.
In line with prior Stoic thought, Rufus believed that philosophy was no more than the practice of noble behaviour. Philosophy must be studied to develop good character, a sound mind, and a tough, healthy body. Cultivating brilliance in arguments or cleverness were not the goal; only noble actions were.
Rufus was banished from the empire several times and forced to live in exile. As a true Stoic identifying silver linings, he pointed out the benefits of exile for a practicing Stoic. He gave the example of Diogenes, who transformed himself from an ordinary citizen into a philosopher during his time in exile.
Because we humans acquire all good things by pain, the person who is himself unwilling to endure pain all but conducts himself to being worthy of nothing good.
Musonius Rufus
One of Rufus’s core principles was that both men and women have rational minds and therefore both genders should expand their knowledge with philosophy. He’s often hailed as an early proponent of feminism for these teachings.
Epictetus
Born a slave (whose given name translates to “acquired”), Epictetus excelled in learning and studied under Musonius Rufus in Rome. By the end of Nero’s reign in the year 68, Epictetus had gained his freedom and begun to teach Stoicism.
Epictetus was primarily an orator and never actually wrote anything down. Instead Arrian, one of his students, released Epictetus’s Discourses with notes of his key lessons. In comparing Epictetus’s teachings to Musonius Rufus, we can see that he adopted a large part of his philosophical doctrine from his former teacher.
Epictetus was mainly interested in ethics and regularly asked himself the following questions:
- How do I live a happy, fulfilling life?
- How can I be a good person?
Living the good life
Epictetus taught that if you wish to be happy, you should focus on the kind of person you are and the life you live. Following the core Stoic virtues and aligning our thoughts and actions in harmony with nature is how we can live a good life, according to his teachings.
Epictetus’s prescription for living the “good life” came down to three steps:
- Mastering your desires
- Performing your duties
- Learning to think clearly about yourself and your relationship in the larger community of humanity.
He also often differentiated between things we can control and things we cannot. This part of Epictetus’s philosophy is now known as the Stoic dichotomy of control.
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius was emperor of Rome from 161 – 180 CE and is history’s prime example of a philosopher king. Starting from humble beginnings, Marcus was a dedicated student who focused interestedly on the Stoic philosophy. The philosophy taught him to value fate, reason and self-restraint.
He was a good emperor and beloved by his people, because he cared for everyone in his empire equally. Never wanting to make decisions that only benefited his friends, Marcus opted instead to make decisions for Rome as a whole. His purpose was to do what was “right”. In this sense, Markus also largely followed the Ethical side of the philosophy.
Meditations & Motivation
In today’s Stoic context, Marcus is most famous for his private notebooks, which we now know as Meditations. His personal writings offer insight into how the most powerful person of his time reasoned and made decisions. Even when faced with challenges, Marcus found ways to keep himself motivated on the task at hand.
Our actions may be impeded…but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting.
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
In the wake of setbacks and obstacles, Marcus Aurelius learned to find motivation in his challenges. And the quote above became the basis for Ryan Holiday’s book The Obstacle is the Way.
Faced with several wars and a disease known as the Antonine plague, Marcus spent his days focusing on what he could control in order to do his best for the Empire. Many of his passages were strategic and logical, while others reassured him that he could only control so much. It seems he wrote primarily to clear his mind and figure out how to live his best life.
You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.
Marcus Aurelius
This focus on tranquility demonstrates Epictetus’s influence on Marcus’s philosophy.
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
Marcus Aurelius
Stoicism over Time
In this post, we’ve seen how Stoic philosophy developed over nearly 500 years with the doctrines of some of its most famous practitioners.
Each Stoic in this post lived over different periods of time, impacted by preceding philosophers as well as the priorities of their own time. Zeno’s original doctrine of logic, ethics and physics in Greece was a wholly rational philosophy. The Roman school built its teachings around ethics and tranquility to become a more practical philosophy.
While the early Stoics adopted knowledge or wisdom by considering rational human nature, later Stoics used role models to make the right ethical decisions.
From its humble founder to the great Philosopher King, Stoicism has been interpreted in many different ways. Its versatility as a philosophy even makes it applicable today with the growing popularity of modern Stoicism.
Learn how Stoicism developed over its prime centuries with Mind & Practice today.