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ZENO, founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, was born at Citium, in Cyprus. His father was a merchant, and he followed this pursuit for some years, till, after a shipwreck in which he lost his cargo, he landed at Piræus. There, in a bookseller's shop, he read Xenophon's Memoirs of Socrates; and, on asking where such men were now to be found, the shopman pointed out Crates, the Cynic, who was passing by. Under him and Stilpo of Megara he studied for some years, but finally opened his own school of philosophy at Athens, in the Stoa, or Porch, decorated with frescoes of Polygnotus. Hence the disciples of the school were called Stoics.
In Athens he lived much respected for the rest of his life, which was prolonged to old age. A flattering letter from Antigonus of Macedon has been preserved, inviting him to his court; as also Zeno's reply that he was himself too old, but would send two of his disciples.
His philosophy, as developed by himself and his successors, claimed to present a complete scheme of thought, logical, physical, and ethical. It was a protest against the skepticism in opinion, and self-indulgence in action. But the severance of philosophy from science, which Socrates had initiated, and which had now become complete, deprives his system of intellectual value. Of his Ethic, the principal doctrine was "to live according to Nature." This, he said, implies living virtuously, for Nature leads to Virtue. The Stoic system commended itself to the Roman character; and its transportation to Italy gave it a coherence and reality which it had not before possessed.
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| This biography is
reprinted from The New Calendar of Great Men. Ed. Frederic
Harrison. London: Macmillan and Co., 1920. |
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