The Stoics | οἱ Στωικοί 1
Introducing the Stoics
1. Stoicism: Selected Key Dates1
469–399 BCE Socrates 427–347 Plato 412–324 Diogenes of Sinope 387 Academy founded 365–270 Pyrrho (Scepticism) 384–322 Aristotle 342–271 Epicurus 337 Lyceum founded (Peripatos) 334–262 Zeno of Citium (Cyprus): begins teaching the the painted colonnade: ἐν τῇ ποικίλῃ στοᾷ (DL VII 5). 331–232 Cleanthes of Assos 280–206 Chrysippus of Soli: ‘but for Chrysippus, there had been no Stoa’ (DL VII 183 = SVF II 6) 230–150 Diogenes of Babylon 155 Diogenes in Rome with Carneades (Academic) and Critolaus (Peripatetic) 200–130 Antipater of Tarsus 185–110 Panaetius of Rhodes 135–50 Posidonius 106–43 Cicero 86 Sulla captures Athens, ending its intellectual hegemony 78 Cicero meets Posidonius in Rhodes 46–45 Cicero: On Moral Ends, Stoic Paradoxes, Academica, Tusculan Disputations, On the Nature of the Gods 20BCE–90CE Musonius Rufus 4 BCE–65 CE Seneca: Letters, On Anger, etc. 50–120 Plutarch: On Stoic Self-Contradictions, On Common Notions 55–135 Epictetus: Discourses, Manual (compiled by Arrian) 121–180 Marcus Aurelius: ‘Meditations’ 160–210 Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Scepticism, Against the Professors 250–300 Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers
2. Sources
§ No complete works § Roman focus on ethics in a crystallised Stoic system: living Stoicism § Early Stoa: Herculaneum papyri (Chrysippus); quotations, often hostile; secondary reports (e.g., ‘Zeno says’); general reports without attribution (Cicero).
1 By convention, Hellenistic Philosophy begins with the death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE) and ends with the Roman Republic (31 BCE).
OUDCE Trinity Term 2016 | Peter Wyss
Sources. Clockwise, from top left: (1) Long, A. A. & Sedley, D. N. (1987). The Hellenistic Philosophers, Vol. 1 (p. 4). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (2) http://agora.ascsa.net/id/agora/drawing/da%203911 (3) Google Maps (4) http://agora.ascsa.net/id/agora/image/1997.01.0220 Bust of Zeno from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zeno_of_Citium_pushkin.jpg Bust of Chrysippus from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chrysippos_BM_1846.jpg
This work is licensed by the University of Oxford under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales Licence