Note 1 — Chapter II · CHARACTER AND CHIEF FEATURES OF THE POST-ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY.

A. Zeno. The founder of the Stoic School, Zeno1 by name, was the son of Mnaseas,2 and a native of Citium3 in Cyprus. Leaving his home, he repaired to Athens,4 about the year 320 B.C.,5 where he at first joined the Cynic Crates.6 He appears to have soon become disgusted with the extravagances of the Cynics’ mode of life,7 and his keen desire for knowledge could find no satisfaction in a teaching so meagre as theirs.8 To supply their defects he had recourse to Stilpo, who united to the moral teaching of the Cynics the logical acumen of the Megarians. He also studied under Polemo, and it is said under Xenocrates and Diodorus the logician, with whose pupil Philo9 he was on terms of intimacy. After a long course of intellectual preparation, he at last appeared as a teacher, soon after the beginning of the third, or perhaps during the last years of the fourth century B.C. From the Stoa ποικιλὴ, the place which he selected for delivering his lectures, his followers derived their name of Stoics, having first been called after their master Zenonians.10 Such was the universal respect inspired by his earnestness, moral strictness,11 and simplicity of life,12 and the dignity, modesty, and affability of his conduct,13 that Antigonus Gonatas vied with the city of Athens in showing appreciation of him.14 Although lacking smoothness of style and using a language far from pure,15 Zeno had nevertheless an extensive following. Leading a life of singular moderation, he reached an advanced age untouched by disease, although he naturally enjoyed neither robust health nor an attractive person.16 A slight injury having at length befallen him, which he regarded as a hint of destiny, he put an end to his own life.17 His not very numerous writings18 have been lost, with the exception of a few fragments, some no doubt dating from the time when, as a pupil of Crates, he adhered more strictly to Cynic ideas than was afterwards the case.19 This point ought not to be forgotten in sketching his teaching.