THE STOIC THINKERS
Seven voices, six centuries
Short studies of the philosophers whose work survives to shape the Stoic tradition — from Zeno in the Painted Porch to Marcus Aurelius on the Roman frontier.
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c. 334 – c. 262 BCE
Zeno of Citium
Founder of Stoicism
Zeno was born around 334 BCE in Citium, a city on the southern coast of Cyprus with a substantial Phoenician population; he is often described in ancient sources as Phoenician by descent and Greek by education. His father was a merchant, an…
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c. 279 – c. 206 BCE
Chrysippus
Third Head of the Stoa
Chrysippus of Soli was born around 279 BCE in Soli, a Greek city on the southern coast of Cilicia (modern Mersin, Turkey). He came to Athens as a young man and studied first under Arcesilaus and Lacydes at the sceptical Academy — training t…
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95 – 46 BCE
Cato the Younger
Roman Senator & Stoic Exemplar
Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis — known to history as Cato the Younger to distinguish him from his great-grandfather Cato the Elder — was born at Rome in 95 BCE. Orphaned young, he was raised in the household of his maternal uncle Livius Drus…
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c. 4 BCE – 65 CE
Seneca
Statesman & Philosopher
Lucius Annaeus Seneca — known as Seneca the Younger — was born around 4 BCE in Corduba (modern Córdoba) in the Roman province of Hispania. The son of the rhetorician Seneca the Elder, he was brought to Rome as a boy and trained in rhetoric …
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c. 25 – c. 101 CE
Musonius Rufus
Roman Stoic Teacher
Gaius Musonius Rufus was born around 25 CE in Volsinii in Etruria, of equestrian rank — one of the few Stoic teachers of the Roman period drawn from the Italian upper class rather than from the Greek-speaking provinces. He taught philosophy…
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c. 50 – c. 135 CE
Epictetus
Freedman & Teacher
Epictetus was born around 50 CE in Hierapolis, in the Roman province of Phrygia (modern southwestern Turkey), into slavery. Taken to Rome, he became the property of Epaphroditus, a freedman secretary to the emperor Nero. Epaphroditus permit…
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121–180 CE
Marcus Aurelius
Roman Emperor & Philosopher
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was born in Rome in 121 CE to a patrician family of Spanish descent. Noticed early by the emperor Hadrian, he was adopted into the imperial succession through Antoninus Pius in 138 CE and raised to rule.
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