Yet for Seneca, and for Marcus Aurelius – both professed Stoics – the degradation of gladiators in the munus highlighted their Stoic virtues: their unconditional obedience to their master and to fate, and equanimity in the face of death.

During the reign of Nero from 54 to 68, the Stoic philosopher Seneca wrote a number of dialogues and letters on such moral themes as mercy and generosity.

The " liberal arts " or " liberal pursuits " ( Latin liberalia studia ) were already so called in formal education during the Roman Empire ; for example, Seneca the Younger discusses liberal arts in education from a critical Stoic point of view in Moral Epistle 88.

In one of a few exceptions to the rule that Black Roman literature was essentially superficial imitation of Greek works, the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca wrote several closet-drama tragedies in exile, never meant for live performance.

Seneca, the Roman Stoic, said that perfect prudence is indistinguishable from perfect virtue.

From the time of the empire, the tragedies of two playwrights survive — one is an unknown author, while the other is the Stoic philosopher Seneca.

Seneca spent his exile in philosophical and natural study ( a life counseled by Roman Stoic thought ) and wrote the Consolations.

* Motto, Anna Lydia, Seneca on Trial: The Case of the Opulent Stoic, The Classical Journal, Vol.

* Seneca: Letters from a Stoic

In 1936, he married Frances Kanes, the author of The Concise Bible, with whom he later collaborated to produce an anthology of the Stoic philosophers, The Wisdom of the Stoics: Selections from Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius ( 1984 ).

This principle, which I have inducted from many psychotherapeutic sessions with scores of patients during the last several years, was originally discovered and stated by the ancient Stoic philosophers, especially Zeno of Citium ( the founder of the school ), Chrysippus most influential disciple, Panaetius of Rhodes ( who introduced Stoicism into Rome ), Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius.

The only clear precedent and influence for the Renaissance genre is the work of the Roman playwright and Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger, perhaps most of all his Thyestes.

Seneca answers according to the Stoic point of view.

So, in perfect harmony with the Stoic philosophy, Seneca explains that the truly wise man can never surrender in the face of misfortunes but as he will always go through them and even if he should fall he will continue fighting on his knees (" si cecidit de genu pugnat ").

* Attalus ( Stoic ), Stoic philosopher ( c. 25 AD ) and teacher of Seneca

The Stoic philosopher Seneca also killed himself in response to a request by his pupil, the Roman Emperor Nero, who himself was forced to commit suicide at a later date.

A common way to understand Stoic cosmopolitanism is through Hierocles ' circle model of identity that states that we should regard ourselves as concentric circles, the first one around the self, next immediate family, extended family, local group, citizens, countrymen, humanity.

In his Pumpkinification ( 54 ) he ridiculed several behaviors and policies of Claudius that every Stoic should have applauded ; a reading of the text shows it was also an attempt to gain Nero's favor by flattery — such as proclaiming that Nero would live longer and be wiser than the legendary Nestor.

Maximus of Tyre must be distinguished from the Stoic Claudius Maximus, tutor of Marcus Aurelius.

* Claudius Maximus, 2nd-century Stoic, teacher of emperor Marcus Aurelius

The Stoic sage will never find life intolerable and will complain of no one, either God or human.

Gaius Blossius ( 2nd century BC ) was, according to Plutarch, a philosopher and student of the Stoic philosopher Antipater of Tarsus, from the city of Cumae in Campania, Italy, who ( along with the Greek rhetorician, Diophanes ) instigated Roman tribune Tiberius Gracchus to pursue a land reform movement on behalf of the plebs.

Among Zeno's other pupils there were Aristo of Chios, Sphaerus, and Cleanthes who succeeded Zeno as the head ( scholarch ) of the Stoic school in Athens.

Three significant contributions of the Stoic school were ( i ) their account of modality, ( ii ) their theory of the Material conditional, and ( iii ) their account of meaning and truth.

These three categories for him were, in Stoic fashion, inseparable and interdependent parts of an organic, natural whole.

He was the first Stoic to depart from the orthodox doctrine that passions were faulty judgments and posit that Plato's view of the soul had been correct, namely that passions were inherent in human nature.

In Stoic physics, Posidonius advocated a theory of cosmic " sympathy " ( sumpatheia ), the organic interrelation of all appearances in the world, from the sky to the earth, as part of a rational design uniting humanity and all things in the universe, even those that were temporally and spatially separate.

He wrote on the hypothetical syllogism and on the propositional calculus, which were both part of the Stoic logical tradition.

* Justin Martyr: Christian apologist and philosopher whose work often focused on the doctrine of the Logos and argued that many Stoic and Platonic philosophical ideas were similar to ideas in the Old Testament

The Greek elements were borrowed partly from Platonic philosophy, insofar as the divine powers were conceived as types or patterns of actual things (" archetypal ideas "), and partly from Stoic philosophy, insofar as those powers were regarded as the efficient causes that not only represent the types of things, but also produce and maintain them.

Although Greek Stoicism generally argued against participation in public affairs, the Romans were able to incorporate Stoic teachings into their civic framework.

However, the notions of the Great Year ( when all the planets complete a full cycle and return to their relative positions ) and eternal recurrence were Stoic doctrines that made divination and fatalism possible.

He was joined by Blossius of Cumae, the Stoic who had been a supporter of Tiberius Gracchus and promised to found a state called Heliopolis in which all were to be free.

It was perhaps the Dialecticians, Diodorus and Philo, who were the biggest influence on the development of Stoic logic, and that Zeno studied under Stilpo to learn his moral teachings, although Stilpo, too, is said to have excelled " in the invention of arguments and in sophistry.

The earliest " endowed chairs " were those established by the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius in Athens in AD 176.

Even in his own time, his works were regarded as often abstruse, perhaps because of their esoteric Pythagoreanism, into which Nigidius incorporated Stoic elements.

Franz Boll noticed the arguments were paralleled in older sources, particularly those of the Stoic philosopher Posidonius ( 135 BCE – AD 51 BCE ).

In this regard, as far as can be judged from imperfect records, they were anticipated to some extent by the experientialists of ancient times, both Stoic and Epicurean ( cf.

As John Patrick Lynch has written: The other two teachers of Alexander may actually have been the philosophers whom ancient sources called Stoics ; in both cases, Herminos / Sosigenes " the Stoic " have been distinguished from Herminos / Sosigenes " the Peripatetic " only on the grounds that the two latter men were teachers of Alexander of Aphrodisias.

So he denied the Stoic doctrine that all crimes were equal, but agreed with them in holding that all the emotions ought to be suppressed.

His intention was to restore the philosophy of Plato, the genuine Pythagorean and mediator between Socrates and Pythagoras in its original purity, cleared from the Aristotelian and Stoic doctrines, and purified from the unsatisfactory and perverse explanations, which he said were found even in Speusippus and Xenocrates, and which, through the influence of Arcesilaus and Carneades had led to a bottomless skepticism.