Chapter 1

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Roman Stoicism This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: Roman Stoicism Author: Edward Vernon Arnold Release date: February 7, 2021 [eBook #64488] Most recently updated: October 18, 2024 Language: English Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64488 Credits: Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMAN STOICISM *** ROMAN STOICISM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS London: FETTER LANE, E.C. C. F. CLAY, MANAGER [Illustration] Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO. Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS New York: G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd _All rights reserved_ ROMAN STOICISM BEING LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ITS DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE ROMAN EMPIRE BY E. VERNON ARNOLD, LITT.D. PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH WALES AND FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE Cambridge: at the University Press 1911 Cambridge: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. HENRICO JACKSON, LITT.D. DILECTISSIMO PRAECEPTORI PREFACE This book is the outcome of a course of lectures delivered by me in successive years to Latin Honours students in accordance with the regulations of the University of Wales. It is therefore primarily intended for the assistance of classical students; but it may perhaps appeal in its present form to a somewhat wider circle. At the time that the book was begun the best systematic exposition of the Stoic philosophy available for English readers was to be found in Prof. E. ZELLER’S _Stoics Epicureans and Sceptics_, translated by O. J. REICHEL (Longmans, 1892). This work, admirable in detail, is nevertheless somewhat inadequate to the subject, which appeared to its learned author as a mere sequel to the much more important philosophical systems of Plato and Aristotle. Since its first appearance many qualified writers have been inclined to assign a higher rank to Stoicism, amongst whom L. STEIN, A. SCHMEKEL, and HANS von ARNIM in the German-speaking countries, and A. C. PEARSON, G. H. RENDALL, and R. D. HICKS in our own, are perhaps most conspicuous. The view taken in this book corresponds generally to that taken by the writers named. Shortly expressed, it regards Stoicism as the bridge between ancient and modern philosophical thought; a position which appears to be accepted by W. L. DAVIDSON writing on behalf of students of modern philosophy. Mr Hicks and Mr Davidson have recently published works dealing with the Stoic philosophy as a whole; but as neither of these quite covers the ground marked out for this book, I believe that room will be found for a further presentation of the subject. To the writers named and to many others, my obligations are great, and their extent is generally indicated in the Index. I owe a more intimate debt to Mr A. C. PEARSON and Prof. ALFRED CALDECOTT, who have given me ungrudgingly of their knowledge and counsel during the whole period of the preparation of this book. The appearance of H. von Arnim’s ‘Stoicorum veterum fragmenta’ made available to me a mass of material from Greek sources, and has (I hope) made this book less imperfect on the side of Greek than it would otherwise have been. For the quotations in the notes from the Greek and the less-known Latin authors I have generally given references to von Arnim’s collections, which will doubtless be more accessible to most of my readers than the original writers. These references include those to the fragments of Zeno and Cleanthes, for which von Arnim is in the main indebted to the earlier work of Pearson. So general a treatment of the subject as is here presented must necessarily leave room for correction and amplification in its various branches, and I trust that I am pointing out to younger students a field in which a rich harvest may yet be gleaned. To such students the appended Bibliography, though necessarily incomplete, may be of use as an