LIFE OF ZENO
I. Zeno was the son of Mnaseas, or Demeas, and a native
of Citium, in Cyprus, which is a Grecian city, partly occupied
by a Phœnician colony.
II. He had his head naturally bent on one side, as Timotheus,
the Athenian, tells us, in his work on Lives. And
Apollonius, the Tyrian, says that he was thin, very tall, of a
dark complexion; in reference to which some one once called
him an Egyptian Clematis, as Chrysippus relates in the first
volume of his Proverbs: he had fat, flabby, weak legs, on
which account Persæus, in his Convivial Reminiscences, says
that he used to refuse many invitations to supper; and he
was very fond, as it is said, of figs both fresh and dried in
the sun.
III. He was a pupil, as has been already stated, of Crates.
After that, they say that he became a pupil of Stilpon and of
Xenocrates, for ten years, as Timocrates relates in his Life of
Dion. He is also said to have been a pupil of Polemo. But
Hecaton, and Apollonius, of Tyre, in the first book of his
essay on Zeno, say that when he consulted the oracle, as to
what he ought to do to live in the most excellent manner, the
God answered him that he ought to become of the same
complexion as the dead, on which he inferred that he ought
to apply himself to the reading of the books of the ancients.
Accordingly, he attached himself to Crates in the following
manner. Having purchased a quantity of purple from Phœnicia,
he was shipwrecked close to the Piræus; and when he had
made his way from the coast as far as Athens, he sat down by
a bookseller’s stall, being now about thirty years of age. And
as he took up the second book of Xenophon’s Memorabilia and
began to read it, he was delighted with it, and asked where
such men as were described in that book lived; and as Crates
happened very seasonably to pass at the moment, the bookseller
pointed him out, and said, “Follow that man.” From
that time forth he became a pupil of Crates; but though he
was in other respects very energetic in his application to
philosophy, still he was too modest for the shamelessness of
the Cynics. On which account, Crates, wishing to cure him
of this false shame, gave him a jar of lentil porridge to carry
through the Ceramicus; and when he saw that he was
ashamed, and that he endeavoured to hide it, he struck the
jar with his staff, and broke it; and, as Zeno fled away, and
the lentil porridge ran all down his legs, Crates called after
him, “Why do you run away, my little Phœnician, you have
done no harm?” For some time then he continued a pupil of
Crates, and when he wrote his treatise entitled the Republic,
some said, jokingly, that he had written it upon the tail of the
dog.
IV. And besides his Republic, he was the author also of the
following works:—a treatise on a Life according to Nature;
one on Appetite, or the Nature of Man; one on Passions;
one on the Becoming; one on Law; one on the usual Education
of the Greeks; one on Sight; one on the Whole; one
on Signs; one on the Doctrines of the Pythagoreans; one on
Things in General; one on Styles; five essays on Problems
relating to Homer; one on the Bearing of the Poets. There
is also an essay on Art by him, and two books of Solutions
and Jests, and Reminiscences, and one called the Ethics of
Crates. These are the books of which he was the author.
V. But at last he left Crates, and became the pupil of the
philosophers whom I have mentioned before, and continued
with them for twenty years. So that it is related that he said,
“I now find that I made a prosperous voyage when I was
wrecked.” But some affirm that he made this speech in
reference to Crates. Others say, that while he was staying at
Athens he heard of a shipwreck, and said, “Fortune does well
in having driven us on philosophy.” But as some relate the
affair, he was not wrecked at all, but sold all his cargo at
Athens, and then turned to philosophy.
VI. And he used to walk up and down in the beautiful
colonnade which is called the Peisianactium, and which is also
called ποικίλη, from the paintings of Polygnotus, and there he
delivered his discourses, wishing to make that spot tranquil;
for in the time of the thirty, nearly fourteen hundred of the
citizens had been murdered there by them.
VII. Accordingly, for the future, men came thither to hear
him, and from this his pupils were called Stoics, and so were
his successors also, who had been at first called Zenonians, as
Epicurus tells us in his Epistles. And before this time, the
poets who frequented this colonnade (στοὰ) had been called
Stoics, as we are informed by Eratosthenes, in the eighth book
of his treatise on the Old Comedy; but now Zeno’s pupils
made the name more notorious. Now the Athenians had a
great respect for Zeno, so that they gave him the keys of their
walls, and they also honoured him with a golden crown, and a
brazen statue; and this was also done by his own countrymen,
who thought the statue of such a man an honour to their city.
And the Cittiæans, in the district of Sidon, also claimed him as
their countryman.
VIII. He was also much respected by Antigonus, who,
whenever he came to Athens, used to attend his lectures, and
was constantly inviting him to come to him. But he begged
off himself, and sent Persæus, one of his intimate friends, who
was the son of Demetrius, and a Cittiæan by birth, and who
flourished about the hundred and thirtieth olympiad, when
Zeno was an old man. The letter of Antigonus to Zeno was
as follows, and it is reported by Apollonius, the Syrian, in
his essay on Zeno.
KING ANTIGONUS TO ZENO THE PHILOSOPHER, GREETING
“I think that in good fortune and glory I have the advantage
of you; but in reason and education I am inferior to you,
and also in that perfect happiness which you have attained to.
On which account I have thought it good to address you, and
invite you to come to me, being convinced that you will not
refuse what is asked of you. Endeavour, therefore, by all
means to come to me, considering this fact, that you will not
be the instructor of me alone, but of all the Macedonians
together. For he who instructs the ruler of the Macedonians,
and who leads him in the path of virtue, evidently marshals
all his subjects on the road to happiness. For as the ruler is,
so is it natural that his subjects for the most part should be
also.”
And Zeno wrote him back the following answer.
ZENO TO KING ANTIGONUS, GREETING
“I admire your desire for learning, as being a true object
for the wishes of mankind, and one too that tends to their
advantage. And the man who aims at the study of philosophy
has a proper disregard for the popular kind of instruction
which tends only to the corruption of the morals. And you,
passing by the pleasure which is so much spoken of, which
makes the minds of some young men effeminate, show plainly
that you are inclined to noble pursuits, not merely by your
nature, but also by your own deliberate choice. And a noble
nature, when it has received even a slight degree of training,
and which also meets with those who will teach it abundantly,
proceeds without difficulty to a perfect attainment of virtue.
But I now find my bodily health impaired by old age, for I
am eighty years old: on which account I am unable to come
to you. But I send you some of those who have studied with
me, who in that learning which has reference to the soul, are
in no respect inferior to me, and in their bodily vigour are
greatly my superiors. And if you associate with them you
will want nothing that can bear upon perfect happiness.”
So he sent him Persæus and Philonides, the Theban, both
of whom are mentioned by Epicurus, in his letter to his
brother Aristobulus, as being companions of Antigonus.
IX. And I have thought it worth while also to set down the
decree of the Athenians concerning him; and it is couched in
the following language.
“In the archonship of Arrhenides, in the fifth presidency of
the tribe Acamantis, on the twenty-first day of the month
Maimacterion, on the twenty-third day of the aforesaid
presidency, in a duly convened assembly, Hippo, the son of
Cratistoteles, of the borough of Xypetion, being one of the
presidents, and the rest of the presidents, his colleagues, put
the following decree to the vote. And the decree was proposed
by Thrason, of Anacæa, the son of Thrason.
“Since Zeno the son of Mnaseas, the Cittiæan, has passed
many years in the city, in the study of philosophy, being in
all other respects a good man, and also exhorting all the
young men who have sought his company to the practice of
virtue, and encouraging them in the practice of temperance;
making his own life a model to all men of the greatest
excellence, since it has in every respect corresponded to the
doctrines which he has taught; it has been determined by the
people (and may the determination be fortunate), to praise
Zeno, the son of Mnaseas, the Cittiæan, and to present him
with a golden crown in accordance with the law, on account of
his virtue and temperance, and to build him a tomb in
the Ceramicus, at the public expense. And the people has
appointed by its vote five men from among the citizens of
Athens, who shall see to the making of the crown and the
building of the tomb. And the scribe of the borough shall
enrol the decree and engrave it on two pillars, and he shall be
permitted to place one pillar in the Academy, and one in the
Lyceum. And he who is appointed to superintend the work
shall divide the expense that the pillars amount to, in such a
way that every one may understand that the whole people of
Athens honours good men both while they are living and after
they are dead. And Thrason of Anacæa, Philocles of the
Piræus, Phædrus of Anaphlystos, Medon of Acharnæ, Micythus
of Sypalettus, and Dion of Pæania, are hereby appointed
to superintend the building of the tomb.”
These then are the terms of the decree.
X. But Antigonus, of Carystos, says, that Zeno himself
never denied that he was a native of Cittium. For that when
on one occasion, there was a citizen of that town who had
contributed to the building of some baths, and was having his
name engraved on the pillar, as the countryman of Zeno the
philosopher, he bade them add, “Of Cittium.”
XI. And at another time, when he had had a hollow
covering made for some vessel, he carried it about for some
money, in order to procure present relief for some difficulties
which were distressing Crates his master. And they say that
he, when he first arrived in Greece, had more than a thousand
talents, which he lent out at nautical usury.
XII. And he used to eat little loaves and honey, and to
drink a small quantity of sweet smelling wine.
XIII. He had very few youthful acquaintances of the male
sex, and he did not cultivate them much, lest he should be
thought to be a misogynist. And he dwelt in the same house
with Persæus; and once, when he brought in a female flute-player
to him, he hastened to bring her back to him.
XIV. And he was, it is said, of a very accommodating
temper; so much so, that Antigonus, the king, often came to
dine with him, and often carried him off to dine with him, at
the house of Aristocles the harp-player; but when he was
there, he would presently steal away.
XV. It is also said that he avoided a crowd with great care,
so that he used to sit at the end of a bench, in order at all
events to avoid being incommoded on one side. And he never
used to walk with more than two or three companions. And
he used at times to exact a piece of money from all who came
to hear him, with a view of not being distressed by numbers;
and this story is told by Cleanthes, in his treatise on Brazen
Money. And when he was surrounded by any great crowd, he
would point to a balustrade of wood at the end of the colonnade
which surrounded an altar, and say, “That was once in the
middle of this place, but it was placed apart because it was in
people’s way; and now, if you will only withdraw from the
middle here, you too will incommode me much less.”
XVI. And when Demochares, the son of Laches, embraced
him once, and said that he would tell Antigonus, or write to
him of everything which he wanted, as he always did everything
for him, Zeno, when he had heard him say this, avoided
his company for the future. And it is said, that after the
death of Zeno, Antigonus said, “What a spectacle have I lost.”
On which account he employed Thrason, their ambassador, to
entreat of the Athenians to allow him to be buried in the
Ceramicus. And when he was asked why he had such an
admiration for him, he replied, “Because, though I gave him a
great many important presents, he was never elated, and never
humbled.”
XVII. He was a man of a very investigating spirit, and
one who inquired very minutely into everything; in reference
to which, Timon, in his Silli, speaks thus:—
I saw an aged woman of Phœnicia,
Hungry and covetous, in a proud obscurity,
Longing for everything. She had a basket
So full of holes that it retained nothing.
Likewise her mind was less than a skindapsus.
He used to study very carefully with Philo, the dialectician,
and to argue with him at their mutual leisure; on which
account he excited the wonder of the younger Zeno, no less
than Diodorus his master.
XVIII. There were also a lot of dirty beggars always about
him, as Timon tells us, where he says:—
Till he collected a vast cloud of beggars,
Who were of all men in the world the poorest,
And the most worthless citizens of Athens.
And he himself was a man of a morose and bitter countenance,
with a constantly frowning expression. He was very economical,
and descended even to the meanness of the barbarians, under
the pretence of economy.
XIX. If he reproved any one, he did it with brevity and
without exaggeration, and as it were, at a distance. I allude,
for instance, to the way in which he spoke of a man who took
exceeding pains in setting himself off, for as he was crossing a
gutter with great hesitation, he said, “He is right to look
down upon the mud, for he cannot see himself in it.” And
when some Cynic one day said that he had no oil in his cruise,
and asked him for some, he refused to give him any, but bade
him go away and consider which of the two was the more impudent.
He was very much in love with Chremonides; and
once, when he and Cleanthes were both sitting by him, he got
up; and as Cleanthes wondered at this, he said, “I hear from
skilful physicians that the best thing for some tumours is rest.”
Once, when two people were sitting above him at table at a
banquet, and the one next him kept kicking the other with his
foot, he himself kicked him with his knee; and when he turned
round upon him for doing so, he said, “Why then do you
think that your other neighbour is to be treated in this way by
you?”
On one occasion he said to a man who was very fond of
young boys, that “Schoolmasters who were always associating
with boys had no more intellect than the boys themselves.”
He used also to say that the discourses of those men who were
careful to avoid solecisms, and to adhere to the strictest rules
of composition, were like Alexandrine money, they were pleasing
to the eye and well-formed like the coin, but were nothing
the better for that; but those who were not so particular he
likened to the Attic tetradrachmas, which were struck at
random and without any great nicety, and so he said that their
discourses often outweighed the more polished styles of the
others. And when Ariston, his disciple, had been holding
forth a good deal without much wit, but still in some points
with a good deal of readiness and confidence, he said to him,
“It would be impossible for you to speak thus, if your father
had not been drunk when he begat you;” and for the same
reason he nicknamed him the chatterer, as he himself was very
concise in his speeches. Once, when he was in company with
an epicure who usually left nothing for his messmates, and
when a large fish was set before him, he took it all as if he
could eat the whole of it; and when the others looked at him
with astonishment, he said, “What then do you think that
your companions feel every day, if you cannot bear with my
gluttony for one day?”
On one occasion, when a youth was asking him questions
with a pertinacity unsuited to his age, he led him to a looking-glass
and bade him look at himself, and then asked him
whether such questions appeared suitable to the face he saw
there. And when a man said before him once, that in most
points he did not agree with the doctrines of Antisthenes, he
quoted to him an apophthegm of Sophocles, and asked him
whether he thought there was much sense in that, and when he
said that he did not know, “Are you not then ashamed,” said
he, “to pick out and recollect anything bad which may have
been said by Antisthenes, but not to regard or remember whatever
is said that is good?” A man once said, that the sayings
of the philosophers appeared to him very trivial; “You say
true,” replied Zeno, “and their syllables too ought to be short,
if that is possible.” When some one spoke to him of Polemo,
and said that he proposed one question for discussion and then
argued another, he became angry, and said, “At what value
did he estimate the subject that had been proposed?” And
he said that a man who was to discuss a question ought to
have a loud voice and great energy, like the actors, but not to
open his mouth too wide, which those who speak a great deal
but only talk nonsense usually do. And he used to say that
there was no need for those who argued well to leave their
hearers room to look about them, as good workmen do who
want to have their work seen; but that, on the contrary, those
who are listening to them ought to be so attentive to all that
is said as to have no leisure to take notes.
Once when a young man was talking a great deal, he said,
“Your ears have run down into your tongue.” On one occasion
a very handsome man was saying that a wise man did not
appear to him likely to fall in love; “Then,” said he, “I cannot
imagine anything that will be more miserable than you
good-looking fellows.” He also used often to say that most
philosophers were wise in great things, but ignorant of petty
subjects and chance details; and he used to cite the saying of
Caphesius, who, when one of his pupils was labouring hard to
be able to blow very powerfully, gave him a slap, and said,
that excellence did not depend upon greatness, but greatness
on excellence. Once, when a young man was arguing very
confidently, he said, “I should not like to say, O youth, all
that occurs to me.” And once, when a handsome and wealthy
Rhodian, but one who had no other qualification, was pressing
him to take him as a pupil, he, as he was not inclined to receive
him, first of all made him sit on the dusty seats that he
might dirt his cloak, then he put him down in the place of the
poor that he might rub against their rags, and at last the young
man went away. One of his sayings used to be, that vanity
was the most unbecoming of all things, and especially so in the
young. Another was, that one ought not to try and recollect
the exact words and expressions of a discourse, but to fix all
one’s attention on the arrangement of the arguments, instead
of treating it as if it were a piece of boiled meat, or some delicate
eatable. He used also to say that young men ought to
maintain the most scrupulous reserve in their walking, their
gait, and their dress; and he was constantly quoting the lines
of Euripides on Capaneus, that—
His wealth was ample.
But yet no pride did mingle with his state,
Nor had he haughty thought, or arrogance
More than the poorest man.
And one of his sayings used to be, that nothing was more
unfriendly to the comprehension of the accurate sciences than
poetry; and that there was nothing that we stood in so much
need of as time. When he was asked what a friend was, he
replied, “Another I.” They say that he was once scourging
a slave whom he had detected in theft; and when he said to
him, “It was fated that I should steal;” he rejoined, “Yes,
and that you should be beaten.” He used to call beauty the
flower of the voice; but some report this as if he had said that
the voice is the flower of beauty. On one occasion, when he
saw a slave belonging to one of his friends severely bruised,
he said to his friend, “I see the footsteps of your anger.” He
once accosted a man who was all over unguents and perfumes,
“Who is this who smells like a woman?” When Dionysius
Metathemenus asked him why he was the only person whom
he did not correct, he replied, “Because I have no confidence
in you.” A young man was talking a great deal of nonsense,
and he said to him, “This is the reason why we have two ears
and only one mouth, that we may hear more and speak less.”
Once, when he was at an entertainment and remained
wholly silent, he was asked what the reason was; and so he
bade the person who found fault with him tell the king that
there was a man in the room who knew how to hold his tongue;
now the people who asked him this were ambassadors who had
come from Ptolemy, and who wished to know what report they
were to make of him to the king. He was once asked how he
felt when people abused him, and he said, “As an ambassador
feels when he is sent away without an answer.” Apollonius of
Tyre tells us, that when Crates dragged him by the cloak away
from Stilpo, he said, “O Crates, the proper way to take hold
of philosophers is by the ears; so now do you convince me and
drag me by them; but if you use force towards me, my body
may be with you, but my mind with Stilpo.”
XX. He used to devote a good deal of time to Diodorus, as
we learn from Hippobotus; and he studied dialectics under
him. And when he had made a good deal of progress he
attached himself to Polemo because of his freedom from arrogance,
so that it is reported that he said to him, “I am not
ignorant, O Zeno, that you slip into the garden-door and steal
my doctrines, and then clothe them in a Phœnician dress.”
When a dialectician once showed him seven species of dialectic
argument in the mowing argument, he asked him how much
he charged for them, and when he said “A hundred drachmas,”
he gave him two hundred, so exceedingly devoted was he to
learning.
XXI. They say too, that he was the first who ever employed
the word duty (καθῆκον), and who wrote a treatise on
the subject. And that he altered the lines of Hesiod
thus:—
He is the best of all men who submits
To follow good advice; he too is good,
Who of himself perceives whate’er is fit.
For he said that that man who had the capacity to give a
proper hearing to what was said, and to avail himself of it,
was superior to him who comprehended everything by his
own intellect; for that the one had only comprehension, but
the one who took good advice had action also.
XXII. When he was asked why he, who was generally
austere, relaxed at a dinner party, he said, “Lupins too are
bitter, but when they are soaked they become sweet.” And
Hecaton, in the second book of his Apophthegms, says, that
in entertainments of that kind, he used to indulge himself
freely. And he used to say that it was better to trip with
the feet, than with the tongue. And that goodness was
attained by little and little, but was not itself a small thing.
Some authors, however, attribute this saying to Socrates.
XXIII. He was a person of great powers of abstinence
and endurance; and of very simple habits, living on food
which required no fire to dress it, and wearing a thin cloak,
so that it was said of him:—
The cold of winter, and the ceaseless rain,
Come powerless against him; weak is the dart
Of the fierce summer sun, or fell disease,
To bend that iron frame. He stands apart,
In nought resembling the vast common crowd;
But, patient and unwearied, night and day,
Clings to his studies and philosophy.
XXIV. And the comic poets, without intending it, praise
him in their very attempts to turn him into ridicule. Philemon
speaks thus of him in his play entitled the Philosophers:—
This man adopts a new philosophy,
He teaches to be hungry; nevertheless,
He gets disciples. Bread his only food,
His best desert dried figs; water his drink.
But some attribute these lines to Posidippus. And they
have become almost a proverb. Accordingly it used to be
said of him, “More temperate than Zeno the philosopher.”
Posidippus also writes thus in his Men Transported:—
So that for ten whole days he did appear
More temperate than Zeno’s self.
XXV. For in reality he did surpass all men in this description
of virtue, and in dignity of demeanour, and, by Jove, in
happiness. For he lived ninety-eight years, and then died,
without any disease, and continuing in good health to the
last. But Persæus, in his Ethical School, states that he died
at the age of seventy-two, and that he came to Athens when
he was twenty-two years old. But Apollonius says that he
presided over his school for forty-eight years.
XXVI. And he died in the following manner. When he
was going out of his school, he tripped, and broke one of his
toes; and striking the ground with his hand, he repeated the
line out of the Niobe:—
And immediately he strangled himself, and so he died. But the
Athenians buried him in the Ceramicus, and honoured him
with the decrees which I have mentioned before, bearing
witness to his virtue. And Antipater, the Sidonian, wrote an
inscription for him, which runs thus:—
Here Cittium’s pride, wise Zeno, lies, who climb’d
The summits of Olympus; but unmoved
By wicked thoughts ne’er strove to raise on Ossa
The pine-clad Pelion; nor did he emulate
Th’ immortal toils of Hercules; but found
A new way for himself to th’ highest heaven,
By virtue, temperance, and modesty.
And Zenodotus, the Stoic, a disciple of Diogenes, wrote
another:—
You made contentment the chief rule of life,
Despising haughty wealth, O God-like Zeno.
With solemn look, and hoary brow serene,
You taught a manly doctrine; and didst found
By your deep wisdom, a great novel school,
Chaste parent of unfearing liberty.
And if your country was Phœnicia,
Why need we grieve, from that land Cadmus came,
Who gave to Greece her written books of wisdom.
And Athenæus, the Epigrammatic poet, speaks thus of all
the Stoics in common:—
O, ye who’ve learnt the doctrines of the Porch,
And have committed to your books divine
The best of human learning; teaching men
That the mind’s virtue is the only good.
And she it is who keeps the lives of men,
And cities, safer than high gates or walls.
But those who place their happiness in pleasure,
Are led by the least worthy of the Muses.
And we also have ourselves spoken of the manner of Zeno’s
death, in our collection of poems in all metres, in the following
terms:—
Some say that Zeno, pride of Cittium,
Died of old age, when weak and quite worn out;
Some say that famine’s cruel tooth did slay him;
Some that he fell, and striking hard the ground,
Said, “See, I come, why call me thus impatiently?”
For some say that this was the way in which he died. And
this is enough to say concerning his death.
XXVII. But Demetrius, the Magnesian, says, in his essay
on People of the Same Name, that his father Mnaseas often
came to Athens, as he was a merchant, and that he used to
bring back many of the books of the Socratic philosophers, to
Zeno, while he was still only a boy; and that, from this circumstance,
Zeno had already become talked of in his own
country; and that in consequence of this he went to Athens,
where he attached himself to Crates. And it seems, he adds,
that it was he who first recommended a clear enunciation of
principles, as the best remedy for error. He is said, too, to
have been in the habit of swearing “By Capers,” as Socrates
swore “By the Dog.”
XXVIII. Some, indeed, among whom is Cassius the
Sceptic, attack Zeno on many accounts, saying first of all that
he denounced the general system of education in vogue at the
time, as useless, which he did in the beginning of his Republic.
And in the second place, that he used to call all who were not
virtuous, adversaries, and enemies, and slaves, and unfriendly
to one another, parents to their children, brethren to brethren,
and kinsmen to kinsmen; and again, that in his Republic, he
speaks of the virtuous as the only citizens, and friends, and
relations, and free men, so that in the doctrine of the Stoic,
even parents and their children are enemies; for they are
not wise. Also, that he lays down the principle of the community
of women both in his Republic and in a poem of two
hundred verses, and teaches that neither temples nor courts of
law, nor gymnasia, ought to be erected in a city; moreover,
that he writes thus about money, “That he does not think
that men ought to coin money either for purposes of traffic, or
of travelling.” Besides all this, he enjoins men and women
to wear the same dress, and to leave no part of their person
uncovered.
XXIX. And that this treatise on the Republic is his work
we are assured by Chrysippus, in his Republic. He also discussed
amatory subjects in the beginning of that book of his
which is entitled the Art of Love. And in his Conversations
he writes in a similar manner.
Such are the charges made against him by Cassius, and also
by Isidorus, of Pergamus, the orator, who says that all the
unbecoming doctrines and assertions of the Stoics were cut
out of their books by Athenodorus, the Stoic, who was the
curator of the library at Pergamus. And that subsequently
they were replaced, as Athenodorus was detected, and placed
in a situation of great danger; and this is sufficient to say
about those doctrines of his which were impugned.
XXX. There were eight different persons of the name of
Zeno. The first was the Eleatic, whom we shall mention
hereafter; the second was this man of whom we are now
speaking; the third was a Rhodian, who wrote a history of
his country in one book; the fourth was a historian who wrote
an account of the expedition of Pyrrhus into Italy and Sicily;
and also an epitome of the transactions between the Romans
and Carthaginians; the fifth was a disciple of Chrysippus,
who wrote very few books, but who left a great number of
disciples; the sixth was a physician of Herophila, a very
shrewd man in intellect, but a very indifferent writer; the
seventh was a grammarian, who, besides other writings, has
left some epigrams behind him; the eighth was a Sidonian by
descent, a philosopher of the Epicurean school, a deep thinker,
and very clear writer.
XXXI. The disciples of Zeno were very numerous. The
most eminent were, first of all, Persæus, of Cittium, the son of
Demetrius, whom some call a friend of his, but others describe
him as a servant and one of the amanuenses who were sent to
him by Antigonus, to whose son, Halcyoneus, he also acted as
tutor. And Antigonus once, wishing to make trial of him,
caused some false news to be brought to him that his estate
had been ravaged by the enemy; and as he began to look
gloomy at this news, he said to him, “You see that wealth is
not a matter of indifference.”
The following works are attributed to him. One on Kingly
Power; one entitled the Constitution of the Lacedæmonians;
one on Marriage; one on Impiety; the Thyestes; an Essay
on Love; a volume of Exhortations; one of Conversations;
four of Apophthegms; one of Reminiscences; seven treatises,
the Laws of Plato.
The next was Ariston, of Chios, the son of Miltiades, who
was the first author of the doctrine of indifference; then
Herillus, who called knowledge the chief good; then Dionysius,
who transferred this description to pleasure; as, on
account of the violent disease which he had in his eyes, he
could not yet bring himself to call pain a thing indifferent.
He was a native of Heraclea; there was also Sphærus, of the
Bosphorus; and Cleanthes, of Assos, the son of Phanias, who
succeeded him in his school, and whom he used to liken to
tablets of hard wax, which are written upon with difficulty, but
which retain what is written upon them. And after Zeno’s
death, Sphærus became a pupil of Cleanthes. And we shall
speak of him in our account of Cleanthes.
These also were all disciples of Zeno, as we are told by
Hippobotus, namely:—Philonides, of Thebes; Callippus, of
Corinth; Posidonius, of Alexandria; Athenodorus, of Soli;
and Zeno, a Sidonian.
XXXII. And I have thought it best to give a general
account of all the Stoic doctrines in the life of Zeno, because
he it was who was the founder of the sect.
He has written a great many books, of which I have already
given a list, in which he has spoken as no other of the Stoics
has. And his doctrines in general are these. But we will
enumerate them briefly, as we have been in the habit of doing
in the case of the other philosophers.
XXXIII. The Stoics divide reason according to philosophy,
into three parts; and say that one part relates to natural
philosophy, one to ethics, and one to logic. And Zeno, the
Cittiæan, was the first who made this division, in his treatise
on Reason; and he was followed in it by Chrysippus, in the
first book of his treatise on Reason, and in the first book of
his treatise on Natural Philosophy; and also by Apollodorus;
and by Syllus, in the first book of his Introduction to the
Doctrines of the Stoics; and by Eudromus, in his Ethical
Elements; and by Diogenes, the Babylonian; and Posidonius.
Now these divisions are called topics by Apollodorus, species
by Chrysippus and Eudromus, and genera by all the rest.
And they compare philosophy to an animal, likening logic to
the bones and sinews, natural philosophy to the fleshy parts,
and ethical philosophy to the soul. Again, they compare it to
an egg; calling logic the shell, and ethics the white, and
natural philosophy the yolk. Also to a fertile field; in which
logic is the fence which goes round it, ethics are the fruit, and
natural philosophy the soil, or the fruit-trees. Again, they
compare it to a city fortified by walls, and regulated by reason;
and then, as some of them say, no one part is preferred to
another, but they are all combined and united inseparably;
and so they treat of them all in combination. But others
class logic first, natural philosophy second, and ethics third;
as Zeno does in his treatise on Reason, and in this he is
followed by Chrysippus, and Archedemus, and Eudromus.
For Diogenes of Ptolemais begins with ethics; but Apollodorus
places ethics second; and Panætius and Posidonius
begin with natural philosophy, as Phanias, the friend of
Posidonius asserts, in the first book of his treatise on the
School of Posidonius.
But Cleanthes says, that there are six divisions of reason
according to philosophy: dialectics, rhetoric, ethics, politics,
physics, and theology; but others assert that these are not
divisions of reason, but of philosophy itself; and this is the
opinion advanced by Zeno, of Tarsus, among others.
XXXIV. Some again say, that the logical division is
properly subdivided into two sciences, namely, rhetoric and
dialectics; and some divide it also into definitive species,
which is conversant with rules and tests; while others deny the
propriety of this last division altogether, and argue that the
object of rules and tests is the discovery of the truth; for it
is in this division that they explain the differences of representations.
They also argue that, on the other side, the science
of definitions has equally for its object the discovery of truth,
since we only know things by the intervention of ideas. They
also call rhetoric a science conversant about speaking well
concerning matters which admit of a detailed narrative; and
dialectics they call the science of arguing correctly in discussions
which can be carried on by question and answer; on
which account they define it thus: a knowledge of what is
true, and false, and neither one thing nor the other.
Again, rhetoric itself they divide into three kinds; for one
description they say is concerning about giving advice, another
is forensic, and the third encomiastic; and it is also divided
into several parts, one relating to the discovery of arguments,
one to style, one to the arrangement of arguments, and the
other to the delivery of the speech. And a rhetorical oration
they divide into the exordium, the narration, the reply to the
statements of the adverse party, and the peroration.
XXXV. Dialectics, they say, is divided into two parts; one
of which has reference to the things signified, the other to the
expression. That which has reference to the things signified
or spoken of, they divide again into the topic of things conceived
in the fancy, and into those of axioms, of perfect
determinations, of predicaments, of things alike, whether
upright or prostrate, of tropes, of syllogisms, and of sophisms,
which are derived either from the voice or from the things. And
these sophisms are of various kinds; there is the false one,
the one which states facts, the negative, the sorites, and others
like these; the imperfect one, the inexplicable one, the conclusive
one, the veiled one, the horned one, the nobody, and
the mower.
In the second part of dialectics, that which has for its object
the expression, they treat of written language, of the different
parts of a discourse, of solecism and barbarism, of poetical
forms of expression, of ambiguity, of a melodious voice, of
music; and some even add definitions, divisions, and diction.
They say that the most useful of these parts is the consideration
of syllogisms; for that they show us what are the
things which are capable of demonstration, and that contributes
much to the formation of our judgment, and their arrangement
and memory give a scientific character to our knowledge.
They define reasoning to be a system composed of assumptions
and conclusions: and syllogism is a syllogistic argument proceeding
on them. Demonstration they define to be a method
by which one proceeds from that which is more known to that
which is less. Perception, again, is an impression produced on
the mind, its name being appropriately borrowed from impressions
on wax made by a seal; and perception they divide into
comprehensible and incomprehensible: Comprehensible, which
they call the criterion of facts, and which is produced by a real
object, and is, therefore, at the same time conformable to that
object; Incomprehensible, which has no relation to any real
object, or else, if it has any such relation, does not correspond
to it, being but a vague and indistinct representation.
Dialectics itself they pronounce to be a necessary science,
and a virtue which comprehends several other virtues under
its species. And the disposition not to take up one side of
an argument hastily, they defined to be a knowledge by which
we are taught when we ought to agree to a statement, and
when we ought to withhold our agreement. Discretion they
consider to be a powerful reason, having reference to what is
becoming, so as to prevent our yielding to an irrelevant argument.
Irrefutability they define to be a power in an argument,
which prevents one from being drawn from it to its opposite.
Freedom from vanity, according to them, is a habit which
refers the perceptions back to right reason.
Again, they define knowledge itself as an assertion or
safe comprehension, or habit, which, in the perception of what
is seen, never deviates from the truth. And they say further,
that without dialectic speculation, the wise man cannot
be free from all error in his reasoning. For that that is
what distinguishes what is true from what is false, and which
easily detects those arguments which are only plausible, and
those which depend upon an ambiguity of language. And
without dialectics they say it is not possible to ask or answer
questions correctly. They also add, that precipitation in
denials extends to those things which are done, so that those
who have not properly exercised their perceptions fall into
irregularity and thoughtlessness. Again, without dialectics,
the wise man cannot be acute, and ingenious, and wary, and
altogether dangerous as an arguer. For that it belongs to the
same man to speak correctly and to reason correctly, and to
discuss properly those subjects which are proposed to him, and
to answer readily whatever questions are put to him, all which
qualities belong to a man who is skilful in dialectics. This
then is a brief summary of their opinions on logic.
XXXVI. And, that we may also enter into some more
minute details respecting them, we will subjoin what refers to
what they call their introductory science, as it is stated by
Diocles, of Magnesia, in his Excursion of Philosophers,
where he speaks as follows, and we will give his account word
for word.
The Stoics have chosen to treat, in the first place, of perception
and sensation, because the criterion by which the truth of
facts is ascertained is a kind of perception, and because the
judgment which expresses the belief, and the comprehension,
and the understanding of a thing, a judgment which precedes
all others, cannot exist without perception. For perception
leads the way; and then thought, finding vent in expressions,
explains in words the feelings which it derives from perception.
But there is a difference between φαντασία and φάντασμα.
For φάντασμα is a conception of the intellect, such as takes
place in sleep; but φαντασία is an impression, τύπωσις, produced
on the mind, that is to say, an alteration, ἀλλοίωσις, as
Chrysippus states in the twelfth book of his treatise on the
Soul. For we must not take this impression to resemble that
made by a seal, since it is impossible to conceive that there
should be many impressions made at the same time on the
same thing. But φαντασία is understood to be that which is impressed,
and formed, and imprinted by a real object, according
to a real object, in such a way as it could not be by any other
than a real object; and, according to their ideas of the
φαντασίαι, some are sensible, and some are not. Those they
call sensible, which are derived by us from some one or more
senses; and those they call not sensible, which emanate
directly from the thought, as for instance, those which relate to
incorporeal objects, or any others which are embraced by
reason. Again, those which are sensible, are produced by a
real object, which imposes itself on the intelligence, and compels
its acquiescence; and there are also some others, which are
simply apparent, mere shadows, which resemble those which
are produced by real objects.
Again, these φαντασίαι are divided into rational and irrational;
those which are rational belong to animals capable of
reason; those which are irrational to animals destitute of
reason. Those which are rational are thoughts; those which
are irrational have no name; but are again subdivided into
artificial and not artificial. At all events, an image is contemplated
in a different light by a man skilful in art, from that
in which it is viewed by a man ignorant of art.
By sensation, the Stoics understand a species of breath
which proceeds from the dominant portion of the soul to the
senses, whether it be a sensible perception, or an organic disposition,
which, according to the notions of some of them, is
crippled and vicious. They also call sensation the energy,
or active exercise, of the sense. According to them, it is to
sensation that we owe our comprehension of white and black,
and rough and smooth: from reason, that we derive the
notions which result from a demonstration, those for instance
which have for their object the existence of Gods, and of
Divine Providence. For all our thoughts are formed either
by indirect perception, or by similarity, or analogy, or transposition,
or combination, or opposition. By a direct perception,
we perceive those things which are the objects of sense;
by similarity, those which start from some point present to
our senses; as, for instance, we form an idea of Socrates from
his likeness. We draw our conclusions by analogy, adopting
either an increased idea of the thing, as of Tityus, or the
Cyclops; or a diminished idea, as of a pigmy. So, too, the
idea of the centre of the world was one derived by analogy
from what we perceived to be the case of the smaller
spheres. We use transposition when we fancy eyes in a man’s
breast; combination, when we take in the idea of a Centaur;
opposition, when we turn our thoughts to death. Some ideas
we also derive from comparison, for instance, from a comparison
of words and places.
There is also nature; as by nature we comprehend what is
just and good. And privation, when for instance, we form a
notion of a man without hands. Such are the doctrines of
the Stoics, on the subject of phantasia, and sensation, and
thought.
XXXVII. They say that the proper criterion of truth is
the comprehension, φαντασία; that is to say, one which is
derived from a real object, as Chrysippus asserts in the twelfth
book of his Physics; and he is followed by Antipater and
Apollodorus. For Boethus leaves a great many criteria,
such as intellect, sensation, appetite, and knowledge; but
Chrysippus dissents from his view, and in the first book of
his treatise on Reason, says, that sensation and preconception
are the only criteria. And preconception is, according
to him, a comprehensive physical notion of general principles.
But others of the earlier Stoics admit right reason as one
criterion of the truth; for instance, this is the opinion of
Posidonius, and is advanced by him in his essay on Criteria.
XXXVIII. On the subject of logical speculation, there
appears to be a great unanimity among the greater part of the
Stoics, in beginning with the topic of the voice. Now voice
is a percussion of the air; or, as Diogenes, the Babylonian,
defines it, in his essay on the Voice, a sensation peculiar to
the hearing. The voice of a beast is a mere percussion of
the air by some impetus: but the voice of a man is articulate,
and is emitted by intellect, as Diogenes lays it down, and is
not brought to perfection in a shorter period than fourteen
years. And the voice is a body according to the Stoics; for
so it is laid down by Archedemus, in his book on the Voice,
and by Diogenes, and Antipater, and also by Chrysippus, in
the second volume of his Physics. For everything which
makes anything, is a body; and the voice makes something
when it proceeds to those who hear from those who speak.
A word (λέξις), again, is, according to Diogenes, a voice
consisting of letters, as “Day.” A sentence (λόγος) is a
significant voice, sent out by the intellect, as for instance, “It
is day;” but dialect is a peculiar style imprinted on the
utterance of nations, according to their race; and causes
varieties in the Greek language, being a sort of local habit, as
for instance, the Attics say θάλαττα, and the Ionians say
ἡμέρη. The elements of words are the twenty-four letters;
and the word letter is used in a triple division of sense,
meaning the element itself, the graphical sign of the element,
and the name, as Alpha. There are seven vowels, α, ε, η, ι,
ο, υ, ω; six mutes, β, γ, δ, κ, π, τ. But voice is different from
a word, because voice is a sound; but a word is an articulate
sound. And a word differs from a sentence, because a sentence
is always significative of something, but a word by itself
has no signification, as for instance, βλίτρι. But this is not
the case with a sentence. Again, there is a difference between
speaking and pronouncing; the sounds are pronounced, but
what are spoken are things which are capable of being spoken
of.
XXXIX. Now of sentences there are five parts, as Diogenes
tells us in his treatise on Voice; and he is followed by
Chrysippus. There is the noun, the common noun, the verb,
the conjunction, and the article. Antipater adds also quality,
in his treatise upon Words and the things expressed by them.
And a common noun (προσηγορία) is, according to Diogenes, a
part of a sentence signifying a common quality, as for instance,
man, horse. But a noun is a part of a sentence signifying a
peculiar quality, such as Diogenes, Socrates. A verb is a part
of a sentence signifying an uncombined categorem, as Diogenes
(ὁ Διογένης) or, as others define it, an element of a sentence,
devoid of case, signifying something compound in reference to
some person or persons, as, “I write,” “I say.” A conjunction
is a part of a sentence destitute of case, uniting the divisions
of the sentence. An article is an element of a sentence,
having cases, defining the genders of nouns and their numbers,
as ὁ, ἡ, τὸ, οἱ, αἱ, τὰ.
XL. The excellences of a sentence are five,—good Greek,
clearness, conciseness, suitableness, elegance. Good Greek
(Ἑλληνισμὸς) is a correct style, according to art, keeping aloof
from any vulgar form of expression; clearness is a style which
states that which is conceived in the mind in such a way that
it is easily known; conciseness is a style which embraces all
that is necessary to the clear explanation of the subject under
discussion; suitableness is a style suited to the subject;
elegance is a style which avoids all peculiarity of expression.
Of the vices of a sentence, on the other hand, barbarism is a
use of words contrary to that in vogue among the well-educated
Greeks; solecism is a sentence incongruously put together.
XLI. A poetical expression is, as Posidonius defines it in
his introduction on Style, “A metrical or rhythmical diction,
proceeding in preparation, and avoiding all resemblance to
prose.” For instance, “The vast and boundless earth,”
“Th’ expanse of heaven,” are rhythmical expressions; and
poetry is a collection of poetical expressions signifying something,
containing an imitation of divine and human beings.
XLII. A definition is, as Antipater explains it in the first
book of his treatise on Definitions, a sentence proceeding by
analysis enunciated in such a way as to give a complete idea;
or, as Chrysippus says in his treatise on Definitions, it is the
explanation of an idea. Description is a sentence which, in a
figurative manner, brings one to a knowledge of the subject, or
it may be called a simpler kind of definition, expressing the
power of a definition in plainer language. Genus is a comprehending
of many ideas indissolubly connected, as animal;
for this one expression comprehends all particular kinds of
animals. An idea is an imagination of the mind which does
not express actually anything real, or any quality, but only a
quasi reality and a quasi quality; such, for instance, is the idea
of a horse when a horse is not present. Species is that which
is comprehended under genus, as man is comprehended under
animal.
Again, that is the most general genus which, being a genus
itself, has no other genus, as the existent. And that is the
most special species, which being a species has no other species,
as, for instance, Socrates.
XLIII. The division of genus is a dissection of it into the
proximate species; as, for instance, “Of animals, some are
rational, others irrational.” Contrary division is the dissection
of genus into species on the principle of the contrary; so as to
be by a sort of negation; as, for instance, “Of existent things,
some are good and some not good;” and, “Of things which are
not good, some are bad and some indifferent.” Partition is an
arrangement of a genus with reference to place, as Crinis says,
for instance, “Of goods, some have reference to the mind and
some to the body.”
XLIV. Ambiguity (ἀμφιβολία) is an expression signifying
two or more things having an ordinary or a peculiar meaning,
according to the pronunciation, in such a way that more things
than one may be understood by the very same expression.
Take, for instance, the words αὐλητρὶς πέπτωκε. For you may
understand by them, a house has fallen down three times
(αὐλὴ τρὶς πέπτωκε), or, a female flute-player has fallen, taking
αὐλητρὶς as synonymous with αὐλητρία.
LV. Dialectics are, as Posidonius explains them, the science
of what is true and false, and neither one or the other, and it is,
as Chrysippus explains it, conversant about words that signify and
things that are signified; these then are the doctrines asserted
by the Stoics in their speculations on the subject of the voice.
XLVI. But in that part of dialectics which concerns things
and ideas signified, they treat of propositions, of perfect enunciations,
of judgments, of syllogisms, of imperfect enunciations,
of attributes and deficiencies, and of both direct and
indirect categorems or predicaments.
XLVII. And they say that enunciation is the manifestation
of the ideal perception; and these enunciations the Stoics pronounce
some to be perfect in themselves, and some to be defective;
now those are defective, which furnish an incomplete sense,
as for instance, “He writes.” For then we ask further, “Who
writes?” But those are perfect in themselves, which give a
sense entirely complete, as for instance, “Socrates writes.”
Accordingly, in the defective enunciations, categorems are
applied; but in those which are perfect in themselves, axioms,
and syllogisms, and questions, and interrogations, are brought
into play. Now a categorem is something which is predicated
of something else, being either a thing which is added to one
or more objects, according to the definition of Apollodorus, or
else a defective enunciation added to the nominative case, for
the purpose of forming a proposition.
Now of categorems, some are accidents … as for instance,
“The sailing through a rock.” … And of categorems,
some are direct, some indirect, and some neither one
nor the other. Now those are correct, which are construed
with one of the oblique cases, in such a manner as to produce
a categorem, as for instance, “He hears, he sees, he converses.”
And those are indirect, which are construed with
the passive voice, as for instance, “I am heard, I am seen.”
And those which are neither one nor the other, are those which
are construed in a neutral kind of manner, as for instance,
“To think, to walk.” And those are reciprocal, which are
among the indirect ones, without being indirect themselves.
Those are effects, ἐνεργήματα, which are such words as, “He
is shaved;” for then, the man who is shaved, implies himself.
The oblique cases, are the genitive, the dative, and the
accusative.
XLVIII. An axiom, is that thing which is true, or false, or
perfect in itself, being asserted, or denied positively, as far as
depends upon itself; as Chrysippus explains it in his Dialectic
Definitions; as for instance, “It is day,” “Dion is walking.”
And it has received the name of axiom, ἀξίωμα, because it is
either maintained, ἀξιοῦται, or repudiated. For the man who
says, “It is day,” appears to maintain the fact of its being
day. If then it is day, the axiom put before one is true; but
if it is not day, the axiom is false. And an axiom, a question,
and an interrogation, differ from one another, and so does an
imperative proposition from one which is adjurative, or imprecatory,
or hypothetical, or appellative, or false. For that is
an axiom which we utter, when we affirm anything positively,
which is either true or false. And a question is a thing complete
in itself, as also is an axiom, but which requires an
answer, as for instance, “Is it day?” Now this is neither
true nor false; but, as “It is day” is an axiom; so is, “Is it
day?” a question. But an interrogation, πύσμα, is a thing
to which it is not possible to make an answer symbolically, as
in the case of a question, ἐρώτημα, saying merely “Yes,” but
we must reply, “He does live in this place.”
The imperative proposition is a thing which we utter when
we give an order, as for instance this:—
Do you now go to the sweet stream of Inachus.
…
The appellative proposition is one which is used in the
case in which, when a man says anything, he must address
somebody, as for instance:—
Atrides, glorious king of men,
Most mighty Agamemnon.
A false judgment is a proposition, which, while it has at the
same time the appearance of a real judgment, loses this
character by the addition, and under the influence of, some
particle, as for instance:
The Parthenon at least is beautiful.
How like the herdsman is to Priam’s sons.
There is also the dubitative proposition, which differs from
the judgment, inasmuch as it is always uttered in the form of
a doubt; as for instance:—
Are not, then, grief and life two kindred states?
But questions, and interrogations, and things like these,
are neither true nor false, while judgments and propositions
are necessarily one or the other.
Now of axioms, some are simple, and others are not simple;
as Chrysippus, and Archedemus, and Athenodorus, and Antipater,
and Crinis, agree in dividing them. Those are simple,
which consist of an axiom or proposition, which is not ambiguous,
(or of several axioms, or propositions of the same
character,) as for instance the sentence, “It is day.” And
those are not simple, which consist of an axiom or proposition
which is ambiguous, or of several axioms or propositions of
that character. Of an axiom, or proposition, which is ambiguous,
as “If it is day;” of several axioms, or propositions
of that character, as, “If it is day, it is light.”
And simple propositions are divided into the affirmative,
the negative, the privative, the categorical, the definite, and
the indefinite; those which are not simple, are divided into
the combined, and the adjunctive, the connected and the disjunctive,
and the causal and the augmentative, and the diminutive.
That is an affirmative proposition, “It is not day.”
And the species of this is doubly affirmative. That again is
doubly affirmative, which is affirmative of an affirmative, as
for instance, “It is not not day;” for this amounts to, “It is
day.” That is a negative proposition, which consists of a
negative particle and a categorem, as for instance, “No one is
walking.” That is a privative proposition which consists of a
privative particle and an axiom according to power, as “This
man is inhuman.” That is a categorical proposition, which
consists of a nominative case and a categorem, as for instance,
“Dion is walking.” That is a definite proposition,
which consists of a demonstrative nominative case and a
categorem, as for instance, “This man is walking.” That is
an indefinite one which consists of an indefinite particle, or
of indefinite particles, as for instance, “Somebody is walking,”
“He is moving.”
Of propositions which are not simple, the combined proposition
is, as Chrysippus states, in his Dialectics, and Diogenes,
too, in his Dialectic Art; that which is held together by the
copulative conjunction “if.” And this conjunction professes
that the second member of the sentence follows the first, as
for instance, “If it is day, it is light.” That which is adjunctive
is, as Crinis states in his Dialectic Art, an axiom which is
made to depend on the conjunction “since” (ἐπεὶ), beginning
with an axiom and ending in an axiom, as for instance, “Since
it is day, it is light.” And this conjunction professes both that
the second portion of the proposition follows the first, and
the first is true. That is a connected proposition which is
connected by some copulative conjunctions, as for instance,
“It both is day, and it is light.” That is a disjunctive proposition
which is disconnected by the disjunctive conjunction,
“or” (ἤτοι), as for instance, “It is either day or night.” And
this proposition professes that one or other of these propositions
is false. That is a causal proposition which is connected
by the word, “because;” as for instance, “Because it is day, it
is light.” For the first is, as it were, the cause of the second.
That is an augmentative proposition, which explains the
greater, which is construed with an augmentative particle,
and which is placed between the two members of the proposition,
as for instance, “It is rather day than night.” The
diminutive proposition is, in every respect, the exact contrary
of the preceding one; as for instance, “It is less night than
day.” Again, at times, axioms or propositions are opposed to
one another in respect of their truth and falsehood, when one
is an express denial of the other; as for instance, “It is day,”
and, “It is not day.”
Again, a conjunctive proposition is correct, when it is such
that the opposite of the conclusion is contradictory of the
premiss; as for instance, the proposition, “If it is day, it is
light,” is true; for, “It is not light,” which is the opposite to
the conclusion expressed, is contradictory to the premiss, “It
is day.” And a conjunctive proposition is incorrect, when it
is such that the opposite of the conclusion is not inconsistent
with the premiss, as for instance, “If it is day, Dion is walking.”
For the fact that Dion is not walking, is not contradictory
of the premiss, “It is day.”
An adjunctive proposition is correct, which begins with a
true premiss, and ends in a consequence which follows of
necessity, as for instance, “Since it is day, the sun is above
the earth.” But it is incorrect when it either begins with a
false premiss, or ends with a consequence which does not follow
properly; as for instance, “Since it is night, Dion is
walking,” for this may be said in the day-time.
A causal proposition is correct, when it begins with a true
premiss, and ends in a consequence which necessarily follows
from it, but yet does not have its premiss reciprocally consequent
upon its conclusion; as for instance, “Because it is
day, it is light.” For the fact of its being light, is a necessary
consequence of its being day; but the fact of its being
day, is not necessarily a consequence of its being light. A
causal proposition is incorrect, which either begins with a false
premiss, or ends with a conclusion that does not follow from
it, or which has a premiss which does not correspond to the
conclusion; as for instance, “Because it is night, Dion is
walking.”
A proposition is persuasive, which leads to the assent of
the mind, as for instance, “If she brought him forth, she is
his mother.” But still this is a falsehood, for a hen is not
the mother of an egg. Again, there are some propositions
which are possible, and some which are impossible; and some
which are necessary, and some which are not necessary. That
is possible, which is capable of being true, since external circumstances
are no hindrance to its being true; as for instance,
“Diocles lives.” And that is impossible which is not capable
of being true; as for instance, “The earth flies.” That is
necessary which, being true, is not capable of being false; or
perhaps is intrinsically capable of being false, but still has external
circumstances which hinder its being false, as for
instance, “Virtue profits a man.” That again, is not necessary,
which is true, but which has a capacity of being false,
though external circumstances offer no hindrance to either
alternative; as for instance, “Dion walks.”
That is a reasonable or probable proposition, which has a
great preponderance of opportunities in favour of its being
true; as for instance, “I shall be alive to-morrow.” And
there are other different kinds of propositions and conversions
of them, from true to false, and re-conversions again; concerning
which we must speak at some length.
XLIX. An argument, as Crinis says, is that which is composed
of a lemma or major premiss, an assumption or minor
premiss, and a conclusion; as for instance this, “If it is day,
it is light;” “But it is day, therefore it is light.” For the
lemma, or major premiss, is, “If it is day, it is light.” The
assumption, or minor premiss, is, “It is day.” The conclusion
follows, “Therefore it is light.” The mode of a proposition
is, as it were, a figure of an argument, as for instance, such as
this, “If it is the first, it is the second; but it is the first,
therefore it is the second.”
A conditional syllogism is that which is composed of both
the preceding arguments; as for instance, “If Plato is alive,
Plato breathes; but the first fact is so, therefore so is the
second.” And this conditional syllogism has been introduced
for the sake, in long and complex sentences, of not being
forced to repeat the assumption, as it was a long one, and also
the conclusion; but of being able, instead, to content one’s
self with summing it up briefly thus, “The first case put is
true, therefore so is the second.”
Of arguments, some are conclusive, others are inconclusive.
Those are inconclusive which are such, that the opposite of
the conclusion drawn in them is not necessarily incompatible
with the connection of the premisses. As for instance, such
arguments as these, “If it is day, it is light; but it is day,
therefore, Dion is walking.” But of conclusive arguments,
some are called properly by the kindred name conclusions,
and some are called syllogistic arguments. Those then are
syllogistic which are either such as do not admit of demonstration,
or such as are brought to an indemonstrable conclusion,
according to some one or more propositions; such for instance
as the following: “If Dion walks, then Dion is in motion.”
Those are conclusive, which infer their conclusion specially,
and not syllogistically; such for instance, as this, “The
proposition it is both day and night is false. Now it is day;
therefore, it is not night.”
Those again, are unsyllogistic arguments which have an air
of probability about them, and a resemblance to syllogistic
ones, but which still do not lead to the deduction of proper
conclusions. As for instance, “If Dion is a horse, Dion is an
animal; but Dion is not a horse, therefore, Dion is not an
animal.”
Again, of arguments, some are true, and some are false.
Those are true which deduce a conclusion from true premisses,
as, for instance, “If virtue profits, then vice injures.” And
those are false which have some falsehood in their premisses,
or which are inconclusive; as, for instance, “If it is day, it is
light; but it is day, therefore, Dion is alive.”
There are also arguments which are possible, and others
which are impossible; some likewise which are necessary, and
others which are not necessary. There are too, some which
are not demonstrated from their not standing in need of
demonstration, and these are laid down differently by different
people; but Chrysippus enumerates five kinds, which serve as
the foundation for every kind of argument; and which are
assumed in conclusive arguments properly so called, and in
syllogisms, and in modes.
The first kind that is not demonstrated, is that in which the
whole argument consists of a conjunctive and an antecedent;
and in which the first term repeats itself so as to form a sort
of conjunctive proposition, and to bring forward as the conclusion
the last term. As, for instance, “If the first be true, so
is the second; but the first is true, therefore, so is the second.”
The second kind that is not demonstrated, is that which, by
means of the conjunctive and the opposite of the conclusion,
has a conclusion opposite to the first premiss. As, for instance,
“If it be day, it is light; but it is night, therefore it is not
day.” For here the assumption arises from the opposite of
the conclusion, and the conclusion from the opposite of the
first term. The third kind that is not demonstrative, is that
which, by a negative combination, and by one of the terms in
the proposition, produces the contradictory of the remainder;
as, for instance, “Plato is not dead and alive at the same
time but Plato is dead; therefore, Plato is not alive.” The
fourth kind that is not demonstrative, is that which, by
means of a disjunctive, and one of those terms which are in
the disjunctive, has a conclusion opposite to what remains;
as, for instance, “It is either the first, or the second; but it
is the first; therefore, it is not the second.” The fifth kind
that is not demonstrative, is that in which the whole argument
consists of a disjunctive proposition, and the opposite of one of
the terms, and then one makes the conclusion identical with
the remainder; as, for instance, “It is either day or night;
but it is not night; therefore it is day.”
According to the Stoics, truth follows upon truth, as “It is
light,” follows upon “It is day.” And falsehood follows upon
falsehood; as, “If it is false that it is night, it is also false that
it is dark.” Sometimes too, truth follows from falsehood; for
instance, though it is false that “the earth flies,” it is true
that “there is the earth.” But falsehood does never follow
from truth; for, from the fact that “there is the earth,” it
does not follow “that the earth flies.”
There are also some arguments which are perplexed, being
veiled and escaping notice; or such as are called sorites, the
horned one, or the nobody. That is a veiled argument which
resembles the following one; “two are not a few, nor three,
nor those, nor four, and so on to ten; but two are few; therefore,
so are ten few.”
The nobody is a conjunctive argument, and one that consists
of the indefinite and the definite, and which has a minor premiss
and a conclusion; as, for instance, “If any one is here,
he is not in Rhodes.”
L. Such then are the doctrines which the Stoics maintain
on the subject of logic, in order as far as possible to establish
their point that the logician is the only wise man. For they
assert that all affairs are looked at by means of that speculation
which proceeds by argument, including under this assertion
both those that belong to natural and also those which belong
to moral philosophy: for, say they, how else could one determine
the exact value of nouns, or how else could one explain
what laws are imposed upon such and such actions? Moreover,
as there are two habits both incidental to virtue, the one
considers what each existing thing is, and the other inquires
what it is called. These then are the notions of the Stoics on
the subject of logic.
LI. The ethical part of philosophy they divide into the topic
of inclination, the topic of good and bad, the topic of the
passions, the topic of virtue, the topic of the chief good, and
of primary estimation, and of actions; the topic of what things
are becoming, and of exhortation and dissuasion. And this
division is the one laid down by Chrysippus, and Archedemus,
and Zeno, of Tarsus, and Apollodorus, and Diogenes, and
Antipater, and Posidonius. For Zeno, of Cittium, and Cleanthes,
have, as being more ancient they were likely to, adopted
a more simple method of treating these subjects. But these
men divided logical and the natural philosophy.
LII. They say that the first inclination which an animal
has is to protect itself, as nature brings herself to take an
interest in it from the beginning, as Chrysippus affirms in the
first book of his treatise on Ends; where he says, that the
first and dearest object to every animal is its own existence,
and its consciousness of that existence. For that it is not
natural for any animal to be alienated from itself, or even to
be brought into such a state as to be indifferent to itself, being
neither alienated from nor interested in itself. It remains,
therefore, that we must assert that nature has bound the
animal to itself by the greatest unanimity and affection;
for by that means it repels all that is injurious, and attracts
all that is akin to it and desirable. But as for what some
people say, that the first inclination of animals is to
pleasure, they say what is false. For they say that pleasure,
if there be any such thing at all, is an accessory only, which,
nature, having sought it out by itself, as well as those things
which are adapted to its constitution, receives incidentally in
the same manner as animals are pleased, and plants made to
flourish.
Moreover, say they, nature makes no difference between
animals and plants, when she regulates them so as to leave
them without voluntary motion or sense; and some things too
take place in ourselves in the same manner as in plants. But,
as inclination in animals tends chiefly to the point of making
them pursue what is appropriate to them, we may say that
their inclinations are regulated by nature. And as reason is
given to rational animals according to a more perfect principle,
it follows, that to live correctly according to reason, is properly
predicated of those who live according to nature. For nature
is as it were the artist who produces the inclination.
LIII. On which account Zeno was the first writer who, in
his treatise on the Nature of Man, said, that the chief good was
confessedly to live according to nature; which is to live according
to virtue, for nature leads us to this point. And in
like manner Cleanthes speaks in his treatise on Pleasure, and
so do Posidonius and Hecaton in their essays on Ends as the
Chief Good. And again, to live according to virtue is the same
thing as living according to one’s experience of those things
which happen by nature; as Chrysippus explains it in the first
book of his treatise on the Chief Good. For our individual
natures are all parts of universal nature; on which account the
chief good is to live in a manner corresponding to nature, and
that means corresponding to one’s own nature and to universal
nature; doing none of those things which the common law of
mankind is in the habit of forbidding, and that common law
is identical with that right reason which pervades everything,
being the same with Jupiter, who is the regulator and chief
manager of all existing things.
Again, this very thing is the virtue of the happy man and
the perfect happiness of life when everything is done according
to a harmony with the genius of each individual with reference
to the will of the universal governor and manager of all
things. Diogenes, accordingly, says expressly that the chief
good is to act according to sound reason in our selection of
things according to our nature. And Archedemus defines it to
be living in the discharge of all becoming duties. Chrysippus
again understands that the nature, in a manner corresponding
to which we ought to live, is both the common nature, and also
human nature in particular; but Cleanthes will not admit of
any other nature than the common one alone, as that to which
people ought to live in a manner corresponding; and repudiates
all mention of a particular nature. And he asserts
that virtue is a disposition of the mind always consistent and
always harmonious; that one ought to seek it out for its own
sake, without being influenced by fear or hope by any external
influence. Moreover, that it is in it that happiness consists, as
producing in the soul the harmony of a life always consistent
with itself; and that if a rational animal goes the wrong way,
it is because it allows itself to be misled by the deceitful
appearances of exterior things, or perhaps by the instigation
of those who surround it; for nature herself never gives us any
but good inclinations.
LIV. Now virtue is, to speak generally, a perfection in
everything, as in the case of a statue; whether it is invisible
as good health, or speculative as prudence. For Hecaton says,
in the first book of his treatise on Virtues, that the scientific
and speculative virtues are those which have a constitution
arising from speculation and study, as, for instance, prudence
and justice; and that those which are not speculative are those
which are generally viewed in their extension as a practical
result or effect of the former; such for instance, as health
and strength. Accordingly, temperance is one of the speculative
virtues, and it happens that good health usually follows
it, and is marshalled as it were beside it; in the same way as
strength follows the proper structure of an arch.—And the
unspeculative virtues derive their name from the fact of their
not proceeding from any acquiescence reflected by intelligence;
but they are derived from others, are only accessories,
and are found even in worthless people, as in the case of good
health, or courage. And Posidonius, in the first book of his
treaties on Ethics, says that the great proof of the reality of
virtue is that Socrates, and Diogenes, and Antisthenes, made
great improvement; and the great proof of the reality of vice
may be found in the fact of its being opposed to virtue.
Again, Chrysippus, in the first book of his treatise on the
Chief Good, and Cleanthes, and also Posidonius in his Exhortations,
and Hecaton, all agree that virtue may be taught.
And that they are right, and that it may be taught, is plain
from men becoming good after having been bad. On this
account Panætius teaches that there are two virtues, one
speculative and the other practical; but others make three
kinds, the logical, the natural, and the ethical. Posidonius
divides virtue into four divisions; and Cleanthes, Chrysippus,
and Antipater make the divisions more numerous still; for
Apollophanes asserts that there is but one virtue, namely,
prudence.
Among the virtues some are primitive and some are derived.
The primitive ones are prudence, manly courage, justice, and
temperance. And subordinate to these, as a kind of species
contained in them, are magnanimity, continence, endurance,
presence of mind, wisdom in council. And the Stoics define
prudence as a knowledge of what is good, and bad, and indifferent;
justice as a knowledge of what ought to be chosen,
what ought to be avoided, and what is indifferent; magnanimity
as a knowledge of engendering a lofty habit, superior to all
such accidents as happen to all men indifferently, whether
they be good or bad; continence they consider a disposition
which never abandons right reason, or a habit which never
yields to pleasure; endurance they call a knowledge or habit
by which we understand what we ought to endure, what we
ought not, and what is indifferent; presence of mind they
define as a habit which is prompt at finding out what is
suitable on a sudden emergency; and wisdom in counsel they
think a knowledge which leads us to judge what we are to do,
and how we are to do it, in order to act becomingly. And
analogously, of vices too there are some which are primary,
and some which are subordinate; as, for instance, folly, and
cowardice, and injustice, and intemperance, are among the
primary vices; incontinence, slowness, and folly in counsel
among the subordinate ones. And the vices are ignorance of
those things of which the virtues are the knowledge.
LV. Good, looked at in a general way, is some advantage,
with the more particular distinction, being partly what is actually
useful, partly what is not contrary to utility. On which account
virtue itself, and the good which partakes of virtue are spoken
of in a threefold view of the subject. First, as to what kind
of good it is, and from what it ensues; as, for instance, in an
action done according to virtue. Secondly, as to the agent,
in the case of a good man who partakes of virtue.…
At another time, they define the good in a peculiar manner,
as being what is perfect according to the nature of a rational
being as rational being. And, secondly, they say that it is
conformity to virtue, so that all actions which partake of
virtue, and all good men, are themselves in some sense the
good. And in the third place, they speak of its accessories,
joy, and mirth, and things of that kind. In the same manner
they speak of vices, which they divide into folly, cowardice,
injustice, and things of that kind. And they consider that
those things which partake of vices, and actions done according
to vice, and bad men, are themselves in some sense the evil;
and its accessories are despondency, and melancholy, and other
things of that kind.
LVI. Again, of goods, some have reference to the mind,
and some are external; and some neither have reference to
the mind, nor are external. The goods having reference to the
mind are virtues, and actions according to the virtues. The
external goods are the having a virtuous country, a virtuous
friend, and the happiness of one’s country and friend. And
those which are not external, and which have no reference
to the mind, are such as a man’s being virtuous and happy to
himself. And reciprocally, of evils, some have reference to
the mind, such as the vices and actions according to them;
some are external, such as having a foolish country, or a foolish
friend, or one’s country or one’s friend being unhappy. And
those evils which are not external, and which have no reference
to the mind, are such as a man’s being worthless and unhappy
to himself.
LVII. Again, of goods, some are final, some are efficient,
and some are both final and efficient. For instance, a friend,
and the services done by him to one, are efficient goods;
but courage, and prudence, and liberty, and delight, and
mirth, and freedom from pain, and all kinds of actions done
according to virtue, are final goods. There are too, as I said
before, some goods which are both efficient and final; for
inasmuch as they produce perfect happiness they are efficient,
and inasmuch as they complete it by being themselves parts
of it, they are final. And in the same way, of evils, some are
final, and some efficient, and some partake of both natures.
For instance, an enemy and the injuries done to one by him,
are efficient evils; fear, meanness of condition, slavery, want
of delight, depression of spirits, excessive grief, and all actions
done according to vice, are final evils; and some partake of
both characters, since, inasmuch as they produce perfect
unhappiness, they are efficient; and inasmuch as they complete
it in such a way as to become parts of it, they are final.
LVIII. Again, of the goods which have reference to the
mind, some are habits, some are dispositions, and some are
neither habits nor dispositions. Dispositions are virtues,
habits are practices, and those which are neither habits nor
dispositions are energies. And, speaking generally, the
following may be called mixed goods: happiness in one’s
children, and a happy old age. But knowledge is a pure good.
And some goods are continually present, such as virtue; and
some are not always present, as joy, or taking a walk.
LIX. But every good is expedient, and necessary, and
profitable, and useful, and serviceable, and beautiful, and
advantageous, and eligible, and just. Expedient, inasmuch as
it brings us things, which by their happening to us do us
good; necessary, inasmuch as it assists us in what we have
need to be assisted; profitable, inasmuch as it repays all the
care that is expended on it, and makes a return with interest
to our great advantage; useful, inasmuch as it supplies us
with what is of utility; serviceable, because it does us service
which is much praised; beautiful, because it is in accurate
proportion to the need we have of it, and to the service it
does. Advantageous, inasmuch as it is of such a character as
to confer advantage on us; eligible, because it is such that we
may rationally choose it; and just, because it is in accordance
with law, and is an efficient cause of union.
And they call the honourable the perfect good, because it
has naturally all the numbers which are required by nature,
and because it discloses a perfect harmony. Now, the species
of this perfect good are four in number: justice, manly courage,
temperance, and knowledge; for in these goods all beautiful
actions have their accomplishment. And analogously, there
are also four species of the disgraceful: injustice, and cowardice,
and intemperance, and folly. And the honourable is predicated
in one sense, as making those who are possessed of it worthy
of all praise; and in a second sense, it is used of what is well
adapted by nature for its proper work; and in another sense,
when it expresses that which adorns a man, as when we say
that the wise man alone is good and honourable.
The Stoics also say, that the beautiful is the only good, as
Hecaton says, in the third book of his treatise on Goods, and
Chrysippus asserts the same principle in his essays on the
Beautiful. And they say that this is virtue, and that which
partakes of virtue; and this assertion is equal to the other,
that everything good is beautiful, and that the good is an
equivalent term to the beautiful, inasmuch as the one thing is
exactly equal to the other. For since it is good, it is beautiful;
and it is beautiful, therefore, it is good.
LX. But it seems that all goods are equal, and that every
good is to be desired in the highest degree, and that it admits
of no relaxation, and of no extension. Moreover, they divide
all existing things into good, bad, and indifferent. The good
are the virtues, prudence, justice, manly courage, temperance,
and the rest of the like qualities. The bad are the contraries,
folly, injustice, and the like. Those are indifferent which are
neither beneficial nor injurious, such as life, health, pleasure,
beauty, strength, riches, a good reputation, nobility of birth;
and their contraries, death, disease, labour, disgrace, weakness,
poverty, a bad reputation, baseness of birth, and the like; as
Hecaton lays it down in the seventh book of his treatise on
the Chief Good; and he is followed by Apollodorus, in his
Ethics, and by Chrysippus. For they affirm that those things
are not good but indifferent, though perhaps a little more near
to one species than to the other.
For, as it is the property of the hot to warm and not to
chill one, so it is the property of the good to benefit and not
to injure one. Now, wealth and good health cannot be said
to benefit any more than to injure any one: therefore, neither
wealth nor good health are goods. Again, they say that that
thing is not good which it is possible to use both well and ill.
But it is possible to make either a good or a bad use of wealth,
or of health; therefore, wealth and good health are not goods.
Posidonius, however, affirms that these things do come under
the head of goods. But Hecaton, in the nineteenth book of
his treatise on Goods, and Chrysippus, in his treatises on
Pleasure, both deny that pleasure is a good. For they say
that there are disgraceful pleasures, and that nothing disgraceful
is good. And that to benefit a person is to move him or
to keep him according to virtue, but to injure him is to move
him or to keep him according to vice.
They also assert, that things indifferent are so spoken of in
a twofold manner; firstly, those things are called so, which
have no influence in producing either happiness or unhappiness;
such for instance, as riches, glory, health, strength, and
the like; for it is possible for a man to be happy without any
of these things; and also, it is upon the character of the use
that is made of them, that happiness or unhappiness depends.
In another sense, those things are called indifferent, which
do not excite any inclination or aversion, as for instance, the
fact of a man’s having an odd or an even number of hairs on
his head, or his putting out or drawing back his finger; for
it is not in this sense that the things previously mentioned
are called indifferent, for they do excite inclination or aversion.
On which account some of them are chosen, though
there is equal reason for preferring or shunning all the
others.
LXI. Again, of things indifferent, they call some preferred
(προηγμένα), and others rejected (ἀποπροηγμένα). Those
are preferred, which have some proper value (ἀξίαν), and those
are rejected, which have no value at all (ἀπαξίαν ἔχοντα).
And by the term proper value, they mean that quality of
things, which causes them to concur in producing a well-regulated
life; and in this sense, every good has a proper
value. Again, they say that a thing has value, when in some
point of view, it has a sort of intermediate power of aiding us
to live conformably to nature; and under this class, we may
range riches or good health, if they give any assistance to
natural life. Again, value is predicated of the price which
one gives for the attainment of an object, which some one,
who has experience of the object sought, fixes as its fair price;
as if we were to say, for instance, that as some wheat was to
be exchanged for barley, with a mule thrown in to make up
the difference. Those goods then are preferred, which have a
value, as in the case of the mental goods, ability, skill, improvement,
and the like; and in the case of the corporeal
goods, life, health, strength, a good constitution, soundness,
beauty; and in the case of external goods, riches, glory,
nobility of birth, and the like.
Rejected things are, in the case of qualities of the mind,
stupidity, unskilfulness, and the like; in the case of circumstances
affecting the body, death, disease, weakness, a bad
constitution, mutilation, disgrace, and the like; in the case
of external circumstances, poverty, want of reputation, ignoble
birth, and the like. But those qualities and circumstances
which are indifferent, are neither preferred nor rejected.
Again, of things preferred, some are preferred for their own
sakes, some for the sake of other things, and some partly for
their own sakes and partly for that of other things. Those
which are preferred for their own sakes, are ability, improvement,
and the like; those which are preferred for the sake of
other things, are wealth, nobility of birth, and the like; those
which are preferred partly for their own sake, and partly for
that of something else, are strength, vigour of the senses,
universal soundness, and the like; for they are preferred, for
their own sakes, inasmuch as they are in accordance with
nature; and for the sake of something else, inasmuch as
they are productive of no small number of advantages; and
the same is the case in the inverse ratio, with those things
which are rejected.
LXII. Again, they say that that is duty, which is preferred,
and which contains in itself reasonable arguments why we
should prefer it; as for instance, its corresponding to the
nature of life itself; and this argument extends to plants and
animals, for even their nature is subject to the obligation of
certain duties. And duty (τὸ καθῆκον) had this name given to
it by Zeno, in the first instance, its appellation being derived
from its coming to, or according to some people, ἀπὸ τοῦ κατά
τινας ἥκειν; and its effect is something kindred to the preparations
made by nature. Now of the things done according
to inclination, some are duties, and some are contrary to
duty; and some are neither duties nor contrary to duty.
Those are duties, which reason selects to do, as for instance,
to honour one’s parents, one’s brothers, one’s country, to
gratify one’s friends. Those actions are contrary to duty,
which reason does not choose; as for instance, to neglect one’s
parents, to be indifferent to one’s brothers, to shirk assisting
one’s friends, to be careless about the welfare of one’s country,
and so on. Those are neither duties, nor contrary to duty,
which reason neither selects to do, nor, on the other hand,
repudiates, such actions, for instance, as to pick up straw, to
hold a pen, or a comb, or things of that sort.
Again, there are some duties which do not depend on circumstances,
and some which do. These do not depend on
circumstances, to take care of one’s health, and of the sound
state of one’s senses, and the like. Those which do depend
on circumstances, are the mutilation of one’s members, the
sacrificing of one’s property, and so on. And the case of
those actions which are contrary to duty, is similar. Again,
of duties, some are always such, and some are not always.
What is always a duty, is to live in accordance with virtue;
but to ask questions, to give answers, to walk, and the like,
are not always duties. And the same statement holds good
with respect to acts contrary to duty.
There is also a class of intermediate duties, such as the
duty of boys obeying their masters.
LXIII. The Stoics also say that the mind is divisible into
eight parts; for that the five organs of sensation, and the
vocal power, and the intellectual power, which is the mind
itself, and the generative power, are all parts of the mind.
But by error, there is produced a perversion which operates on
the intellect, from which many perturbations arise, and many
causes of inconstancy. And all perturbation is itself, according
to Zeno, a movement of the mind, or superfluous inclination,
which is irrational, and contrary to nature. Moreover,
of the superior class of perturbations, as Hecaton says, in the
second book of his treatise on the Passions, and as Zeno
also says in his work on the Passions, there are four kinds,
grief, fear, desire, and pleasure. And they consider that
these perturbations are judgments, as Chrysippus contends in
his work on the Passions; for covetousness is an opinion that
money is a beautiful object, and in like manner drunkenness
and intemperance, and other things of the sort, are judgments.
And grief they define to be an irrational contraction
of the mind, and it is divided into the following species, pity,
envy, emulation, jealousy, pain, perturbation, sorrow, anguish,
confusion. Pity is a grief over some one, on the ground of
his being in undeserved distress. Envy is a grief, at the good
fortune of another. Emulation is a grief at that belonging to
some one else, which one desires one’s self. Jealousy is a
grief at another also having what one has one’s self. Pain is
a grief which weighs one down. Perturbation is grief which
narrows one, and causes one to feel in a strait. Sorrow is a
grief arising from deliberate thought, which endures for some
time, and gradually increases. Anguish is a grief with acute
pain. Confusion is an irrational grief, which frets one, and
prevents one from clearly discerning present circumstances.
But fear is the expectation of evil; and the following feelings
are all classed under the head of fear: apprehension, hesitation,
shame, perplexity, trepidation, and anxiety. Apprehension
is a fear which produces alarm. Shame is a fear of discredit.
Hesitation is a fear of coming activity. Perplexity
is a fear, from the imagination of some unusual thing. Trepidation
is a fear accompanied with an oppression of the voice.
Anxiety is a fear of some uncertain event.
Again, desire is an irrational appetite; to which head, the
following feelings are referrible: want, hatred, contentiousness,
anger, love, enmity, rage. Want is a desire arising from our
not having something or other, and is, as it were, separated
from the thing, but is still stretching, and attracted towards it
in vain. And hatred is a desire that it should be ill with
some one, accompanied with a certain continual increase and
extension. Contentiousness is a certain desire accompanied
with deliberate choice. Anger is a desire of revenge, on a
person who appears to have injured one in an unbecoming
way. Love is a desire not conversant about a virtuous object,
for it is an attempt to conciliate affection, because of some
beauty which is seen. Enmity is a certain anger of long
duration, and full of hatred, and it is a watchful passion, as is
shown in the following lines:—
For though we deem the short-liv’d fury past,
’Tis sure the mighty will revenge at last.
But rage is anger at its commencement.
Again, pleasure is an irrational elation of the mind over
something which appears to be desirable; and its different
species are enjoyment, rejoicing at evil, delight, and extravagant
joy. Enjoyment now, is a pleasure which charms the
mind through the ears. Rejoicing at evil (ἐπιχαιρεκακία), is a
pleasure which arises at the misfortunes of others. Delight
(τέρψις), that is to say turning (τρέψις), is a certain turning of
the soul (προτροπή τις ψυχῆς), to softness. Extravagant joy is
the dissolution of virtue. And as there are said to be some
sicknesses (ἀῤῥωστήματα), in the body, as, for instance, gout and
arthritic disorders; so too are those diseases of the soul, such as a
fondness for glory, or for pleasure, and other feelings of that sort.
For an ἀῤῥώστημα is a disease accompanied with weakness;
and a disease is an opinion of something which appears exceedingly
desirable. And, as in the case of the body, there
are illnesses to which people are especially liable, such as
colds or diarrhœa; so also are there propensities which the
mind is under the influence of, such as enviousness, pitifulness,
quarrelsomeness, and so on.
There are also three good dispositions of the mind; joy,
caution, and will. And joy they say is the opposite of pleasure,
since it is a rational elation of the mind; so caution is the
opposite of fear, being a rational avoidance of anything, for
the wise man will never be afraid, but he will act with caution;
and will, they define as the opposite of desire, since it is a
rational wish. As therefore some things fall under the class
of the first perturbations, in the same manner do some things
fall under the class of the first good dispositions. And
accordingly, under the head of will, are classed goodwill,
placidity, salutation, affection; and under the head of caution
are ranged reverence and modesty; under the head of joy,
we speak of delight, mirth, and good spirits.
LXIV. They say also, that the wise man is free from perturbations,
because he has no strong propensities. But that
this freedom from propensities also exists in the bad man,
being, however, then quite another thing, inasmuch as it proceeds
in him only from the hardness and unimpressibility of
his nature. They also pronounce the wise man free from
vanity, since he regards with equal eye what is glorious and
what is inglorious. At the same time, they admit that there
is another character devoid of vanity, who, however, is only
reckoned one of the rash men, being in fact the bad man.
They also say that all the virtuous men are austere, because
they do never speak with reference to pleasure, nor do they
listen to what is said by others with reference to pleasure.
At the same time, they call another man austere too, using the
term in nearly the same sense as they do when they speak of
austere wine, which is used in compounding medicines, but
not for drinking.
They also pronounce the wise to be honest-hearted men,
anxiously attending to those matters which may make them
better, by means of some principle which conceals what is
bad, and brings to light what is good. Nor is there any
hypocrisy about them; for they cut off all pretence in their
voice and appearance. They also keep aloof from business; for
they guard carefully against doing any thing contrary to
their duty. They drink wine, but they do not get drunk;
and they never yield to frenzy. Occasionally, extraordinary
imaginations may obtain a momentary power over them,
owing to some melancholy or trifling, arising not according to
the principle of what is desirable, but contrary to nature.
Nor, again, will the wise man feel grief; because grief is an
irrational contraction of the soul, as Apollodorus defines it
in his Ethics.
They are also, as they say, godlike; for they have something
in them which is as it were a God. But the bad man is an
atheist. Now there are two kinds of atheists; one who
speaks in a spirit of hostility to, and the other, who utterly
disregards, the divine nature; but they admit that all bad
men are not atheists in this last sense. The good, on the
contrary, are pious; for they have a thorough acquaintance
with the laws respecting the Gods. And piety is a knowledge
of the proper reverence and worship due to the Gods.
Moreover they sacrifice to the Gods, and keep themselves
pure; for they avoid all offences having reference to the
Gods, and the Gods admire them; for they are holy and just
in all that concerns the Deity; and the wise men are the
only priests; for they consider the matters relating to sacrifices,
and the erection of temples, and purifications, and all
other things which peculiarly concern the Gods. They
also pronounce that men are bound to honour their parents,
and their brethren, in the second place after the Gods.
They also say that parental affection for one’s children is
natural to them, and is a feeling which does not exist in bad
men. And they lay down the position that all offences are
equal, as Chrysippus argues in the fourth book of his Ethic
Questions, and so say Persæus and Zeno. For if one thing
that is true is not more true than another thing that is true,
neither is one thing that is false more false than another
thing that is false; so too, one deceit is not greater than another,
nor one sin than another. For the man who is a hundred
furlongs from Canopus, and the man who is only one, are both
equally not in Canopus; and so too, he who commits a greater
sin, and he who commits a less, are both equally not in
the right path.
Heraclides of Tarsus, indeed, the friend of Antipater, of
Tarsus, and Athenodorus, both assert that offences are not
equal.
Again, the Stoics, as for instance, Chrysippus, in the first
book of his work on Lives, say, that the wise man will take a
part in the affairs of the state, if nothing hinders him. For
that he will restrain vice, and excite men to virtue. Also,
they say that he will marry, as Zeno says, in his Republic,
and beget children. Moreover, that the wise man will never
form mere opinions, that is to say, he will never agree to
anything that is false; and that he will become a Cynic; for
that Cynicism is a short path to virtue, as Apollodorus calls
it in his Ethics; that he will even eat human flesh, if there
should be occasion; that he is the only free man, and that
the bad are slaves; for that freedom is a power of independent
action, but slavery a deprivation of the same. That
there is besides, another slavery, which consists in subjection,
and a third which consists in possession and subjection; the
contrary of which is masterhood, which is likewise bad.
And they say, that not only are the wise free, but that they
are also kings, since kingly power is an irresponsible dominion,
which can only exist in the case of the wise man, as Chrysippus
says in his treatise on the Proper Application of his
Terms made by Zeno; for he says that a ruler ought to give
decisions on good and evil, and that none of the wicked
understand these things. In the same way, they assert that
they are the only people who are fit to be magistrates or
judges, or orators, and that none of the bad are qualified for
these tasks. Moreover, that they are free from all error, in
consequence of their not being prone to any wrong actions.
Also, that they are unconnected with injury, for that they
never injure any one else, nor themselves. Also, that they
are not pitiful, and that they never make allowance for any
one; for that they do not relax the punishments appointed by
law, since yielding, and pity, and mercifulness itself, never
exist in any of their souls, so as to induce an affectation of
kindness in respect of punishment; nor do they ever think
any punishment too severe. Again, they say that the wise
man never wonders at any of the things which appear extraordinary;
as for instance, at the stories about Charon, or the
ebbing of the tide, or the springs of hot water, or the bursting
forth of flames. But, say they further, the wise man
will not live in solitude; for he is by nature sociable and
practical. Accordingly, he will take exercise for the sake of
hardening and invigorating his body. And the wise man will
pray, asking good things from the Gods, as Posidonius says in
the first book of his treatise on Duties, and Hecaton says the
same thing in the thirteenth book of his treatise on Extraordinary
Things.
They also say, that friendship exists in the virtuous alone,
on account of their resemblance to one another. And they
describe friendship itself as a certain communion of the things
which concern life, since we use our friends as ourselves. And
they assert that a friend is desirable for his own sake, and that
a number of friends is a good; and that among the wicked
there is no such thing as friendship, and that no wicked man
can have a friend.
Again, they say that all the foolish are mad; for that they
are not prudent, and that madness is equivalent to folly in
every one of its actions; but that the wise man does everything
properly, just as we say that Ismenias can play every
piece of flute-music well. Also, they say that everything
belongs to the wise man, for that the law has given them
perfect and universal power; but some things also are said to
belong to the wicked, just in the same manner as some things
are said to belong to the unjust, or as a house is said to belong
to a city in a different sense from that in which a thing belongs
to the person who uses it.
LXV. And they say that virtues reciprocally follow one
another, and that he who has one has all; for that the precepts
of them all are common, as Chrysippus affirms in the first
book of his treatise on Laws; and Apollodorus, in his Natural
Philosophy, according to the ancient system; and Hecaton, in
the third book of his treatise on Virtues. For they say that
the man who is endued with virtue, is able to consider and
also to do what must be done. But what must be done must
be chosen, and encountered, and distributed, and awaited; so
that if the man does some things by deliberate choice, and
some in a spirit of endurance, and some distributively, and
some patiently; he is prudent, and courageous, and just, and
temperate. And each of the virtues has a particular subject
of its own, about which it is conversant; as, for instance,
courage is conversant about the things which must be endured:
prudence is conversant about what must be done and what
must not, and what is of a neutral or indifferent character.
And in like manner, the other virtues are conversant about
their own peculiar subjects; and wisdom in counsel and
shrewdness follow prudence; and good order and decorum
follow temperance; and equality and goodness of judgment
follow justice; and constancy and energy follow courage.
Another doctrine of the Stoics is, that there is nothing
intermediate between virtue and vice; while the Peripatetics
assert that there is a stage between virtue and vice, being an
improvement on vice which has not yet arrived at virtue. For
the Stoics say, that as a stick must be either straight or
crooked, so a man must be either just or unjust, and cannot
be more just than just, or more unjust than unjust; and that
the same rule applies to all cases. Moreover, Chrysippus is
of opinion that virtue can be lost, but Cleanthes affirms that
it cannot; the one saying that it can be lost by drunkenness
or melancholy, the other maintaining that it cannot be lost on
account of the firm perceptions which it implants in men.
They also pronounce it a proper object of choice; accordingly,
we are ashamed of actions which we do improperly, while we
are aware that what is honourable is the only good. Again,
they affirm that it is of itself sufficient for happiness, as Zeno
says, and he is followed in this assertion by Chrysippus in the
first book of his treatise on Virtues, and by Hecaton in the
second book of his treatise on Goods.
“For if,” says he, “magnanimity be sufficient of itself to
enable us to act in a manner superior to all other men; and
if that is a part of virtue, then virtue is of itself sufficient for
happiness, despising all things which seem troublesome to it.”
However, Panætius and Posidonius do not admit that virtue
has this sufficiency of itself, but say that there is also need of
good health, and competency, and strength. And their opinion
is that a man exercises virtue in everything, as Cleanthes
asserts, for it cannot be lost; and the virtuous man on every
occasion exercises his soul, which is in a state of perfection.
LXVI. Again, they say that justice exists by nature, and
not because of any definition or principle; just as law does,
or right reason, as Chrysippus tells us in his treatise on the
Beautiful; and they think that one ought not to abandon
philosophy on account of the different opinions prevailing
among philosophers, since on this principle one would wholly
quit life, as Posidonius argues in his Exhortatory Essays.
Another doctrine of Chrysippus is, that general learning is
very useful.
And the School in general maintain that there are no
obligations of justice binding on us with reference to other
animals, on account of their dissimilarity to us, as Chrysippus
asserts in the first book of his treatise on Justice, and the
same opinion is maintained by Posidonius in the first book of
his treatise on Duty. They say too, that the wise man will
love those young men, who by their outward appearance, show
a natural aptitude for virtue; and this opinion is advanced by
Zeno, in his Republic, and by Chrysippus in the first book of
his work on Lives, and by Apollodorus in his Ethics. And
they describe love as an endeavour to benefit a friend on
account of his visible beauty; and that it is an attribute not
of acquaintanceship, but of friendship. Accordingly, that
Thrasonides, although he had his mistress in his power,
abstained from her, because he was hated by her. Love,
therefore, according to them is a part of friendship, as Chrysippus
asserts in his essay on Love; and it is not blameable.
Moreover, beauty is the flower of virtue.
And as there are three kinds of lives; the theoretical, the
practical, and the logical; they say that the last is the one
which ought to be chosen. For that a logical, that is a rational,
animal was made by nature on purpose for speculation and
action. And they say that a wise man will very rationally
take himself out of life, either for the sake of his country or of
his friends, or if he be in bitter pain, or under the affliction
of mutilation, or incurable disease. And they also teach that
women ought to be in common among the wise, so that whoever
meets with any one may enjoy her, and this doctrine is
maintained by Zeno in his Republic, and by Chrysippus in
his treatise on Polity, and by Diogenes the Cynic, and by
Plato; and then, say they, we shall love all boys equally after
the manner of fathers, and all suspicion on the ground of
undue familiarity will be removed.
They affirm too, that the best of political constitutions is a
mixed one, combined of democracy, and kingly power, and
aristocracy. And they say many things of this sort, and more
too, in their Ethical Dogmas, and they maintain them by
suitable explanations and arguments. But this may be enough
for us to say of their doctrines on this head by way of summary,
and taking them in an elementary manner.
LXVII. They divide natural philosophy into the topics of
bodies, and of principles, and of elements, and of Gods, and of
boundaries, and of place, and of the vacuum. And they make
these divisions according to species; but according to genera
they divide them into three topics, that of the world, that of
the elements, and the third is that which reasons on causes.
The topic about the world, they say, is subdivided into two
parts. For that in one point of view, the mathematicians
also have a share in it; and according to it it is that they
prosecute their investigations into the nature of the fixed
stars and the planets; as, for instance, whether the sun is of
such a size as he appears to be, and similarly, whether the
moon is; and in the same way they investigate the question of
spherical motion, and others of the same character. The
other point of view is that which is reserved exclusively for
natural philosophers, according to which it is that the existence
and substance of things are examined, for instance, whether
the sun and the stars consist of matter and form, and whether
the sun is born or not born, whether it is living or lifeless,
corruptible or incorruptible, whether it is regulated by Providence,
and other questions of this kind.
The topic which examines into causes they say is also
divisible into two parts; and with reference to one of its
considerations, the investigations of physicians partake of it;
according to which it is that they investigate the dominant
principle of the soul, and the things which exist in the
soul, and seeds, and things of this kind. And its other
division is claimed as belonging to them also by the mathematicians,
as, for instance, how we see, what is the cause of our
appearance being reflected in a mirror, how clouds are collected,
how thunder is produced, and the rainbow, and the halo, and
comets, and things of that kind.
LXVIII. They think that there are two general principles
in the universe, the active and the passive. That the passive
is matter, an existence without any distinctive quality. That
the active is the reason which exists in the passive, that is to
say, God. For that he, being eternal, and existing throughout
all matter, makes everything. And Zeno, the Cittiæan,
lays down this doctrine in his treatise on Essence, and so does
Cleanthes in his essay on Atoms, Chrysippus in the first book
of his Investigations in Natural Philosophy, towards the end,
Archedemus in his work on Elements, and Posidonius in the
second book of his treatise on Natural Philosophy. But they
say that principles and elements differ from one another. For
that the one had no generation or beginning, and will have no
end; but that the elements may be destroyed by the operation
of fire. Also, that the elements are bodies, but principles
have no bodies and no forms, and elements too have forms.
Now a body, says Apollodorus in his Natural Philosophy, is
extended in a threefold manner; in length, in breadth, in
depth; and then it is called a solid body; and the superficies
is the limit of the body having length and breadth alone, but
not depth. But Posidonius, in the third book of his Heavenly
Phænomena, will not allow a superficies either any substantial
reality, or any intelligible existence. A line is the limit of a
superficies, or length without breadth, or something which has
nothing but length. A point is the boundary of a line, and is
the smallest of all symbols.
They also teach that God is unity, and that he is called
Mind, and Fate, and Jupiter, and by many other names besides.
And that, as he was in the beginning by himself, he
turned into water the whole substance which pervaded the air;
and as the seed is contained in the produce, so too, he being
the seminal principle of the world, remained behind in
moisture, making matter fit to be employed by himself in the
production of those things which were to come after; and
then, first of all, he made the four elements, fire, water, air,
and earth. And Zeno speaks of these in his treatise on the
Universe, and so does Chrysippus in the first book of his
Physics, and so does Archedemus in some treatise on the
Elements.
LXIX. Now an element is that out of which at first all
things which are are produced, and into which all things are
resolved at last. And the four elements are all equally an
essence without any distinctive quality, namely, matter; but
fire is the hot, water the moist, air the cold, and earth the dry—though
this last quality is also common to the air. The fire
is the highest, and that is called æther, in which first of all
the sphere was generated in which the fixed stars are set,
then that in which the planets revolve; after that the air,
then the water; and the sediment as it were of all is the
earth, which is placed in the centre of the rest.
LXX. They also speak of the world in a threefold sense;
at one time meaning God himself, whom they call a being of
a certain quality, having for his peculiar manifestation universal
substance, a being imperishable, and who never had any
generation, being the maker of the arrangement and order
that we see; and who, after certain periods of time, absorbs
all substance in himself, and then re-produces it from himself.
And this arrangement of the stars they call the world, and so
the third sense is one composed of both the preceding ones.
And the world is a thing which is peculiarly of such and such
a quality consisting of universal substance, as Posidonius
affirms in his Meteorological Elements, being a system compounded
of heaven and earth, and all the creatures which
exist in them; or it may be called a system compounded of
Gods and men, and of the things created on their account.
And the heaven is the most remote circumference of the
world, in which all the Divine Nature is situated.
Again, the world is inhabited and regulated according to
intellect and providence, as Chrysippus says, in his works on
Providence, and Posidonius in the thirteenth book of his
treatise on Gods, since mind penetrates into every part of the
world, just as the soul pervades us; but it is in a greater
degree in some parts, and in a less degree in others. For
instance, it penetrates as a habit, as, for instance, into the
bones and sinews; and into some it penetrates as the mind
does, for instance, into the dominant principle. And thus the
whole world, being a living thing, endowed with a soul and
with reason, has the æther as its dominant principle, as
Antipater, of Tyre, says in the eighth book of his treatise on
the World. But Chrysippus, in the first book of his essay on
Providence, and Posidonius in his treatise on Gods, say that
the heaven is the dominant principle of the world; and
Cleanthes attributes this to the sun. Chrysippus, however,
on this point contradicts himself; for he says in another place,
that the most subtle portion of the æther, which is also called
by the Stoics the first God, is what is infused in a sensible
manner into all the beings which are in the air, and through
every animal and every plant, and through the earth itself
according to a certain habit; and that it is this which communicates
to them the faculty of feeling.
They say too, that the world is one and also finite, having
a spherical form. For that such a shape is the most convenient
for motion, as Posidonius says, in the fifteenth book of his
Discussions on Natural Philosophy, and so says Antipater also
in his essay on the World. And on the outside there is
diffused around it a boundless vacuum, which is incorporeal.
And it is incorporeal inasmuch, as it is capable of being contained
by bodies, but is not so. And that there is no such
thing as a vacuum in the world, but that it is all closely united
and compact; for that this condition is necessarily brought
about by the concord and harmony which exist between the
heavenly bodies and those of the earth. And Chrysippus
mentions a vacuum in his essay on a Vacuum, and also in the
first book of his treatise on the Physical Arts, and so does
Apollophanes in his Natural Philosophy, and so does Apollodorus,
and so does Posidonius in the second book of his
discourses on Natural Philosophy. And they say that these
things are all incorporeal, and all alike. Moreover, that time
is incorporeal, since it is an interval of the motion of the
world. And that of time, the past and the future are both
illimitable, but the present is limited. And they assert that
the world is perishable, inasmuch as it was produced by reason,
and is one of the things which are perceptible by the senses;
and whatever has its parts perishable, must also be perishable
in the whole. And the parts of the world are perishable, for
they change into one another. Therefore, the whole world is
perishable. And again, if anything admits of a change for the
worse it is perishable; therefore, the world is perishable, for it
can be dried up, and it can be covered with water.
Now the world was created when its substance was changed
from fire to moisture, by the action of the air; and then its
denser parts coagulated, and so the earth was made, and the
thinner portions were evaporated and became air; and this
being rarefied more and more, produced fire. And then, by
the combination of all these elements, were produced plants
and animals, and other kinds of things. Now Zeno speaks
of the creation, and of the destruction of the world, in his
treatise on the Universe, and so does Cleanthes, and so does
Antipater, in the tenth book of his treatise on the World.
But Panætius asserts that the world is imperishable.
Again, that the world is an animal, and that it is endued
with reason, and life, and intellect, is affirmed by Chrysippus,
in the first volume of his treatise on Providence, and by
Apollodorus in his Natural Philosophy, and by Posidonius;
and that it is an animal in this sense, as being an essence
endued with life, and with sensation. For that which is an
animal, is better than that which is not an animal. But
nothing is better than the world; therefore the world is an
animal. And it is endued with life, as is plain from the fact
of our own soul being as it were a fragment broken off from
it. But Boethus denies that the world is an animal.
Again, that the world is one, is affirmed by Zeno, in his
treatise on the Universe, and by Chrysippus, and by Apollodorus,
in his Natural Philosophy, and by Posidonius, in the
first book of his Discourses on Natural Philosophy. And by
the term, the universe, according to Apollodorus, is understood
both the world itself, and also the whole of the world itself,
and of the exterior vacuum taken together. The world, then,
is finite, and the vacuum infinite.
LXXI. Of the stars, those which are fixed are only moved
in connection with the movements of the entire heaven; but
the planets move according to their own peculiar and separate
motions. And the sun takes an oblique path through the
circle of the zodiac, and in the same manner also does the
moon, which is of a winding form. And the sun is pure fire,
as Posidonius asserts in the seventh book of his treatise on
the Heavenly Bodies, and it is larger than the earth, as the
same author informs us, in the sixteenth book of his Disclosures
on Natural Philosophy. Also it is spherical, as he
says in another place, being made on the same principle as
the world is. Therefore it is fire, because it performs all the
functions of fire. And it is larger than the earth, as is
proved by the fact of the whole earth being illuminated by it,
and also the whole heaven. Also the fact of the earth throwing
a conical shadow, proves that the sun is greater than it,
and the sun is seen in every part, because of its magnitude.
But the moon is of a more earthy nature than the sun,
inasmuch as it is nearer the earth.
Moreover, they say that all these fiery bodies, and all the
other stars, receive nutriment; the sun from the vast sea,
being a sort of intellectual appendage; and the moon from
the fresh waters, being mingled with the air, and also near
the earth, as Posidonius explains it in the sixth book of his
Discourses on Natural Philosophy. And all the other stars
derive their nourishment from the earth. They also consider
that the stars are of a spherical figure, and that the earth
is immovable. And that the moon has not a light of her
own, but that she borrows it from the sun. And that the sun
is eclipsed, when the moon runs in front of it on the side
towards us, as Zeno describes in his work on the Universe;
for when it comes across it in its passage, it conceals it, and
again it reveals it; and this is a phenomenon easily seen in a
basin of water. And the moon is eclipsed when it comes
below the shadow of the earth, on which account this never
happens, except at the time of the full moon; and although
it is diametrically opposite to the sun every month, still it is
not eclipsed every month, because when its motions are
obliquely towards the sun, it does not find itself in the same
place as the sun, being either a little more to the north, or a
little more to the south. When therefore it is found in the
same place with the sun, and with the other intermediate
objects, then it takes as it were the diameter of the sun, and
is eclipsed. And its place is along the line which runs
between the crab and the scorpion, and the ram and the bull,
as Posidonius tells us.
LXXII. They also say that God is an animal immortal,
rational, perfect, and intellectual in his happiness, unsusceptible
of any kind of evil, having a foreknowledge of the world
and of all that is in the world; however, that he has not the
figure of a man; and that he is the creator of the universe,
and as it were, the Father of all things in common, and that
a portion of him pervades everything, which is called by
different names, according to its powers; for they call him Δία
as being the person (δι’ ὃν) everything is, and Ζῆνα, inasmuch
as he is the cause of life, (τοῦ Ζῆν), or because he pervades
life. And Ἀθηνᾶ, with reference to the extension of his
dominant power over the æther (εἰς αἰθέρα). And Ἥρα, on
account of his extension through the air (εἰς ἀέρα). And
Ἥφαιστος, on account of his pervading fire, which is the
chief instrument of art; and Ποσειδῶν, as pervading moisture,
and Δημήτηρ, as pervading the earth (Γῆ). And in the same
way, regarding some other of his peculiar attributes, they
have given him other names.
The substance of God is asserted by Zeno to be the universal
world, and the heaven; and Chrysippus agrees with this
doctrine, in his eleventh book on the Gods, and so also does
Posidonius, in the first book of his treatise on the same subject.
Antipater, in the seventh book of his treatise on the
World, says that his substance is aërial. And Boethus, in his
treatise on Nature, calls the substance of God the sphere of
the fixed stars.
LXXIII. And his nature they define to be, that which
keeps the world together, and sometimes that which produces
the things upon the earth. And nature is a habit which
derives its movements from itself, perfecting and holding
together all that arises out of it, according to the principles of
production, in certain definite periods, and doing the same as
the things from which it is separated. And it has for its
object, suitableness and pleasure, as is plain from its having
created man.
LXXIV. But Chrysippus, in his treatise on Fate, and
Posidonius, in the second book of his work on Fate, and
Zeno, and Boethus, in the eleventh book of his treatise on
Fate, say, that all things are produced by fate. And fate,
(εἱμαρμένη), is a connected (εἰρομένη) cause of existing things,
or the reason according to which the world is regulated.
LXXV. They also say that divination has a universal
existence, since Providence has; and they define it as an act
on account of certain results, as Zeno and Chrysippus, in the
second book of his treatise on Divination, and Athenodorus
and Posidonius, in the twelfth book of his discourses on
Natural Philosophy, and in the fifth book of his treatise on
Divination, all agree in saying; for Panætius denies that it
has any certain foundation.
LXXVI. And they say that the substance of all existing
things is Primary Matter, as Chrysippus asserts in the first
book of his Physics; and Zeno says the same. Now matter
is that from which anything whatever is produced. And it is
called by a twofold appellation, essence and matter; the one
as relating to all things taken together, and the other to
things in particular and separate. The one which relates to
all things taken together, never becomes either greater or
less; but the one relating to things in particular, does become
greater or less, as the case may be.
LXXVII. Body is, according to them, a substance and
finite; as Antipater says, in the second book of his treatise on
Substance; and Apollodorus, in his Natural Philosophy, agrees
with him. It is also subject to change, as we learn from the
same author; for if it were immutable, then the things which
have been produced out of it would not have been produced;
on which account he also says that it is infinitely divisible:
but Chrysippus denies that it is infinite; for that nothing is
infinite, which is divisible at all.
LXXVIII. He admits, however, that it is infinitely
divisible, and that its concretions take place over the whole
of it, as he explains in the third book of his Physics, and not
according to any circumference or juxtaposition; for a little
wine when thrown into the sea, will keep its distinctness for a
brief period, but after that, will be lost.
LXXIX. They also say that there are some Dæmones,
who have a sympathy with mankind, being surveyors of all
human affairs; and that there are heroes, which are the souls
of virtuous men, which have left their bodies.
LXXX. Of the things which take place in the air, they
say that winter is the effect of the air above the earth being
cooled, on account of the retirement of the sun to a greater
distance than before; that spring is a good temperature of
the air, according to the sun’s approach towards us; that
summer is the effect of the air above the earth being warmed
by the approach of the sun towards the north; that autumn
is caused by the retreat of the sun from us …
to those places from which they flow.
LXXXI. And the cause of the production of the winds is
the sun, which evaporates the clouds. Moreover, the rainbow
is the reflexion of the sun’s rays from the moist clouds,
or, as Posidonius explains it in his Meteorology, a manifestation
of a section of the sun or moon, in a cloud suffused with
dew; being hollow and continuous to the sight; so that it is
reflected as in a mirror, under the appearance of a circle.
And that comets, and bearded stars, and meteors, are fires
which have an existence when the density of the air is borne
upwards to the regions of the æther.
That a ray of light is a kindling of sudden fire, borne
through the air with great rapidity, and displaying an appearance
of length; that rain proceeds from the clouds, being a
transformation of them into water, whenever the moisture
which is caught up from the earth or from the sea, by the sun,
is not able to be otherwise disposed of; for when it is solidified,
it is then called hoar frost. And hail is a cloud congealed,
and subsequently dispersed by the wind. Snow is
moisture from a congealed cloud, as Posidonius tells us in
the eighth book of his discourse on Natural Philosophy.
Lightning is a kindling of the clouds from their being rubbed
together, or else broken asunder by the wind, as Zeno tells
us in his treatise on the Universe; and thunder is the noise
made by them on the occasion of their being rubbed together
or broken asunder; and the thunderbolt is a sudden kindling
which falls with great violence on the earth, from the clouds
being rubbed together or broken asunder, or, as others say, it is
a conversion of fiery air violently brought down to the earth.
A typhon is a vast thunderbolt, violent and full of wind, or a
smoky breath of a cloud broken asunder. A πρηστὴς is a cloud
rent by fire, with wind, …
into the hollows of the earth, or when the wind is pent up in
the earth, as Posidonius says in his eighth book; and that
some of them are shakings, others rendings, others emissions
of fire, and others, instances of violent fermentation.
LXXXII. They also think that the general arrangement
of the world is in this fashion; that the earth is in the middle,
occupying the place of the centre; next to which comes
the water, of a spherical form; and having the same centre as
the earth; so that the earth is in the water; and next to the
water comes the air, which has also a spherical form.
LXXXIII. And that there are five circles in the heaven;
of which the first is the arctic circle, which is always visible;
the second is the tropical summer circle; the third is the
equinoctial circle; the fourth, the winter tropical circle; and
the fifth the antarctic, which is not visible. And they are
called parallel, because they do not incline to one another;
they are drawn however around the same centre. But the
zodiac is oblique, cutting the parallel circles. There are also
five zones on the earth; the first is the northern one, placed
under the arctic circle, uninhabitable by reason of the cold;
the second is temperate; the third is uninhabitable because
of the heat, and is called the torrid zone; the fourth is a
temperate zone, on the other side of the torrid zone; the fifth
is the southern zone, being also uninhabitable by reason of the
cold.
LXXXIV. Another of their doctrines is that nature is an
artificial fire tending by a regular road to production, which is
a fiery kind of breath proceeding according to art. Also, that
the soul is sensible, and that it is a spirit which is born with
us; consequently it is a body and continues to exist after
death; that nevertheless it is perishable. But that the soul
of the universe is imperishable, and that the souls which exist
in animals are only parts of that of the universe. But Zeno,
the Cittiæan, and Antipater, in their treatise concerning the
Soul, and Posidonius also, all say that the soul is a warm
spirit; for that by it we have our breath, and by it we are
moved. Cleanthes, accordingly, asserts that all souls continue
to exist till they are burnt up; but Chrysippus says that it is
only the souls of the wise that endure. And they further
teach that there are eight parts of the soul; the five senses,
and the generative faculties, and voice, and reason. And we
see because of a body of luminous air which extends from the
organ of sight to the object in a conical form, as it is asserted
by Chrysippus, in the second book of his Natural Philosophy,
and also by Apollodorus. And the apex of this cone is close
to the eye, and its base is formed by the object which is seen;
so that that which is seen is as it were reported to the eye by
this continuous cone of air extended towards it like a staff. In
the same way, we hear because the air between the speaker and
the hearer is struck in a spherical manner; and is then
agitated in waves, resembling the circular eddies which one
sees in a cistern when a stone is dropped into it.
Sleep, they say, is produced by a relaxation of the æsthetic
energies with reference to the dominant part of the soul. And
the causes of the passions they explain to be the motions and
conversions which take place in connection with this spirit or
soul.
LXXXV. Seed, they define as a thing of a nature capable
of producing other things of the same nature as the thing
from which it has been separated. And the seed of man,
which man emits, is, together with moisture, mixed up with
the parts of the soul by that kind of mixture which corresponds
to the capacity of the parents. And Chrysippus says,
in the second book of his Natural Philosophy, that it is a
spirit according to substance; as is manifest from the seeds
which are planted in the earth; and which, if they are old,
do not germinate, because all their virtue has evaporated.
And Sphærus says, that seed proceeds from the entire body,
and that that is how it is that it produces all the parts of
the body.
They also say that the seed of the female is unproductive;
for, as Sphærus says, it is devoid of tone, and small in
quantity, and watery.
LXXXVI. They also say that that is the dominant part
of the soul which is its most excellent part; in which the
imaginations and the desires are formed, and whence reason
proceeds. And this place is in the heart.
These then are the doctrines on the subject of natural
philosophy entertained by them, which it seems sufficient for
us to detail, having regard to the due proportions of this
book. And the following are the points in which some of
them disagreed with the rest.
LIFE OF ARISTON
I. Ariston the Bald, a native of Chios, surnamed the
Siren, said, that the chief good was to live in perfect indifference
to all those things which are of an intermediate character
between virtue and vice; making not the slightest difference
between them, but regarding them all on a footing of equality.
For that the wise man resembles a good actor; who, whether
he is filling the part of Agamemnon or Thersites, will perform
them both equally well.
II. And he discarded altogether the topic of physics, and
of logic, saying that the one was above us, and that the other
had nothing to do with us; and that the only branch of
philosophy with which we had any real concern was ethics.
III. He also said that dialectic reasonings were like
cobwebs; which, although they seem to be put together on
principles of art, are utterly useless.
IV. And he did not introduce many virtues into his scheme,
as Zeno did; nor one virtue under a great many names, as
the Megaric philosophers did; but defined virtue as consisting
in behaving in a certain manner with reference to a certain
thing.
V. And as he philosophized in this manner, and carried on
his discussions in the Cynosarges, he got so much influence
as to be called a founder of a sect. Accordingly, Miltiades,
and Diphilus were called Aristoneans.
VI. He was a man of very persuasive eloquence, and one
who could adapt himself well to the humours of a multitude.
On which account Timon says of him:—
And one who, from Ariston’s wily race,
Traced his descent.
Diocles, the Magnesian, tells us that Ariston having fallen
in with Polemo, passed over to his school, at a time when
Zeno was lying ill with a long sickness. The Stoic doctrine to
which he was most attached, was the one that the wise man
is never guided by opinions. But Persæus argued against
this, and caused one of two twin brothers to place a deposit in
his hands, and then caused the other to reclaim it; and thus
he convicted him, as he was in doubt on this point, and therefore
forced to act on opinion. He was a great enemy of
Arcesilaus. And once, seeing a bull of a monstrous conformation,
having a womb, he said, “Alas! here is an argument
for Arcesilaus against the evidence of his senses.” On another
occasion, when a philosopher of the Academy said that he did
not comprehend anything, he said to him, “Do not you even
see the man who is sitting next to you?” And as he said
that he did not, he said:—
Who then has blinded you, who’s been so harsh,
As thus to rob you of your beaming eyes?
VII. The following works are attributed to him. Two books
of Exhortatory Discourses; Dialogues on the Doctrines of
Zeno; six books of Conversations; seven books of Discussions
on Wisdom; Conversations on Love; Commentaries on Vain
Glory; twenty-five books of Reminiscences; three books of
Memorabilia; eleven books of Apophthegms; a volume against
the Orators; a volume against the Rescripts of Alexinus;
three treatises against the Dialecticians; four books of Letters
to Cleanthes. But Panætius and Sosicrates say, that his only
genuine writings are his letters; and that all the rest are the
works of Ariston the Peripatetic.
VIII. It is said that he, being bald, got a stroke of the
sun, and so died. And we have written a jesting epigram on
him in Scazon iambics, in the following terms:—
Why, O Ariston, being old and bald,
Did you allow the sun to roast your crown?
Thus, in an unbecoming search for warmth,
Against your will, you’ve found out chilly Hell.
IX. There was also another man of the name of Ariston;
a native of Julii, one of the Peripatetic school. And another
who was an Athenian musician. A fourth who was a tragic
poet. A fifth, a native of Alæa, who wrote a treatise on the
Oratorical Art. A sixth was a peripatetic Philosopher of
Alexandria.
LIFE OF HERILLUS
I. Herillus, a native of Carthage, said that the chief good
was knowledge; that is to say, the always conducting one’s
self in such a way as to refer everything to the principle of
living according to knowledge, and not been misled by ignorance.
He also said that knowledge was a habit not departing
from reason in the reception of perceptions.
On one occasion, he said that there was no such thing as a
chief good, but that circumstances and events changed it, just
as the same piece of brass might become a statue either of
Alexander or of Socrates. And that besides the chief good or
end (τέλος), there was a subordinate end (ὑποτελίς) different
from it. And that those who were not wise aimed at the
latter; but that only the wise man directed his views to the
former. And all the things between virtue and vice he
pronounced indifferent.
II. His books contain but few lines, but they are full of
power, and contain arguments in opposition to Zeno.
III. It is said, that when he was a boy, many people were
attached to him; and as Zeno wished to drive them away, he
persuaded him to have his head shaved, which disgusted them
all.
IV. His books are these. One on Exercise; one on the
Passions; one on Opinion; the Lawgiver; the Skilful
Midwife; the Contradictory Teacher; the Preparer; the
Director; the Mercury; the Medea; a book of Dialogues; a
book of Ethical Propositions.
LIFE OF DIONYSIUS
I. Dionysius, the Deserter, as he was called, asserted that
pleasure was the chief good, from the circumstance of his
being afflicted with a complaint in his eyes. For, as he
suffered severely, he could not pronounce pain a thing indifferent.
II. He was the son of Theophantus, and a native of
Heraclea.
III. He was a pupil, as we are told by Diocles, first of all
of Heraclides, his fellow citizen; after that of Alexinus, and
Menedemus; and last of all of Zeno. And at first, as he was
very devoted to learning, he tried his hand at all kinds of
poetry. Afterwards, he attached himself to Aratus, whom he
took for his model. Having left Zeno, he turned to the
Cyrenaics, and became a frequenter of brothels, and in other
respects indulged in luxury without disguise.
IV. When he had lived near eighty years, he died of
starvation.
V. The following books are attributed to him. Two books
on Apathy; two on Exercise; four on Pleasure; one on
Riches, and Favours, and Revenge; one on the Use of Men;
one on Good Fortune; one on Ancient Kings; one on Things
which are Praised; one on Barbarian Customs.
These now are the chief men who differed from the Stoics.
But the man who succeeded Zeno in his school was Cleanthes,
whom we must now speak of.
LIFE OF CLEANTHES
I. Cleanthes was a native of Assos, and the son of
Phanias. He was originally a boxer, as we learn from Antisthenes,
in his Successions. And he came to Athens, having
but four drachmas, as some people say, and attaching himself
to Zeno, he devoted himself to Philosophy in a most noble
manner; and he adhered to the same doctrines as his master.
II. He was especially eminent for his industry, so that as
he was a very poor man, he was forced to undertake mercenary
employments, and he used to draw water in the gardens by
night, and by day he used to exercise himself in philosophical
discussions; on which account he was called Phreantles.
They also say that he was on one occasion brought before a
court of justice, to be compelled to give an account what his
sources of income were from which he maintained himself in
such good condition; and that then he was acquitted, having
produced as his witness the gardener in whose garden he drew
the water; and a woman who was a mealseller, in whose
establishment he used to prepare the meal. And the judges
of the Areopagus admired him, and voted that ten minæ should
be given to him; but Zeno forbade him to accept them.
They also say that Antigonus presented him three thousand
drachmas. And once, when he was conducting some young
men to some spectacle, it happened that the wind blew away
his cloak, and it was then seen that he had nothing on under
it; on which he was greatly applauded by the Athenians,
according to the account given by Demetrius, the Magnesian,
in his essay on People of the same Name. And he was greatly
admired by them on account of this circumstance.
They also say that Antigonus, who was a pupil of his, once
asked him why he drew water; and that he made answer,
“Do I do nothing beyond drawing water? Do I not also dig,
and do I not water the land, and do all sorts of things for the
sake of philosophy?” For Zeno used to accustom him to this,
and used to require him to bring him an obol by way of
tribute. And once he brought one of the pieces of money
which he had collected in this way, into the middle of a
company of his acquaintances, and said, “Cleanthes could
maintain even another Cleanthes if he were to choose; but
others who have plenty of means to support themselves, seek
for necessaries from others; although they only study philosophy
in a very lazy manner.” And, in reference to these
habits of his, Cleanthes was called a second Heracles.
III. He was then very industrious; but he was not well
endowed by nature, and was very slow in his intellect. On
which account Timon says of him:—
What stately ram thus measures o’er the ground,
And master of the flock surveys them round?
What citizen of Assos, dull and cold,
Fond of long words, a mouth-piece, but not bold.
And when he was ridiculed by his fellow pupils, he used to
bear it patiently.
IV. He did not even object to the name when he was
called an ass; but only said that he was the only animal able
to bear the burdens which Zeno put upon him. And once,
when he was reproached as a coward, he said, “That is the
reason why I make but few mistakes.” He used to say, in
justification of his preference of his own way of life to that of
the rich, “That while they were playing at ball, he was earning
money by digging hard and barren ground.” And he very
often used to blame himself. And once, Ariston heard him
doing so, and said, “Who is it that you are reproaching?”
and he replied, “An old man who has grey hair, but no
brains.”
When some one once said to him, that Arcesilaus did not
do what he ought, “Desist,” he replied, “and do not blame
him; for, if he destroys duty as far as his words go, at all
events he establishes it by his actions.” Arcesilaus once said
to him, “I never listen to flatterers.” “Yes,” rejoined Cleanthes,
“I flatter you, when I say that though you say one
thing, you do another.” When some one once asked him what
lesson he ought to inculcate on his son, he replied, “The
warning of Electra:”—
Silence, silence, gently step.
When a Lacedæmonian once said in his hearing, that labour
was a good thing, he was delighted, and addressed him:—
Oh, early worth, a soul so wise and young
Proclaims you from the sage Lycurgus sprung.
Hecaton tells us in his Apophthegms, that once when a
young man said, “If a man who beats his stomach γαστρίζει
then a man who slaps his thigh μηρίζει,” he replied, “Do you
stick to your διαμηρίζει.” But analogous words do not always
indicate analogous facts. Once when he was conversing with
a youth, he asked him if he felt; and as he said that he did,
“Why is it then,” said Cleanthes, “that I do not feel that
you feel?”
When Sositheus, the poet, said in the theatre where he was
present:—
Men whom the folly of Cleanthes urges;
He continued in the same attitude; at which the hearers were
surprised, and applauded him, but drove Sositheus away. And
when he expressed his sorrow for having abused him in this
manner, he answered him gently, saying, “That it would be
a preposterous thing for Bacchus and Hercules to bear being
ridiculed by the poets without any expression of anger, and
for him to be indignant at any chance attack.” He used
also to say, “That the Peripatetics were in the same condition
as lyres, which though they utter sweet notes, do not
hear themselves.” And it is said, that when he asserted
that, on the principles of Zeno, one could judge of a man’s
character by his looks, some witty young men brought him
a profligate fellow, having a hardy look from continual
exercise in the fields, and requested him to tell them his
moral character; and he, having hesitated a little, bade the
man depart; and, as he departed, he sneezed, “I have the
fellow now,” said Cleanthes, “he is a debauchee.”
He said once to a man who was conversing with him by
himself, “You are not talking to a bad man.” And when
some one reproached him with his old age, he rejoined, “I
too wish to depart, but when I perceive myself to be in
good health in every respect, and to be able to recite and
read, I am content to remain.” They say too, that he used
to write down all that he heard from Zeno on oyster shells,
and on the shoulder-blades of oxen, from want of money to
buy paper with.
V. And though he was of this character, and in such
circumstances, he became so eminent, that, though Zeno
had many other disciples of high reputation, he succeeded
him as the president of his School.
VI. And he left behind him some excellent books, which
are these. One on Time; two on Zeno’s System of Natural
Philosophy; four books of the Explanations of Heraclitus;
one on Sensation; one on Art; one addressed to Democritus;
one to Aristarchus; one to Herillus; two on Desire; one
entitled Archæology; one on the Gods; one on the Giants;
one on Marriage; one on Poets; three on Duty; one on
Good Counsel; one on Favour; one called Exhortatory;
one on Virtues; one on Natural Ability; one on Gorgippus;
one on Enviousness; one on Love; one on Freedom;
one called the Art of Love; one on Honour; one on
Glory; The Statesman; one on Counsel; one on Laws;
one on Deciding as a Judge; one on the Way of Life;
three on Reason; one on the Chief Good; one on the
Beautiful; one on Actions; one on Knowledge; one on
Kingly Power; one on Friendship; one on Banquets; one
on the Principle that Virtue is the same in Man and Woman;
one on the Wise Man Employing Sophisms; one on Apophthegms;
two books of Conversations; one on Pleasure; one
on Properties; one on Doubtful Things; one on Dialectics;
one on Modes; one on Categorems.
VII. These are his writings.
And he died in the following manner. His gums swelled
very much; and, at the command of his physicians, he abstained
from food for two days. And he got so well that his physicians
allowed him to return to all his former habits; but he refused,
and saying that he had now already gone part of the way, he
abstained from food for the future, and so died; being, as
some report, eighty years old, and having been a pupil of Zeno
nineteen years. And we have written a playful epigram on
him also, which runs thus:—
I praise Cleanthes, but praise Pluto more;
Who could not bear to see him grown so old,
So gave him rest at last among the dead,
Who’d drawn such loads of water while alive.
LIFE OF SPHÆRUS
I. Sphærus, a native of the Bosphorus, was, as we have
said before, a pupil of Cleanthes after the death of Zeno.
II. And when he made a considerable advance in philosophy
he went to Alexandria, to the court of Ptolemy Philopater.
And once, when there was a discussion concerning the question
whether a wise man would allow himself to be guided by
opinion, and when Sphærus affirmed that he would not, the
king, wishing to refute him, ordered some pomegranates of
wax to be set before him; and when Sphærus was deceived by
them, the king shouted that he had given his assent to a false
perception. But Sphærus answered very neatly, that he had
not given his assent to the fact that they were pomegranates,
but to the fact that it was probable that they might be pomegranates.
And that a perception which could be comprehended
differed from one that was only probable.
Once, when Mnesistratus accused him of denying that
Ptolemy was a king, he said to him, “That Ptolemy was a
man with such and such qualities, and a king.”
III. He wrote the following books. Two on the World;
one on the Elements of Seed; one on Fortune; one on the
Smallest Things; one on Atoms and Phantoms; one on the
Senses; five Conversations about Heraclitus; one on Ethical
Arrangement; one on Duty; one on Appetite; two on the
Passions; one on Kingly Power; on the Lacedæmonian
Constitution; three on Lycurgus and Socrates; one on Law;
one on Divination; one volume of Dialogues on Love; one
on the Eretrian Philosophers; one on Things Similar; one
on Terms; one on Habits; three on Contradictions; one on
Reason; one on Riches; one on Glory; one on Death; two
on the Art of Dialectics; one on Categorems; one on Ambiguity;
and a volume of Letters.
LIFE OF CHRYSIPPUS
I. Chrysippus was the son of Apollonius, and a native of
either Soli or Tarsus, as Alexander tells us in his Successions;
and he was a pupil of Cleanthes. Previously he used to
practise running as a public runner; then he became a pupil
of Zeno or of Cleanthes, as Diocles and the generality of
authors say, and while he was still living he abandoned him,
and became a very eminent philosopher.
II. He was a man of great natural ability, and of great
acuteness in every way, so that in many points he dissented
from Zeno, and also from Cleanthes, to whom he often used
to say that he only wanted to be instructed in the dogmas of
the school, and that he would discover the demonstrations for
himself. But whenever he opposed him with any vehemence,
he always repented, so that he used frequently to say:—
In most respects I am a happy man,
Excepting where Cleanthes is concerned;
For in that matter I am far from fortunate.
And he had such a high reputation as a dialectician, that most
people thought that if there were such a science as dialectics
among the Gods; it would be in no respect different from that
of Chrysippus. But though he was so eminently able in matter,
he was not perfect in style.
III. He was industrious beyond all other men; as is plain
from his writings; for he wrote more than seven hundred and
five books. And he often wrote several books on the same
subject, wishing to put down everything that occurred to him;
and constantly correcting his previous assertions, and using a
great abundance of testimonies. So that, as in one of his
writings he had quoted very nearly the whole of the Medea of
Euripides, and some one had his book in his hands; this latter,
when he was asked what he had got there, made answer,
“The Medea of Chrysippus.” And Apollodorus, the Athenian,
in his Collection of Dogmas, wishing to assert that what
Epicurus had written out of his own head, and without any
quotations to support his arguments, was a great deal more
than all the books of Chrysippus, speaks thus (I give his
exact words), “For if any one were to take away from the
books of Chrysippus all the passages which he quotes from
other authors, his paper would be left empty.”
These are the words of Apollodorus; but the old woman
who lived with him, as Diocles reports, used to say that he
wrote five hundred lines every day. And Hecaton says, that
he first applied himself to philosophy, when his patrimony had
been confiscated, and seized for the royal treasury.
IV. He was slight in person, as is plain from his statue
which is in the Ceramicus, which is nearly hidden by the
equestrian statue near it; in reference to which circumstance,
Carneades called him Crypsippus. He was once reproached
by some one for not attending the lectures of Ariston, who
was drawing a great crowd after him at the time; and he
replied, “If I had attended to the multitude I should not have
been a philosopher.” And once, when he saw a dialectician
pressing hard on Cleanthes, and proposing sophistical fallacies
to him, he said, “Cease to drag that old man from more
important business, and propose these questions to us who are
young.” At another time, when some one wishing to ask him
something privately, was addressing him quietly, but when he
saw a multitude approaching began to speak more energetically
he said to him:—
Alas, my brother! now your eye is troubled;
You were quite sane just now; and yet how quickly
Have you succumbed to frenzy.
And at drinking parties he used to behave quietly, moving his
legs about however, so that a female slave once said, “It is
only the legs of Chrysippus that are drunk.” And he had so
high an opinion of himself, that once, when a man asked him,
“To whom shall I entrust my son?” he said, “To me, for if
I thought that there was any one better than myself, I would
have gone to him to teach me philosophy.” In reference to
which anecdote they report that people used to say of him:—
He has indeed a clear and subtle head,
The rest are forms of empty æther made.
And also:—
For if Chrysippus had not lived and taught,
The Stoic school would surely have been nought.
VI. But at last, when Arcesilaus and Lacydes, as Sotion
records in his eighth book, came to the Academy, he joined
them in the study of philosophy; from which circumstance
he got the habit of arguing for and against a custom, and discussed
magnitudes and quantities, following the system of the
Academics.
VII. Hermippus relates, that one day, when he was teaching
in the Odeum, he was invited to a sacrifice by his pupils;
and, that drinking some sweet unmixed wine, he was seized
with giddiness, and departed this life five days afterwards,
when he had lived seventy-three years; dying in the hundred
and forty-third olympiad, as Apollodorus says in his Chronicles.
And we have written an epigram on him:—
Chrysippus drank with open mouth some wine
Then became giddy, and so quickly died.
Too little reck’d he of the Porch’s weal,
Or of his country’s, or of his own dear life;
And so descended to the realms of Hell.
But some people say that he died of a fit of immoderate
laughter. For that seeing his ass eating figs, he told his old
woman to give the ass some unmixed wine to drink afterwards,
and then laughed so violently that he died.
VIII. He appears to have been a man of exceeding arrogance.
Accordingly, though he wrote such numbers of books,
he never dedicated one of them to any sovereign. And he
was contented with one single old woman, as Demetrius tells
us, in his People of the same Name. And when Ptolemy wrote
to Cleanthes, begging him either to come to him himself or to
send him some one, Sphærus went to him, but Chrysippus
slighted the invitation.
IX. However, he sent for the sons of his sister, Aristocreon
and Philocrates, and educated them; and he was the first
person who ventured to hold a school in the open air in the
Lyceum, as the before mentioned Demetrius relates.
X. There was also another Chrysippus, a native of Cnidos,
a physician, from whom Erasistratus testifies that he received
great benefit. And another also who was a son of his, and the
physician of Ptolemy; who, having had a false accusation
brought against him, was apprehended and punished by being
scourged. There was also a fourth who was a pupil of Erasistratus;
and a fifth was an author of a work called Georgics.
XI. Now this philosopher used to delight in proposing
questions of this sort. The person who reveals the mysteries
to the uninitiated commits a sin; the hierophant
reveals them to the uninitiated; therefore the hierophant
commits sin? Another was, that which is not in the city, is
also not in the house; but a well is not in the city, therefore,
there is not a well in the house. Another was, there is a
certain head; that head you have not got; there is then a
head that you have not got; therefore, you have not got a
head. Again, if a man is in Megara, he is not in Athens;
but there is a man in Megara, therefore, there is not a man in
Athens. Again, if you say anything, what you say comes out
of your mouth; but you say “a waggon,” therefore a waggon
comes out of your mouth. Another was, if you have not lost
a thing, you have it; but you have not lost horns; therefore,
you have horns. Though some attribute this sophism to
Eubulides.
XII. There are people who run Chrysippus down as having
written a great deal that is very shameful and indecent. For
in his treatise on the Ancient Natural Historians, he relates
the story of Jupiter and Juno very indecently, devoting six
hundred lines to what no one could repeat without polluting
his mouth. For, as it is said, he composes this story, though
he praises it as consisting of natural details, in a way more
suitable to street walkers than to Goddesses; and not at all
resembling the ideas which have been adopted or cited by
writers in paintings. For they were found neither in Polemo,
nor in Hypsicrates, nor in Antigonus, but were inserted by
himself. And in his treatise on Polity, he allows people to
marry their mothers, or their daughters, or their sons. And
he repeats this doctrine in his treatise on those things which
are not desirable for their own sake, in the very opening of it.
And in the third book of his treatise on Justice, he devotes a
thousand lines to bidding people devour even the dead.
In the second book of his treatise on Life and Means of
Support, where he is warning us to consider beforehand, how
the wise man ought to provide himself with means, he says,
“And yet why need he provide himself with means? for if it
is for the sake of living, living at all is a matter of indifference;
if it is for the sake of pleasure, that is a matter of indifference
too; if it is for the sake of virtue, that is of itself
sufficient for happiness. But the methods of providing one’s
self with means are ridiculous; for instance, some derive
them from a king; and then it will be necessary to humour
him. Some from friendship; and then friendship will become
a thing to be bought with a price. Some from wisdom; and
then wisdom will become mercenary; and these are the
accusations which he brings.”
But since he has written many books of high reputation, it
has seemed good to me to give a catalogue of them, classifying
them according to their subjects. They are the following:—
Books on Logic; Propositions; Logical Questions; a book
of the Contemplations of the Philosopher; six books of
Dialectic Terms addressed to Metrodorus; one on the Technical
Terms used in Dialectics, addressed to Zeno; one called
the Art of Dialectics, addressed to Aristagoras; four books of
Probable Conjunctive Reasons, addressed to Dioscorides.
The first set of treatises on the Logical Topics, which concern
things, contains: one essay on Propositions; one on
those Propositions which are not simple; two on the Copulative
Propositions, addressed to Athenades; three on Positive
Propositions, addressed to Aristagoras; one on Definite Propositions,
addressed to Athenodorus; one on Privative Propositions,
addressed to Thearus; three on the Best Propositions,
addressed to Dion; four on the Differences between Indefinite
Propositions; two on those Propositions which are enunciated
with a reference to time; two on Perfect Propositions.
The second set contains, one essay on a Disjunctive True
Propositions, addressed to Gorgippides; four on a Conjunctive
True Proposition, also addressed to Gorgippides; one
called, the Sect, addressed to Gorgippides; one on the argument
of Consequents; one on questions touched upon in the
three preceding treatises, and now re-examined, this also is
addressed to Gorgippides; one on what is Possible, addressed
to Clitus; one on the treatise of Philo, on Signification; one
on what it is that Falsehood consists in.
The third set contains, two treatises on Imperative Propositions;
two on Interrogation; four on Examination; an
epitome of the subject of Interrogation and Examination;
four treatises on Answer; an abridgment on Answer; two
essays on Investigation.
The fourth set contains ten books on Categorems, addressed
to Metrodorus; one treatise on what is Direct and Indirect,
addressed to Philarchus; one on Conjunctions, addressed to
Apollonides; four on Categorems, addressed to Pasylus.
The fifth set contains, one treatise on the Five Cases; one
on Things defined according to the Subject; two on Enunciation,
addressed to Stesagoras; two on Appellative Nouns.
The next class of his writings refers to rules of Logic,
with reference to words, and speech which consists of
words.
The first set of these contains, six treatises on Singular and
Plural Enunciations; five on Words, addressed to Sosigenes
and Alexander; four on the Inequality of Words, addressed
to Dion; three on the Sorites which refer to Words; one on
Solecisms in the Use of Words, addressed to Dionysius; one
entitled Discourses, contrary to Customs; one entitled Diction,
and addressed to Dionysius.
The second set contains, five treatises on the Elements of
Speech and of Phrases; four on the Arrangement of Phrases;
three on the Arrangement, and on the Elements of Phrases,
addressed to Philip; one on the Elements of Discourse,
addressed to Nicias; one on Correlatives.
The third set contains, two treatises against those who do
not admit Division; four on Ambiguous Expressions, addressed
to Apollos; one, Ambiguity in Modes; two on the
Ambiguous Use of Figures, in Conjunctive Propositions; two
on the essay on Ambiguous Expressions, by Panthoides; five
on the Introduction to the Ambiguous Expressions; one,
being an abridgment of the Ambiguous Expressions,
addressed to Epicrates; and a collection of instances to serve
as an Introduction to the Ambiguous Expressions, in two
books.
The next class is on the subject of that part of logic
which is conversant about reasonings and modes.
The first set of works in this class, contains, the Art of
Reasoning and of Modes, in five books, addressed to Dioscorides;
a treatise on Reasoning, in three books; one on the
Structure of Modes, addressed to Stesagoras, in five books;
a comparison of the Elements of Modes; a treatise on Reciprocal
and Conjunctive Reasonings; an essay to Agathon,
called also an essay on Problems, which follow one another;
a treatise, proving that Syllogistic Propositions suppose one or
more other terms; one on Conclusions, addressed to Aristagoras;
one essay, proving that the same reasoning can
affect several figures; one against those who deny that the
same reasoning can be expressed by syllogism, and without
syllogism, in two books; three treatises against those who
attack the resolution of Syllogisms; one on the treatise on
Modes, by Philo, addressed to Timostratus; two treatises on
Logic, in one volume, addressed to Timocrates and Philomathes;
one volume of questions on Reasonings and Modes.
The second set contains, one book of Conclusive Reasonings,
addressed to Zeno; one on Primary Syllogisms, which
are not demonstrative; one on the resolution of Syllogisms;
one, in two books, on Captious Reasonings, addressed
to Pasylus; one book of Considerations on Syllogisms; one
book of Introductory Syllogisms, addressed to Zeno; three
of Introductory Modes, addressed also to Zeno; five of False
Figures of Syllogism; one of a Syllogistic Method, for the
resolution of arguments, which are not demonstrative; one of
Researches into the Modes, addressed to Zeno and Philomathes
(but this appears to be an erroneous title).
The third set contains, one essay on Incidental Reasonings,
addressed to Athenades (this again is an incorrect title);
three books of Incidental Discourses on the Medium (another
incorrect title); one essay on the Disjunctive Reasons of
Aminias.
The fourth set contains, a treatise on Hypothesis, in three
books, addressed to Meleager; a book of hypothetical reasonings
on the Laws, addressed also to Meleager; two books
of hypothetical reasoning to serve as an Introduction; two
books of hypothetical reasonings on Theorems; a treatise in
two books, being a resolution of the Hypothetical Reasonings
of Hedylus; an essay, in three books, being a resolution
of the Hypothetical Reasonings of Alexander (this is an
incorrect title); two books of Expositions, addressed to
Leodamas.
The fifth set contains, an introduction to Fallacy, addressed to
Aristocreon; an introduction to False Reasonings;
a treatise in six books, on Fallacy, addressed to Aristocreon.
The sixth set contains, a treatise against those who believe
Truth and Falsehood to be the same thing. One, in two
books, against those who have recourse to division to resolve
the Fallacy, addressed to Aristocreon; a demonstrative
essay, to prove that it is not proper to divide indefinite terms;
an essay, in three books, in answer to the objections against
the non-division of Indefinite Terms, addressed to Pasylus; a
solution, according to the principles of the ancients, addressed
to Dioscorides; an essay on the Resolution of the Fallacy,
addressed to Aristocreon, this is in three books; a resolution
of the Hypothetical Arguments of Hedylus, in one book,
addressed to Aristocreon and Apollos.
The seventh set contains, a treatise against those who
contend that the premisses on the Fallacy, are false; a
treatise on Negative Reasoning, addressed to Aristocreon, in
two books; one book of Negative Reasonings, addressed to
Gymnasias; two books of a treatise on Reasoning by Progression,
addressed to Stesagoras; two books of Reasonings by
Interrogation, and on the Arrest, addressed to Onetor;
an essay, in two books, on the Corrected Argument, addressed
to Aristobulus; another on the Non-apparent Argument,
addressed to Athenades.
The eighth set contains, an essay on the Argument Outis,
in eight books, addressed to Menecrates; a treatise, in two
books, on Arguments composed of a finite term, and an indefinite
term, addressed to Pasylus; another essay on the
Argument Outis, addressed to Epicrates.
The ninth set contains, two volumes of Sophisms, addressed
to Heraclides, and Pollis; five volumes of Dialectic Arguments,
which admit of no solution, addressed to Dioscorides;
an essay, in one book, against the Method of Arcesilaus,
addressed to Sphærus.
The tenth set contains, a treatise in six books, against
Custom, addressed to Metrodorus; and another, in seven
books, on Custom, addressed to Gorgippides.
There are, therefore, works on Logic, in the four grand
classes which we have here enumerated, embracing various
questions, without any connection with one another, to the
number of thirty nine sets, amounting in the whole to three
hundred and eleven treatises on Logic.
The next division comprises those works which have for
their object, the explanation of Moral Ideas.
The first class of this division, contains an essay, giving a
description of Reason, addressed to Theosphorus; a book of
Ethical questions; three books of Principles, to serve as the
foundation of Dogmas, addressed to Philomathes; two books
of definitions of Good-breeding, addressed to Metrodorus;
two books of definitions of the Bad, addressed to Metrodorus;
two books of definitions of Neutral Things, addressed also
to Metrodorus; seven books of definitions of Things, according
to their genera, addressed to Metrodorus; and two books
of Definitions, according to other systems, addressed to
Metrodorus.
The second set contains, a treatise on Things Similar, in
three books, addressed to Aristocles; an essay on Definitions,
in seven books, addressed to Metrodorus.
The third set contains, a treatise, in seven books, on the
Incorrect Objections made to Definitions, addressed to Laodamas;
two books of Probable Arguments bearing on Definitions,
addressed to Dioscorides; two books on Species and
Genus, addressed to Gorgippides; one book on Divisions;
two books on Contraries, addressed to Dionysius; a book of
Probable Arguments relating to Divisions, and Genera, and
Species; a book on Contraries.
The fourth set contains, a treatise, in seven books, on
Etymologies, addressed to Diocles; another, in four books, on
the same subject, addressed to the same person.
The fifth set contains, a treatise in two books, on Proverbs,
addressed to Zenodotus; an essay on Poems, addressed to
Philomathes; an essay, on How one Ought to Listen to
Poems, in two books; an essay, in reply to Critics, addressed
to Diodorus.
The next division refers to Ethics, looked at in a general
point of view, and to the different systems arising out of
them, and to the Virtues.
The first set contains, an essay against Pictures, addressed
to Timonax; an essay on the Manner in which we express
ourselves about, and form our Conceptions of, each separate
thing; two books of Thoughts, addressed to Laodamas; an
essay, in three books, on Conception, addressed to Pythonax;
an essay, that the Wise Man is not Guided by Opinion;
an essay, in five books, on Comprehension, and Knowledge,
and Ignorance; a treatise on Reason, in two books; a treatise
on the Employment of Reason, addressed to Leptines.
The second set contains, a treatise, that the Ancient
Philosophers approved of Logic, with Proofs to support the
Arguments, in two books, addressed to Zeno; a treatise on
Dialectics, in four books, addressed to Aristocreon; an answer
to the Objections urged against Dialectics, in three
books; an essay on Rhetoric, in four books, addressed to
Dioscorides.
The third set contains, a treatise on Habit, in three books,
addressed to Cleon; a treatise on Art and Want of Art, in
four books, addressed to Aristocreon; a treatise, in four books,
on the Difference between the Virtues, addressed to Diodorus;
a treatise, to show that all the Virtues are Equal; a treatise
on the Virtues, in two books, addressed to Pollis.
The next division refers to Ethics, as relating to Good and
Evil.
The first set contains, a treatise in ten books, on the
Honourable, and on Pleasure, addressed to Aristocreon; a
demonstration, that Pleasure is not the Chief Good of Man,
in four books; a demonstration that Pleasure is not a Good
at all, in four books; a treatise on what is said by …
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