Roman Stoicism
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page 8
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
FETTER LANE,
ILonUon:
C.
CLAY, MANAGER
F.
100,
i):
Berlin
:
E.G.
PRINCES STREET
ASHER AND CO.
F. A. KROCKHAUS
A.
ILfipug:
$eta gorfc: G. P.
fcombag ant) Calcutta:
PUTNAM S SONS
MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD
page 9
ROMAN STOICISM
BEING LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF THE
WITH SPECIAL
REFERENCE TO ITS DEVELOPMENT
WITHIN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
STOIC PHILOSOPHY
BY
E.
VERNON ARNOLD, Lrrr.D.
PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH WALES
AND FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
Cambridge
at
:
the University Press
191 1
page 13
PREFACE
book is the outcome of a course of lectures delivered
THIS
by me
in successive
years to Latin Honours students
accordance with the regulations of the University of Wales.
is
in
It
therefore primarily intended for the assistance of classical
students
;
but
may perhaps appeal in its present form to a
it
somewhat wider circle.
At the time that the book was begun the best systematic
exposition of the Stoic philosophy available for English readers
ZELLER S Stoics Epicureans and
This
Sceptics, translated by O. J. REICHEL (Longmans, 1892).
was to be found
in
Prof. E.
work, admirable in detail, is nevertheless somewhat inadequate
to the subject, which appeared to
sequel to the
its
learned author as a mere
much more important philosophical systems
Plato and Aristotle.
Since its first appearance
of
many qualified
writers have been inclined to assign a higher rank to Stoicism,
whom L. STEIN, A. SCHMEKEL, and HANS von
ARNIM in the German-speaking countries, and A. C. PEARSON,
amongst
G. H.
KENDALL, and
R. D.
HlCKS
in
our own, are perhaps
most conspicuous.
The view taken in this book corresponds generally to that
Shortly expressed, it regards
by the writers named.
Stoicism as the bridge between ancient and modern philo
taken
sophical thought
;
a position which appears to be accepted
by
page 14, segment 1/2
PREFACE
viii
W.
L.
DAVIDSON
writing on
behalf of students
modern
of
Mr Hicks and Mr Davidson have recently published
philosophy.
works dealing with the Stoic philosophy as a whole
neither of these quite covers the ground
;
marked out
but as
for this
book, I believe that room will be found for a further presentation
of the subject.
To the writers named and to many others, my obligations
are great, and their extent
I
is
generally indicated in the Index.
owe a more intimate debt
Prof.
Mr
to
A. C.
PEARSON and
ALFRED CALDECOTT, who have given me ungrudgingly
of their knowledge and counsel during the whole period of the
preparation of this book.
The appearance of H. von Arnim s Stoicorum veterum
made available to me a mass of material from
fragmenta
Greek sources, and has (I hope) made this book less imperfect
For
it would otherwise have been.
on the side of Greek than
the quotations in the notes from the Greek and the less-known
Latin authors
I
have generally given references to von Arnim s
collections, which will doubtless be more accessible to most of
my readers than the original writers.
those to
the
von Arnim
is
These references include
fragments of Zeno and
in
the main
Cleanthes,
for
which
indebted to the earlier work of
Pearson.
So general a treatment of the subject as is here presented
must necessarily leave room for correction and amplification
in its various branches, and I trust that I am pointing out to
younger students a
gleaned.
field
in
which a
rich harvest
may yet be
To such students the appended Bibliography, though
necessarily incomplete, may be of use as an introduction to the
considerable literature which
is
available to them.
The concluding chapter makes its appeal not so much to
students, as
page 14, segment 2/2
such, as to those who are interested in
classical
the problem of Christian origins
;
the further problems of the
page 15
PREFACE
influence
though
of Stoicism
on modern
at first included in
to enter upon.
But
show
interest
that
the
I
IX
literature
my programme,
hope that at
least
of classical
Hellenistic philosophy, does not
lie
and
philosophy,
have not ventured
I
have been able to
I
studies,
even
as
regards
in the past.
wholly
My sincere thanks are due to the Council of the University
College of North Wales for granting
me special assistance in
my College duties during the Spring term of 1910, in order
that
I
might give more tirhe to
this
book
;
to the Syndics of
the Cambridge University Press for undertaking its publication;
and to Mr Clay and his expert staff for the admirable execution
of the printing.
E.
25
January 1911
VERNON ARNOLD
page 17
CONTENTS
CHAP.
I.
PAGE
The World-Religions
.....
i
II.
Heraclitus and Socrates
III.
The Academy and the Porch
IV.
The Preaching of Stoicism
V.
The Stoic Sect in Rome
99
VI.
Of Reason and Speech
128
.
.
.
.
29
53
78
VII.
The Foundations of Physics
VIII.
The Universe
IX.
The Supreme Problems
198
X.
Religion
216
XL
The Kingdom of the Soul
XII.
The Law for Humanity
.
.
.
.
155
175
.
.....
XIII.
Daily Duties
XIV.
Sin and
XV.
Counsels of Perfection
XVI.
Stoicism in
XVII.
The Stoic Strain in Christianity
38
273
301
Weakness
33
.
Roman History and Literature
.
.
....
357
380
408
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
I.
Ancient Writers and Philosophers
II.
Modern Writers
.
437
445
GENERAL INDEX
451
GREEK INDEX
466
page 19
CHAPTER
I.
THE WORLD-RELIGIONS.
1.
THE present work treats of a subject of outstanding
Roman Htera-
interest in the literature
ture
the
which
is
associated with
history of the Roman State, and which is
In the
expressed partly in Hellenistic Greek, partly in Latin.
-
generations preceding our own, classical study has, to a large
extent, attended to form rather than to matter, to expression
rather than to content.
To-day it is beginning to take a wider
We
outlook.
are learning to look on literature as an unveiling
of the human mind in its various stages of development, and as
a key to the true meaning of history.
The literature of Greece
proper does not cease to attract us by its originality, charm, and
but the new interest may yet find its fullest satisfaction
variety
;
Roman literature
for of all ancient peoples the Romans
achieved most, and their achievements have been the most
It was the Roman who joined the ends of the world
enduring.
in
;
by his roads and his bridges, poured into crowded towns unfail
ing supplies of corn and perennial streams of pure water, cleared
the countryside of highwaymen, converted enemies into neigh
bours, created ideals of brotherhood under which the nations
were united by common laws and unfettered marriage relations,
and so shaped a new religion that if it shattered an empire it
We are the inheritors
yet became the mother of many nations.
of Roman civilization
and if we have far surpassed it in
scientific knowledge and material plenty, we are not equally
confident that we possess better mental balance, or more com
;
plete social harmony.
life
In this direction the problems of Roman
are the problems of Western
A.
life
to-day
;
and the methods
I
page 20, segment 1/2
ROMAN STOICISM
2
by which they were approached in the Roman world deserve
more than ever to be studied by us. Such a study, if it is to be
in any true sense historical, must break through the convention
by which ancient Greece and Rome have come to be treated as
a world apart; it must seek its starting point in the distant past,
and count that of chief importance which will bear fruit in the
ages that follow.
2.
Great achievements are born of strong convictions
Beliefs of the
Romans.
;
and
Roman statesmen, jurists, soldiers, and engineers
fa^ not
}
earn
|-
o
<
scorn delights and live laborious
without some strong impulse from within. These inner
convictions do not come to the surface everywhere in the Latin
days
literature with which we are
most familiar.
The Roman orator
generally content to express a conventional view of
or poet
is
religion
and morals, whilst he conceals his real thoughts in a
Yet here and there
spirit of reticence and almost of shame.
will
catch
accent
of sincerity, some
the
every attentive reader
times in the less restrained conversation of the lower classes,
sometimes in flights of poetic imagination, or again in instruction
designed for the young. In this way we learn that the Romans
of the last century of the republic and of the first century of the
principate were profoundly concerned, not so much with ques
tions connected with the safety of their empire or the justice
of their form of government, as with problems in which all
mankind has a common interest. What is truth, and how can
What is this universe in which we dwell,
and by whom and how was it made ? What are the beings
it
be ascertained ?
called gods, and do they concern themselves with the affairs of
men ? What is man s nature, his duty, and his destiny ?
page 20, segment 2/2
These
the Romans called the problems of philosophy, and they eagerly
and practical solutions to them
Such
solutions when embodied in theoretical systems we still call
sought
for
1
definite
.
but when such systems are developed in a
form
and
claim the obedience of large bodies of men
practical
philosophies
;
they become religions.
Stoicism
is
in
the
first
instance
a
philosophy, and amongst its many competitors that one which
1
See below,
441.
page 21, segment 1/2
THE WORLD-RELIGIONS
3
appealed most successfully to the judgment of men who played
but as its acceptance
leading part in the Roman world
a
;
becomes more general, it begins to assume all the features of a.
All Latin literature is thickly strewn with allusions to
religion.
Stoicism and the systems which were its rivals, and thus bears
witness to the widespread interest which they excited.
3.
The Romans
learnt philosophy from
Greek teachers
;
anc^ they were not free from a sense of shame in
thus sitting at the feet of the children of a
origin of
Philosophy.
But they acknowledged their obligations in
conquered race.
a generous spirit and from Roman literature an impression has
arisen, which is still widespread, that Greece was the birthplace
of philosophy, and that its triumphs must be placed to the credit
;
of Hellenic culture.
But to the Hellenes themselves philosophy
equally appeared as a foreign fashion, assailing their national
and of its
beliefs and dangerous to their established morality
;
teachers
many of the most distinguished were immigrants from
Thus Greece itself appears only as a halting-place
and we are carried more and
in the movement of philosophy
more to the East as we seek to discover its origin. Yet at the
time with which we are concerned it had also spread to the
Asia Minor.
;
The Magi, says Aristotle, taught the Persians
the Chaldaeans taught it to the Babylonians and
the Druids
the Gymnosophists to the Indians
extreme West.
philosophy
Assyrians
;
;
;
It was a world-wide
and Semnothei to the Gauls and Celts 2
and
we
must
human
the
of
intellect,
attempt to outline
stirring
.
its
meaning more completely.
4.
v/orid-
Philosophy, in the sense in which Aristotle uses the
term, appears to be a general name for a great
change
page 21, segment 2/2
in man s
intellectual
attitude towards his
environment, corresponding to a definite era in the
Before philosophy came nationalism, the
of
civilization.
history
habit of thinking according to clan and race; and nationalism
remains on record for us in the numerous national religions in
which each people does reverence to the deity which lives within
its borders and goes forth to fight with its armies.
Philosophy
2
Diog. L. Prooem. i.
12