A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

literary.

1. A Stoic philosopher in the reign of Tiberius, who was defrauded of his property by Sejanus, and reduced to cultivate the ground. (Senec. Suas. 2. p. 17, ed. Bip.) He taught the philosopher Seneca (Ep. 108), who frequently quotes him, and speaks of him in the highest terms. (Comp. Nat. Quaest. 2.50, Ep. 9, 63, 67, 72, 81, 109.) The elder Seneca describes him (Suas. l.c.) as a man of great eloquence, and by far the acutest philosopher of his age. We have mention of a work of his on lightning (Nat. Quaest. 2.48); and it is supposed that he may be the author of the Παροιμίαι referred to by Hesychius (s. v. Κορίννουσι) as written by one Attalus.