A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ζήνων), philosophers.

1. Of CITIUM, a city in the island of Cyprus, founded by Phoenician settlers. He was the son of Mnaseas. Some authorities assign other names to his father, but with less probability (D. L. 7.1, ib. Menag.). He is said to have been early won over to the pursuit of philosophy through books of the Socratics, which his father was accustomed to bring back from Athens when he went thither on trading voyages; and to have devoted himself to it entirely when (through the direction of an oracle, as is said) at the age of 22, or, according to others, 30 years, having been shipwrecked in the neighbourhood of Peiraeeus, he was led to settle in Athens (ibid. 2, 4, 5, 28). Whether he lost all his property in the shipwreck (Seneca, de Tranqu. Animi, 100.14; Plut. de cap. ex host. Utilitate, p. 87a), or, what is considerably less likely, remained in possession of a fabulous fortune of 1000 talents (D. L. 7.13, comp.15, 22, 5), his moderation and contentment had become proverbial (Ζήνωνος ἐγκρατέστερος, D. L. 27, &c., comp. 26, 13, 16; Suid. s. v.), and an admiring recognition of his virtues shines through even the ridicule of the comic poets (Philemon, Posidippus, &c.; D. L. 7.27, &c.; Clem. Al. Strom. ii. p. 413). Though weakness of body is said to have first determined him to live rigorously and simply (D. L. 7.1; Antig. Caryst. apud Athen. 12.2), and harden himself (D. L. 26, &c.), yet an inclination for being independent of want seems already at an early period to have come in as an additional motive, and to have led him to the cynic Crates, to whom, however, he could only attach himself with a twofold reservation; for he could not adopt either the contempt for established usages which characterised their mode of life, nor their scorn of free and comprehensive knowledge (Ibid. 3, 17, 22). Yet he seems to have been still entirely under their influence when he wrote his Πολιτεία (Ibid. 4 ; comp. Plut. de Alex. fortit. 1.6). When it was that, against the dissuasion of Crates, he betook himself to the Megaric Stilpo (D. L. 7.24. 2), we do not learn; and equally scanty are the accounts which we have respecting his intercourse with the two other contemporary Megarics, Diodorus Cronus and Philon (ibid. 16, 25, 15, 16) on the one hand, and with the Academics, Xenocrates and Polemon (ibid. 2, 35, comp. Solid. s. v.) on the other. Only from the logic of the Stoics we see that in this branch of science they approached considerably nearer to the Megarics than to the Academics. The period which Zenon thus devoted to study is extended by one unauthenticated statement to twenty years. (D. L. 7.4, comp. 2.) At its close, and after he had developed his peculiar philosophical system, to which he must already have gained over some disciples, he opened his school in the porch adorned with the paintings of Polygnotus (Stoa Poicile), which, at an earlier time, had been a place in which poets met (Eratosthenes in D. L. 7.5). From it his disciples were called Stoics, a name which had before been applied to the above-mentioned poets, and by which also the grammarians who assembled there probably at a later time were known. Previously his disciples were called Zenonians. Among the warm admirers of Zenon was king Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia : for although the correspondence between the two, professing to have

reference to an invitation of the king, which Zenon declined (D. L. 7.7, &c.), is unmistakeably the invention of a later rhetorician (see Aldobrandinus on the above passage), it is well established that a close intimacy subsisted between them, kept up through Persaeus and Philonides, disciples of the philosopher, and companions of the king (Ibid. 9. 6, 13-15, 36 ; Arrian, Epict. 3.13 ; Simplic. in Epiclet. Enchir. 100.51; Aelian, Ael. VH 9.26). Zenon is also said to have attracted the attention of the Egyptian Ptolemaeus (D. L. 7.24; in Stobaeus, Serm. xxxi. however, with reference to the same story, ambassadors of Antigonus are spoken of). Much more honourable, however, is the confidence and esteem which the Athenians showed towards him, stranger as he was; for although the well-known story that they deposited the keys of the fortress with him, as the most trustworthy man (D. L. 6), may be a later invention, there seems no reason for doubting the authenticity of the decree of the people by which a golden crown and a public burial in the Cerameicus were awarded to him, because, during his long residence in Athens, by his doctrines and his life spent in accordance with them, he had conducted the young men who attached themselves to him along the path of virtue and discretion (D. L. 10, &c., 6, 15). The Athenian citizenship, however, he is said to have declined, that he might not become unfaithful to his native land (Plut. de Stoicor. repugn. p. 1034a; comp. D. L. 12), where in return he was highly esteemed (Ibid. 6). For the rest, we have preserved some not very characteristic traits from his life, in part from the works of the elder Stoics, as Persaeus, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus (Ibid. 1, 15). From them we see that he was of an earnest, if not gloomy disposition (Ibid. 16, comp. 26; Sidon. Apollinaris, Epist. 9.9); that he loved to withdraw himself from the great crowd, and to walk about with only two or three (D. L. 14) ; that he was fond of burying himself in investigations (ibid. 15), had a dislike to prolix and elaborate speeches (ibid. 18, 22 ; Stob. Serm. xxxiv.), and was clever and ready at short telling answers. (D. L. 19, &c., 23, &c. ibid. Menag.)

We are not able to ascertain with certainty either the year of Zenon's birth, or that of his death, and cannot regard as accurate the statements that he came to Athens at the age of 22 or even 30 years, that he pursued his philosophical studies for 20 years, and presided over his school for 58 years (D. L. 28), even though we should prefer the statement that he reached the age of 98 (ibid.), to that of his disciple Persaeus, according to which he was only 72 years old when he died. He is said to have been still alive in the 130th Olympiad (ibid. 6), and this is certainly in accordance with the statements which make him a disciple of Polemon, who became president of the Academic school in Ol. 116. 2, and also with what we are told about his intercourse with Antigonus Gonatas, who came to the throne in Ol. 124, and with Arcesilas (Cic. Ac. 1.9, 13, 2.24).