Stoicism
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Stoicism is a school of thought that had its beginning in Athens (300 BCE), spread throughout ancient Greece, and went on to became the predominate philosophical school of the Roman empire. In 529 CE the Emperor Justinian I ordered all the schools of philosophy closed, bring the Stoic school to a formal end; but it has continued as an influence through surviving texts, and is today receiving renewed interest. [1][2]
Historians of philosophy divide development of the Stoic school into three phases
- Early Stoa, from the founding of the school by Zeno of Citium to Antipater.
- Middle Stoa, including Panaetius and Posidonius.
- Late Stoa, including Musonius Rufus, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius.
No complete manuscript by a Stoic philosopher survives from the first two phases of Stoicism. Only Roman texts of the Late Stoa survive.[3]