HISTORY 359 



Jealous as was the State generally of all private associa- 

 tions, they were freely permitted for this one purpose, 

 and for the feasts and sacrifices therewith connected. 



After these few words we must turn from the con- 

 sideration of Roman religion to that of philosophy at 

 Rome. Roman philosophy, and Roman art also, were 

 not products of the soil, but imported from Greece, which 

 became, under the empire, the acknowledged model and 

 leader in the arts and amenities of life. Despised in the 

 earlier days of the republic, Hellenism became later a 

 universal fashion. Thus, when Carneades* came to 

 Italy, he was soon sent back to Greece by Cato the 

 censor (the great-grandfather of the Cato before men- 

 tioned t), and philosophy did not become established in 

 Roman society till the time of Cicero. 



It was- the school of Epicurus * and the rival school 

 of the Stoics,| which successively prevailed at Rome, 

 the former mainly in the later republic and the early 

 days of the empire, but the latter afterwards. Stoicism 

 may be said to have been the main and dominant 

 philosophy, and it accorded well with all that was 

 noblest and best in the tendencies of the Roman people. 

 It was a philosophy which inculcated and promoted 

 all charitable and benevolent movements; the kinder 

 treatment of slaves, whose very lives were, at first, by 

 law, entirely at the mercy of their masters, and who 

 formed so very large a part of the entire population. 



The most illustrious of the Roman Stoics was Seneca, 

 who began to write under Caligula, was exiled by Claudius, 

 then recalled and made a tutor of Nero, who ultimately 

 sentenced him to death on a charge of treason. The 



* See ante, p. 330. t See ante, p. 345. 



t See ante, loc. cit. 



