360 ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE 



teaching of Seneca was of such a refined and elevated 

 morality, that it has been mistakenly attributed to 

 Christian influence. That Stoicism penetrated and 

 prevailed throughout Roman society is shown by the 

 fact that one of its most celebrated teachers was the 

 slave Epictetus, while it ascended the throne with the 

 Antonines, being encouraged by Antoninus Pius and 

 actually professed and taught by Marcus Aurelius. 



By the end of the second century many sorts of 

 philanthropic and charitable efforts had been instituted 

 in Rome, and such tendencies increased, at the same 

 time with devoutness in religion, solicitude about a 

 future life, the sacerdotal spirit, and a tendency towards 

 monotheism. 



But a new departure in philosophy became developed 

 in Egypt from the combined influences of Hellenic 

 culture and Jewish religion. This was the school of the 

 Neo-Platonists of Alexandria which, beginning in the days 

 of Augustus, greatly influenced the Roman world. Its 

 effects indeed are widely diffused even at the present day. 

 Alexandria had developed enormous commercial industry 

 and, with its consequent wealth, had become a meeting- 

 place for various races and civilisations, and a great 

 intellectual centre, under dominant Hellenic influence. 

 The first renowned member of the new Alexandrian 

 school was the Hellenic Jew Philo, who was born about 

 25 B.C. His philosophy was essentially theological. He 

 taught that the only true existence, in the highest sense, 

 is God, dwelling apart and acting on the world through 

 an intermediate being, the " Word " (in Greek Logos), 

 dwelling with God as his wisdom (in Greek Sophia), 

 and emanating into numerous subordinate spiritual 

 agencies. The "Word" was not eternal but generated 

 by God in a peculiar manner, and it was this His " first 



