SENECA. THE STOICS. 261 



STOICISM AMONG THE ROMANS. 



After Chrysippus, Pangetius and Posidonius supported the character Panaetius, 

 of the Stoical school, and indeed did much to retrieve it from his B ^ n f 36 

 extravagances. But the philosophy of Greece was naturalized at Rome p os id on iu s , 

 by Cicero. The opinions of the Stoics were a favourite study of the nat.B. c. 135. 

 Roman lawyers in particular ; and it has been said, that some of those 

 terse maxims of the Roman code, which have been incorporated into 

 the general law of Europe, may be traced as having originated in that 

 school. By the Roman poets, too, the doctrines of Stoicism were stoicism 

 much cultivated ; and Lucan has condensed into a few lines the lead- "J^Kome 

 ing principles of the sect, when giving the character of Cato. 1 But 

 Seneca, Epictetus, and Antoninus, are the three principal names which 

 supported the glory of Stoicism under the Roman emperors ; and we 

 shall proceed to speak of their several characters and merits somewhat 

 compendiously, since, considering the limits of our general work, we 

 have perhaps already expatiated somewhat too largely in developing 

 the peculiarities of stoicism. 



Lucius Annasus Seneca was born at Cordova, in the eighth year Seneca, 

 before Christ. His father was Marcus Annseus Seneca, a rhetorician B- c ' s ' 

 of eminence, some of whose productions have come down to us. His 

 mother's name was Helvia. He had two brothers, Marcus Annasus 

 Novatus and Lucius Annaeus Mela. Seneca was of a delicate frame of 

 body, and was during the early period of his life much afflicted with 

 ill health. He commenced his studies under his father ; but lectures Education, 

 on the media of proof, and on the modes of awakening the passions, 

 served rather to stimulate than to satisfy his curiosity. He was 

 anxious to inquire deeper into the nature of man, and to learn what 

 could be known about the system of the universe. For this purpose 

 he commenced his studies under Sotio the Pythagorean, a man whose 

 exemplary habits at once sanctified and illustrated the doctrines which 

 he expounded. But the ardour of Seneca's mind was such as not to 

 allow him to acquiesce in the system inculcated by Sotio, to the ex- 

 clusion of further research. He was initiated by Attains in the 

 peculiarities of the Stoical doctrine. He studied the Peripatetic 

 philosophy under Papirius Fabian ; and he learned, as far as an 

 institution which despises all learning can be taught, the whimsies of 

 the Cynics from Demetrius. This latitude of inquiry, and rejection 

 of exclusive partialities, continued with Seneca through life ; and to 

 this habit we may attribute the characteristic excellences, as well as 

 some of the peculiar blemishes, of his writings. His intercourse with 

 Demetrius ripened into intimacy ; and in his progress in the world, 

 when fortune had heaped honours upon him, the courtier and the 

 favourite did not abate his esteem or his familiarity with the Cynic. 

 But the system of the Stoics was, upon the whole, the favourite with 

 Seneca. 



By his father's advice he then mixed in the active concerns of life, 

 1 Lib. ii. 380. 



