Pillar / Philosophers
Philosophers
The major figures who shaped Stoic philosophy, across roughly five centuries and two very different worlds: the Greek school that founded it, and the Roman writers whose surviving work most people encounter as "Stoicism" today.
The Old Stoa: Founding Athens
The three heads of the school who founded and systematized Stoicism in Athens over the 3rd century BC. Almost none of their own writing survives directly.
Philosopher
Zeno of Citium
Who Zeno of Citium was, how he founded the Stoic school in Athens around 300 BC, and what he established that every later Stoic built on.
Philosopher
Cleanthes
Who Cleanthes was, Zeno's successor as head of the Stoic school, and the poet-philosopher behind the Hymn to Zeus, one of early Stoicism's few surviving texts.
Philosopher
Chrysippus
Who Chrysippus was, the third head of the Stoic school, and how his lost writings systematized Stoic logic and doctrine more than any other early Stoic's.
Roman Stoicism
The Roman-era Stoics whose own writing survives most fully, roughly three centuries after the school was founded. Almost everything most readers encounter as "Stoicism" today comes from this later period.
Philosopher
Seneca
Who Seneca was, Roman statesman, playwright, and Stoic writer, tutor and advisor to Nero, whose letters and essays are among the most read Stoic works today.
Philosopher
Epictetus
Who Epictetus was, a former slave turned influential Stoic teacher whose lectures survive as the Discourses and the condensed Enchiridion.
Philosopher
Marcus Aurelius
Who Marcus Aurelius was, the Roman emperor whose private notebook of Stoic reflections survives as the Meditations. Not the founder of Stoicism.
Each philosopher page connects to the primary texts they wrote or that survive from their teaching, and to the concepts most associated with their surviving work. New to Stoicism? What Is Stoicism? covers the whole picture in one page.