Lives Of The Stoics

Lives of the Stoics takes a deep dive into the experiences and beliefs of some of the earliest philosophers practicing the four Stoic virtues of courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom.

Though it’s now a giant in the world of philosophy, stoicism came from humble beginnings. It all started in the fourth century BCE when a man named Zeno had a devastating shipwreck in the Mediterranean. He made his living selling a rare purple dye, and when the ship came down, Zeno and his family lost everything.

When confronted with this huge trial, he showed resilience and courage— the qualities Stoicism would one day represent. Zeno moved to Athens to become a philosopher instead. Because Athens had a large slave population at the time, the wealthy had a lot of spare time to discuss philosophy with each other.

Zeno’s teacher, Crates of Thebes, taught him the basics of philosophy. His first lesson was to help Zeno let go of what other people thought of him. Before very long, Zeno was respected as a philosopher, and the philosophy that he founded was known as Stoicism. The guiding principles were courage, wisdom, temperance, and justice.

Zeno was passionate that philosophy shouldn’t just be something discussed in a classroom. He believed it was something that should be put into action in everyday life. So rather than give lengthy lectures in front of a crowd, he simply talked about his ideas on a porch in Athens known as Stoa Poikile.

Stoicism took its name after this simple porch. Perhaps it shows just how humble he was that he named his philosophy after a porch rather than himself.

Though the Ancient Roman leader Cicero wrote a book about Stoicism, he didn’t always live up to its ideals. He wasn’t born to a prominent family, but he was able to climb the ladder to Roman leadership at an impressive pace. Eventually, he made his way up to consul of Roman and the commander of the Roman army. People really liked him, especially after he prosecuted a corrupt magistrate who had stolen money from Sicilians. But even though he showed justice and courage easily, he didn’t always have virtuous motives. He was mostly wanted the fame and acclaim that came with leadership— which is in stark contrast to Stoic principles. This disregard only got him so far before he faced some pretty disastrous consequences. Soon, the Roman senator Catiline tried to stage a coup against him. When Cicero found out, he did something that was immoral and against Stoic philosophy. He had all of Catiline’s supporters be executed without any trial. By the time he was done, thousands of people were killed, and it was a dark spot…