Westward empire

by Elias Lyman Magoon

When Rome had become the centre of civilization, she possessed no native works adequate to the wants of the age. Greek literature and philosophy were introduced in systems greatly epitomized, to master which was deemed an accomplishment not to be hoped for by the common mind. Very few acquired that more adequate appreciation which Cato and Scipio, Atticus and Cicero possessed. In the early days of the Republic there were many illustrious examples of practical Stoicism; but the system of philosophy known by that name, though best adapted to the mental structure of that people, attained its highest development not until a late period under the empire. After the literary stores of Greece had been introduced, each system had its run, and the hardy discipline of the Porch was particularly admired.

Antisthenes, the founder of this Cynical sect, was born at Athens, B.C. 420, of a Thracian mother. Hereditary character fitted the appropriate agent at the outset to mold the destinies of western hordes. From all accounts, the external conduct of Antisthenes was excessively absurd and extravagant; but in intellect he was respectable, and as a man, was in many respects superior to the generality of his followers. Unlike them, he never decried science and literature, but was himself an author; and he is said to have left behind him ten volumes of his works, though they have all now perished. According to Cicero, he maintained the unity of the supreme Being in opposition to popular polytheism, and that his writings were valuable, rather as monuments of his sagacity than of his erudition.

Diogenes, born B.C. 414, was extremely licentious in early life, but at a later period, as is not uncommon, rushed to the opposite extreme of morose asceticism and fanatical mortification. All writers represent his temperament as being fervid and enthusiastic, and his humor as coarse as it was caustic. The fragmentary sayings of his which have been preserved exhibit a homely fierceness, in which it is difficult to say whether the character of sagacity or scurrility most predominates. Calling out once, "Men, come hither," and numbers flocking about him, he beat them all away with a stick, saying, "I called for men, and not varlets." Seeing some women hanged upon an olive tree, "I wish," remarked he, "that all trees bore the same fruit!" Such indiscriminate scoffing tended to repress the nobler impulses of our better nature, and to chill that enthusiasm without which nothing great or good was ever accomplished. It was an intrinsically mean spirit, clearly seen and well rebuked on the occasion referred to in the following anecdote: When Diogenes trod upon Plato's robe, and exclaimed, "I trample under foot the pride of Plato," the sage replied, "True, but it is with the greater pride of Diogenes."

Zeno was born B.C. 362, at Citium, on the coast of Cyprus. His father was engaged in commerce, and had imported some disquisitions written by the pupils of Socrates. The sparks from Athens fell where they kindled, and young Zeno soon devoted himself wholly to philosophy. The Cynic, Crates, prepared him for still maturer discipline under the tuition of Xenocrates and of Stilpo. After this protracted preparation, he opened a school of his own, and selected the Portico, a public edifice, ornamented with pictorial works by Polygnotus, Myco, and Pandamus. Hence the descriptive phrase in the history of philosophy of the Painted Porch, and the philosophers of the Porch. The regularity of life, severity of doctrine, and keenness of argument common to this new master, gave him great influence through a long life. He is said to have been tall in stature, thin in person, and abstemious, with a countenance by no means attractive. He died at the advanced age of ninety-eight. In his later period, Epicurus grew apprehensive of his perpetually growing fame, and was jealous of his moral superiority.

Cleanthes, born B.C. 320, greatly modified the doctrines of the Stoical school. He was originally a wrestler, and preserved through life much of that hardy vigor of body which qualified him for the functions of a gladiator. He was extremely poor, and whilst attending the school of Zeno by day, he was compelled to work at night to earn a scanty sustenance. It is related that his robust appearance, whilst apparently an idler, excited municipal suspicion; and when he was required to account for his mode of living, a gardener for whom he drew water, and a woman for whom he ground flour, came forward to attest his honest industry. He was not quick to invent, but was indefatigable to explore what others had taught. Fifty-six volumes are said to have been written by him, but none of them are now extant.

Chrysippus, born in Cilicia, B.C. 280; and Posidonius, who died B.C. 135, were the chief links to extend this chain westward, and connect it with that great Stoic who arose on the remotest border of the Augustan age.

Lucius Annæus Seneca was born at Cordova, only eight years before Christ. His father was an eminent writer on rhetoric, some of whose productions are still extant. The son was delicate in health, but nothing could repress his love of research. He first studied the Peripatetic philosophy under Papirius Fabian, and afterwards, as far as a master who professed to despise all learning could teach, he learned the follies of the Cynics from Demetrius. By his father's request, Seneca then entered upon public life, and became a pleader at the bar. In this walk he so far distinguished himself as finally to become a distinguished favorite in the court of Claudius. But in consequence of some difficulty respecting Julia, the daughter of Germanicus, he fell into disgrace, and was banished to the island of Corsica. It is said that Agrippina, the mother of Nero, interceded in his behalf, and Seneca was recalled. On returning to Rome, he first became the tutor of Nero, and subsequently his minister. The wretched pupil, in the exercise of imperial suspicion, as false probably as it was murderous, caused his teacher and friend to be destroyed. From the exhausted and emaciated state of his frame, the death of Seneca is reported to have been a painful one. In the presence of his wife and other friends, he opened the veins of his arms and legs; and, as the process was too slow, he ordered a draught of poison to be administered to him. Still lingering, he desired to be laid in a warm bath, and as he entered, he sprinkled the standers by, saying, "I offer this libation to Jupiter the deliverer." His vital blood then gushed forth, and he speedily expired.

Epictetus, whose living influence extended towards the end of the second century of the Christian era, was the great ornament of the Stoic school during the reigns of Domitian and Hadrian. He was born a slave, and was maimed in person, but obtained his manumission by excellence of conduct, and proved himself one of the best monitors of his age. Ten years later, the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus came forth the next in succession to this illustrious slave among the ornaments of the Stoic school. The reign of this victorious and philosophic monarch forms part of the happy period in which the vast extent of the Roman empire has been characterized as having "been governed by absolute power under the guidance of virtue and wisdom." Antoninus early profited by the lessons of severe wisdom, and honored them by an exemplary life. In his palace he preserved the systematic regularity of a general, and in his camp he composed a great part of those philosophical meditations which have cast so much renown on his name. The lives of Cato and Brutus also, the one more formal and severe, as of a person evidently aiming to support a character, the other more genial and free, like one who had really caught the spirit of the old republican time, were molded strongly by the same creed. Both were true utterances of Roman Stoicism, and have thrown a splendor around the doctrine which it could never have obtained either from its first teachers or from Seneca and the rhetoricians who perpetuated its vitiating existence down to the lowest point of feebleness.

When Greek philosophy was introduced among the Romans, Stoicism was the most popular, but the creed of Epicurus was adopted by many distinguished men. The popular poem of Lucretius was a captivating recommendation of the system to many; and other writers, such as Horace and Atticus, Pliny the younger, and Lucian of Samosata, are known to have been of this school.

Epicurus was born in the island of Samos, B.C. 341. When in his thirty-second year, he first opened a school at Mitylene, where, and at Lampsacus, he taught for five years. This was at the time when sophists and sensualists were wanted at Rome, and they were brought there as part of the spoils of the conqueror, to march, like other slaves, in his triumph, and furnish an additional luxury. When Rome had become politically dominant to the largest extent, she yet remained in arts and letters the humble pupil of Greece. Augustan literature, in all of its departments, was to a great degree borrowed from the Greek, but with every kind of derivative process, from servile translation to the most adroit adaptation. Lucretius, Catullus, Horace, Virgil, Cicero, were all indebted to Greek models, as well as Terence, Ovid, and Seneca, but each to a graduated extent. They all borrowed according to their wants, each one transforming his plunder with more or less originality, according to the powers of his mind. Philosophy at Rome emitted many sparks of light, fragments of moral truth, but left behind no symmetrical and consistent system except that of Epicurus, a creed formed on a plain so low that no declination could be made to appear. It has been remarked, that while of the eight teachers in the Porch, from Zeno to Posidonius, every one modified the doctrines of his predecessor; and while the beautiful philosophy of Plato had degenerated into dishonorable scepticism, the Epicurean system remained unchanged. This has been accounted for on the ground just mentioned, and also with reference to the power of that mental indolence which disposes the mind to rest contented with views that are comprehensible without reflection, and which are not inimical to the indulgence of lust. The more thoughtful Romans were obliged to take what they could get, and they adopted the late and degenerated systems of Greek philosophy for two reasons: first, they had a natural affinity for them, and secondly, they were incapable of appreciating the earlier and better schools. The doctrine of Epicurus attracted a crowd of partisans in the martial metropolis, in consequence of its accommodating character, and the indulgence it afforded to the most groveling desires. But very few of the Roman Epicureans distinguished themselves as philosophers, and not one advanced a step beyond the doctrines of his master.