Ancient Roman philosophy is philosophy as it was practiced in the Roman Republic and its successor state, the Roman Empire. Roman philosophy includes not only philosophy written in Latin, but also philosophy written in Greek in the late Republic and Roman Empire. Important early Latin-language writers include Lucretius, Cicero, and Seneca the Younger. Greek was a popular language for writing about philosophy, so much so that the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius chose to write his Meditations in Greek.
History
Interest in philosophy was first excited at Rome in 155 BC, by an Athenian embassy consisting of the Academic skeptic Carneades, the Stoic Diogenes of Babylon, and the Peripatetic Critolaus. Roman philosophy was heavily influenced by Hellenistic philosophy; however, unique developments in philosophical schools of thought occurred during the Roman period as well, with many philosophers adapting teachings from more than one school. Both leading schools of law of the Roman period, the Sabinian and the Proculean Schools, drew their ethical views from readings on the Stoics and Epicureans respectively, allowing for the competition between thought to manifest in a new field in Rome's jurisprudence.
During the autocratic rule of the Flavian dynasty, a group of philosophers vocally and politically protested against imperial actions, particularly under Domitian and Vespasian. This resulted in Vespasian banishing all philosophers from Rome, save for Gaius Musonius Rufus; although he, too, was later banished. This event later became known as the Stoic Opposition, as a majority of the protesting philosophers were Stoics. Later in the Roman period, Stoics came to regard this opposition highly; however, the term "Stoic Opposition" was not coined until the 19th century, where it first appears in the writings of Gaston Boissier.
While philosophy was often admired by jurists and aristocrats, of the emperors the affinity that Hadrian held for philosophy stands out, a feature that was likely amplified by his philhellenism. Hadrian was recorded to have attended lectures by Epictetus and Favorinus on his tours of Greece, and invested heavily in attempting to revive Athens as a cultural center in the ancient world through methods of central planning on his part. Hadrian held philosophy in high regard, something unusual for Roman emperors, who were often indifferent, if not oppositional to it as a practice. These sentiments in favor of philosophy were also shared by the emperors Nero, Julian the Apostate, and Marcus Aurelius—the latter two of whom are now considered as philosophers.
Later, with the spread of Christianity inside the Roman Empire, came the Christian philosophy of Saint Augustine of Hippo. One of the last philosophical writers of antiquity was Boethius, whose writings are the chief source of information as to Greek philosophy during the first centuries of the Middle Ages. During this time Athens declined as an intellectual center of thought while new sites such as Alexandria and Rome hosted a variety of philosophical discussion, such as commentary on the works of Aristotle.
Schools of thought
Middle Platonism
Around 90 BC, Antiochus of Ascalon rejected skepticism, making way for the period known as Middle Platonism, in which Platonism was fused with certain Peripatetic and many Stoic dogmas. In Middle Platonism, the Platonic Forms were not transcendent but immanent to rational minds, and the physical world was a living, ensouled being, the World-Soul. The eclectic nature of Platonism during this time is shown by its incorporation into Pythagoreanism (Numenius of Apamea) and into Jewish philosophy (Philo of Alexandria)
- Alcinous (philosopher) (2nd century AD)
School of the Sextii
The School of the Sextii was an eclectic Ancient Roman school of philosophy founded around 50 BC by Quintus Sextius the Elder and continued by his son, Sextius Niger, however it went extinct shortly after in 19 AD due to the ban on foreign cults. The school blended elements of Pythagorean, Platonic, Cynic, and Stoic together with a belief in an elusive incorporeal power pervades the body in order to emphasize asceticism, honesty, and moral training through nightly examinations of conscience as a means of achieving eudaimonia. The primary sources of information on the school are Seneca the Younger, who was taught by one of its members named Sotion, and the 5th century writer Claudianus Mamertus. Other members of the school included Papirius Fabianus, , Celsus. While Seneca the Younger often conflates the school with Stoicism, the Sextians were not as inclined to rigorous logical exercises or any abstruse abstract thinking, and unlike the Stoics, advocated avoidance of politics, engaging in the correspondence between words and life, and vegetarianism.
Neopythagoreanism
Pythagorean views were revived by Nigidius Figulus during the Hellenistic period, when pseudo-pythagorean writings began circulating. Eventually in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD Neopythagoreanism came to be recognized.
- Nigidius Figulus (98 BC–45)
- Secundus the Silent (2nd century AD)
- Iamblichus (245 AD–325)
Epicureanism
- Zeno of Sidon (150–75 BC)
- Alcaeus and Philiscus (150 BC)
- Phaedrus (138–70 BC)
- Gaius Amafinius (125 BC)
- Titus Pomponius Atticus (110 BC–33 BC)
- Philodemus (110–50 BC)
- Titus Albucius (105 BC)
- Rabirius (100 BC)
- Patro (70 BC)
- Siro (50 BC)
- Catius (50 BC)
- Lucretius (94–55 BC)
Roman stoics
- Publius Rutillius Rufus (158–75 BC)
- Lucius Aelius Stilo Praeconinus (154–74 BC)
- Diodotus the Stoic (130–59 BC)
- Marcus Vigellius (125 BC)
- Quintus Lucilius Balbus (125 BC)
- Antipater of Tyre (100–45BC)
- Cato the Younger (95–46 BC)
- Porcia Catonis (70–43 BC)
- Apollonides (46 BC)
- Quintus Sextius the Elder (40 BC)
- Seneca the Younger (4 BC – 65 AD)
- Attalus (25 AD)
- Papirius Fabianus (30 AD)
- Musonius Rufus (30–100 AD)
- Epictetus (55–135 AD)
- Marcus Aurelius (121–180 AD)
Skepticism
Academic skeptic
- Cicero (106 – 43 BC)
- Favorinus
Pyrrhonist
- Theodas of Laodicea (2nd century AD)
- Menodotus of Nicomedia (2nd century AD)
- Sextus Empiricus (2nd century AD)
Cynicism
Cynic philosophy survived into the Imperial period, and even became "fashionable", though its adherents were criticized for not being fully committed.
- Demetrius the Cynic
Late Peripatetic
- Alexander of Aphrodisias (3rd century AD)
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism, or Plotinism, is a school of religious and mystical philosophy founded by Plotinus in the 3rd century AD and based on the teachings of Plato and the other Platonists. The summit of existence was the One or the Good, the source of all things. In virtue and meditation the soul had the power to elevate itself to attain union with the One, the true function of human beings. Non-Christian Neoplatonists used to attack Christianity until Christians such as Augustine, Boethius, and Eriugena adopted Neoplatonism.
- Plotinus (205 – 278AD)
- Amelius Gentilianus (3nd century AD)
- Porphyry (232 – 304 AD)
- Julian (331 – 363 AD)
- Iamblichus (242 – 327 AD)
- Damascius (462 – 540 AD)
- Simplicius of Cilicia (490 – 560 AD)
- Boethius (472 – 524 AD)
Early Christian philosophy
- Clement of Alexandria (150 – 215 AD)
- Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430 AD)
Notes
- "Roman Philosophy | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy".
- Lorenzen, Ernest G. (1925). "Specification in the Civil Law". The Yale Law Journal. 35 (1): 29–47. doi:10.2307/789534. ISSN 0044-0094. JSTOR 789534.
- Flavian Rome : culture, image, text. Boyle, A. J. (Anthony James), Dominik, William J. Leiden. 2003. ISBN 90-04-11188-3. OCLC 51061501.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link) - J. P. Sullivan (October 1986). "Literature and Politics in the Age of Nero. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1985". The American Historical Review. doi:10.1086/ahr/91.4.893. ISSN 1937-5239.
- Lane Fox, Robin, 1946- (2006). The classical world : an epic history from Homer to Hadrian. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-02496-3. OCLC 70149306.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - Annas, Julia. (2000). Voices of Ancient Philosophy: An Introductory Reader. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-512694-5. OCLC 870243656.
- "Platonism - Medieval Platonism".
- Thomas William Allies (1869). The Formation of Christendom. Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green. p. 453 – via Internet Archive.
the school of the sextii.
- Di Paola, Omar (2014). "Philosophical thought of the School of the Sextii - Di Paola - EPEKEINA. International Journal of Ontology. History and Critics". Ricercafilosofica.it. 4 (1–2). doi:10.7408/epkn.v4i1-2.74.
- Omar Di Paola. "The Philosophical Thought of the School of the Sextii, in Epekeina, vol. 4, n. 1-2 (2014), pp. 327-339". academia.edu.
- Emily Wilson, The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca. Oxford University Press, 2014. p.54-55
- The Pythagorean Texts of the Hellenistic Period, Collected and Edited by Holger Thesleff, Acta Acedemias Aboensis, Ser. A. Humaniora. Humanistiska Vetenskaper. Socialvetenskaper. Teologi. Vol. 30 nr I. Paperback – January 1, 1965
- Adamson 2015, p. 16.
References
- Adamson, Peter (28 August 2015). Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds: A history of philosophy without any gaps, Volume 2. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-104389-5. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
Further reading
- Belliotti, Raymond Angelo (15 August 2009). Roman Philosophy and the Good Life. Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-7391-3971-4. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- Sedley, David, ed. (31 July 2003). The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-82632-7. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- Trapp, Michael (15 May 2017). Philosophy in the Roman Empire: Ethics, Politics and Society. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-91141-2. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- Williams, Gareth D.; Volk, Katharina (2016). Roman Reflections: Studies in Latin Philosophy. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-999976-7. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
External links
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Media related to Ancient Roman philosophy at Wikimedia Commons
Ancient Roman philosophy is philosophy as it was practiced in the Roman Republic and its successor state the Roman Empire Roman philosophy includes not only philosophy written in Latin but also philosophy written in Greek in the late Republic and Roman Empire Important early Latin language writers include Lucretius Cicero and Seneca the Younger Greek was a popular language for writing about philosophy so much so that the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius chose to write his Meditations in Greek HistoryInterest in philosophy was first excited at Rome in 155 BC by an Athenian embassy consisting of the Academic skeptic Carneades the Stoic Diogenes of Babylon and the Peripatetic Critolaus Roman philosophy was heavily influenced by Hellenistic philosophy however unique developments in philosophical schools of thought occurred during the Roman period as well with many philosophers adapting teachings from more than one school Both leading schools of law of the Roman period the Sabinian and the Proculean Schools drew their ethical views from readings on the Stoics and Epicureans respectively allowing for the competition between thought to manifest in a new field in Rome s jurisprudence During the autocratic rule of the Flavian dynasty a group of philosophers vocally and politically protested against imperial actions particularly under Domitian and Vespasian This resulted in Vespasian banishing all philosophers from Rome save for Gaius Musonius Rufus although he too was later banished This event later became known as the Stoic Opposition as a majority of the protesting philosophers were Stoics Later in the Roman period Stoics came to regard this opposition highly however the term Stoic Opposition was not coined until the 19th century where it first appears in the writings of Gaston Boissier While philosophy was often admired by jurists and aristocrats of the emperors the affinity that Hadrian held for philosophy stands out a feature that was likely amplified by his philhellenism Hadrian was recorded to have attended lectures by Epictetus and Favorinus on his tours of Greece and invested heavily in attempting to revive Athens as a cultural center in the ancient world through methods of central planning on his part Hadrian held philosophy in high regard something unusual for Roman emperors who were often indifferent if not oppositional to it as a practice These sentiments in favor of philosophy were also shared by the emperors Nero Julian the Apostate and Marcus Aurelius the latter two of whom are now considered as philosophers Later with the spread of Christianity inside the Roman Empire came the Christian philosophy of Saint Augustine of Hippo One of the last philosophical writers of antiquity was Boethius whose writings are the chief source of information as to Greek philosophy during the first centuries of the Middle Ages During this time Athens declined as an intellectual center of thought while new sites such as Alexandria and Rome hosted a variety of philosophical discussion such as commentary on the works of Aristotle Schools of thoughtMiddle Platonism Around 90 BC Antiochus of Ascalon rejected skepticism making way for the period known as Middle Platonism in which Platonism was fused with certain Peripatetic and many Stoic dogmas In Middle Platonism the Platonic Forms were not transcendent but immanent to rational minds and the physical world was a living ensouled being the World Soul The eclectic nature of Platonism during this time is shown by its incorporation into Pythagoreanism Numenius of Apamea and into Jewish philosophy Philo of Alexandria Alcinous philosopher 2nd century AD School of the Sextii The School of the Sextii was an eclectic Ancient Roman school of philosophy founded around 50 BC by Quintus Sextius the Elder and continued by his son Sextius Niger however it went extinct shortly after in 19 AD due to the ban on foreign cults The school blended elements of Pythagorean Platonic Cynic and Stoic together with a belief in an elusive incorporeal power pervades the body in order to emphasize asceticism honesty and moral training through nightly examinations of conscience as a means of achieving eudaimonia The primary sources of information on the school are Seneca the Younger who was taught by one of its members named Sotion and the 5th century writer Claudianus Mamertus Other members of the school included Papirius Fabianus Celsus While Seneca the Younger often conflates the school with Stoicism the Sextians were not as inclined to rigorous logical exercises or any abstruse abstract thinking and unlike the Stoics advocated avoidance of politics engaging in the correspondence between words and life and vegetarianism Neopythagoreanism Pythagorean views were revived by Nigidius Figulus during the Hellenistic period when pseudo pythagorean writings began circulating Eventually in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD Neopythagoreanism came to be recognized Nigidius Figulus 98 BC 45 Secundus the Silent 2nd century AD Iamblichus 245 AD 325 Epicureanism Roman Epicurean philosopher LucretiusZeno of Sidon 150 75 BC Alcaeus and Philiscus 150 BC Phaedrus 138 70 BC Gaius Amafinius 125 BC Titus Pomponius Atticus 110 BC 33 BC Philodemus 110 50 BC Titus Albucius 105 BC Rabirius 100 BC Patro 70 BC Siro 50 BC Catius 50 BC Lucretius 94 55 BC Roman stoics Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus AureliusPublius Rutillius Rufus 158 75 BC Lucius Aelius Stilo Praeconinus 154 74 BC Diodotus the Stoic 130 59 BC Marcus Vigellius 125 BC Quintus Lucilius Balbus 125 BC Antipater of Tyre 100 45BC Cato the Younger 95 46 BC Porcia Catonis 70 43 BC Apollonides 46 BC Quintus Sextius the Elder 40 BC Seneca the Younger 4 BC 65 AD Attalus 25 AD Papirius Fabianus 30 AD Musonius Rufus 30 100 AD Epictetus 55 135 AD Marcus Aurelius 121 180 AD Skepticism Academic skeptic Cicero 106 43 BC Philosophical skepticism Favorinus Pyrrhonist Theodas of Laodicea 2nd century AD Menodotus of Nicomedia 2nd century AD Sextus Empiricus 2nd century AD Cynicism Cynic philosophy survived into the Imperial period and even became fashionable though its adherents were criticized for not being fully committed Demetrius the CynicLate Peripatetic Alexander of Aphrodisias 3rd century AD Neoplatonism Roman emperor and Neoplatonic philosopher Julian Neoplatonism or Plotinism is a school of religious and mystical philosophy founded by Plotinus in the 3rd century AD and based on the teachings of Plato and the other Platonists The summit of existence was the One or the Good the source of all things In virtue and meditation the soul had the power to elevate itself to attain union with the One the true function of human beings Non Christian Neoplatonists used to attack Christianity until Christians such as Augustine Boethius and Eriugena adopted Neoplatonism Plotinus 205 278AD Amelius Gentilianus 3nd century AD Porphyry 232 304 AD Julian 331 363 AD Iamblichus 242 327 AD Damascius 462 540 AD Simplicius of Cilicia 490 560 AD Boethius 472 524 AD Early Christian philosophy Clement of Alexandria 150 215 AD Augustine of Hippo 354 430 AD Notes Roman Philosophy Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Lorenzen Ernest G 1925 Specification in the Civil Law The Yale Law Journal 35 1 29 47 doi 10 2307 789534 ISSN 0044 0094 JSTOR 789534 Flavian Rome culture image text Boyle A J Anthony James Dominik William J Leiden 2003 ISBN 90 04 11188 3 OCLC 51061501 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link CS1 maint others link J P Sullivan October 1986 Literature and Politics in the Age of Nero Ithaca Cornell University Press 1985 The American Historical Review doi 10 1086 ahr 91 4 893 ISSN 1937 5239 Lane Fox Robin 1946 2006 The classical world an epic history from Homer to Hadrian New York Basic Books ISBN 0 465 02496 3 OCLC 70149306 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link CS1 maint numeric names authors list link Annas Julia 2000 Voices of Ancient Philosophy An Introductory Reader Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 512694 5 OCLC 870243656 Platonism Medieval Platonism Thomas William Allies 1869 The Formation of Christendom Longman Green Longman Roberts and Green p 453 via Internet Archive the school of the sextii Di Paola Omar 2014 Philosophical thought of the School of the Sextii Di Paola EPEKEINA International Journal of Ontology History and Critics Ricercafilosofica it 4 1 2 doi 10 7408 epkn v4i1 2 74 Omar Di Paola The Philosophical Thought of the School of the Sextii in Epekeina vol 4 n 1 2 2014 pp 327 339 academia edu Emily Wilson The Greatest Empire A Life of Seneca Oxford University Press 2014 p 54 55 The Pythagorean Texts of the Hellenistic Period Collected and Edited by Holger Thesleff Acta Acedemias Aboensis Ser A Humaniora Humanistiska Vetenskaper Socialvetenskaper Teologi Vol 30 nr I Paperback January 1 1965 Adamson 2015 p 16 ReferencesAdamson Peter 28 August 2015 Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds A history of philosophy without any gaps Volume 2 OUP Oxford ISBN 978 0 19 104389 5 Retrieved 18 January 2023 Further readingLibrary resources about Roman philosophy Online books Resources in your library Resources in other libraries Belliotti Raymond Angelo 15 August 2009 Roman Philosophy and the Good Life Lexington Books ISBN 978 0 7391 3971 4 Retrieved 18 January 2023 Sedley David ed 31 July 2003 The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 1 139 82632 7 Retrieved 18 January 2023 Trapp Michael 15 May 2017 Philosophy in the Roman Empire Ethics Politics and Society Routledge ISBN 978 1 351 91141 2 Retrieved 18 January 2023 Williams Gareth D Volk Katharina 2016 Roman Reflections Studies in Latin Philosophy Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 999976 7 Retrieved 18 January 2023 External linksMedia related to Ancient Roman philosophy at Wikimedia Commons
