Stoicism arose as a western philosophical movement in the 3rd century BCE out of the teachings of Zeno, the founder of the school and the first scholarch (literally, "ruler of the school," i.e. the head). Eventually, it would develop into one of the major schools of ancient philosophy in the west, and exercise a widespread cultural significance that extended long past the decline and disappearance of the school as an independent movement and intellectual community.

Zeno, The Founder Of The School

As the narrative, related by Diogenes Laertes, runs, Zeno came to Athens from Citium, a city in Cyprus. While he was reading through scrolls in a bookseller's shop, he happened to read Xenophon's Memorabilia, in which the historian related the character and sayings of his teacher, the philosopher Socrates. Upon asking where he might find someone like Socrates, Zeno was pointed out the Cynic philosopher Crates, who happened to be passing by.

The Cynics were one of several philosophical schools that originated among students of Socrates, each of them stressing different interpretations of the philosophical life, teachings, and endeavors that Socrates had presented to them. From the founder of the school, Antisthenes, on to Zeno's time (and long beyond), the Cynics stressed simplicity of life, freedom, physical endurance, making little of social conventions, and above all cultivating virtue. Zeno became Crates' student and studied with him for a number of years.

Athens was at that time the place to study philosophy, not least because there were already established a number of different philosophical schools. Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum or Peripatetic school (called from his habit of walking around as he lectured) are among the most famous, but besides these and the cynics, there were rival hedonist schools (the Epicurean Garden, and the Cyrenic school founded by Aristippus, another student of Socrates), as well as a Megarian school, founded by Euclides (another student of Socrates), and focused particularly on dialectic. 

Zeno studied under several other philosophers -- though there is some dispute about precisely who he studied with and for how long. It is clear that he did study with Stilpo from the Megarian school, and most likely with Polemo, the third scholarch of Plato's academy (who also had an earlier connection with Crates). In the end, out of all of these perspectives, Zeno would develop a new philosophical position, one which, like the Cynics, stressed self-reliance, virtue, and freedom but which departed from them on matters of social propriety and roles. From the other schools, Zeno retained a strong emphasis on investigating and articulating logical argumentation. 

Among the points that Zeno stressed that became central Stoic tenets were the following: The best state, or the "end of goods," for human beings is to live in accordance with nature, meaning both the order and structure of the larger universe and also a fully developed human nature. This involves cultivating the moral virtues and eliminating the vices, learning how to manage and eventually curb desires and aversions, using the faculty of choice and human rationality to develop themselves further, eliminating the mistaken judgements that produce strong emotions and affects -- all of this aimed at attaining a state of happiness, understood as "freedom from trouble" (ataraxia) and "freedom from passion" (apatheia). In order to carry out this ethical project, study of physics (i.e. the natural world, including cosmology and the nature of the human being), and of logic (including what we now call "epistemology") was required as well.

He began teaching his philosophical perspective as a way of thought and a way of living at a colonnade near the Agora (marketplace) of Athens, called the Stoa Poikile (the "painted" or "many-colored porch"). His students were at first called, after him, "Zenonians" and then later "Stoics" after the location of their school. Several of his students actually developed philosophical systems derived but also differing from that of their teacher, for a time drawing students of their own. A former boxer, Cleanthes, came to be Zeno's most important student, his close friend, and after his death the next scholarch, rigorously preserving the teachings and way of life of his master.

The Stoic School Continues

The third scholarch, Chrysippus, is credited with being the "second founder of Stoicism." A highly prolific author (credited with writing at least 700 scrolls worth of material in his time, none of which has survived to the present, unfortunately), as the representative of the school he engaged in debates and discussions with members of the other main philosophical schools in Greece -- particularly the members of Plato's Academy (which by that time, had turned towards skepticism), but also the Peripatetic heirs of Aristotle, and the Epicureans. By further expanding and systematizing the philosophical perspective he received through Cleanthes and Zeno, Chrysippus solidified the Stoic philosophy -- so that, for example, in both Cicero and Epictetus, we see references to studying Chrysippus' works as a standard part of the Stoic curriculum.

Stoic philosophy arose at a time in which Greek city states had ceased to be the most important political communities, and in which larger political systems were developing in the Mediterranean. The Macedonian state under Phillip had already consolidated Greece into one political unit, which Alexander (the Great, in the west -- but called "the Terrible" further east!) radically expanded by conquering the Persian empire, Egypt, and pressing forth to the borders of India. His generals and family ended up splitting the empire into successor states, but Alexander did succeed in creating a new cultural fusion, the product of intercultural engagement, allowing for greater transmission of ideas.

While for a time, the school was still officially based in Athens, Stoicism spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean, and then westward into region of the Roman empire, which had finished off its own rival states, Carthage and Epirus. The fifth Stoic scholarch, Diogenes of Babylon was one of three philosophers sent by Athens to Rome as ambassadors, where they presented their views, drawing attention from the Romans (including some unwanted attention by Cato the Censor, who urged the Romans to send those Greeks packing!) Paneatius of Rhodes (a representative of what is now called Middle Stoicism) accompanied the Roman hero Scipio Africanus back to Rome, and taught there for some time, before returning to Athens and assuming the role of the seventh (and last) scholarch. 

Many people through the Roman empire (which eventually expanded to encompass much of Alexander's conquests) were attracted to Stoicism, often for a variety of reasons. It found a home among the political and intellectual elite, who were attracted to the focus on self-control, acceptance of a fate one cannot control, tempering of the emotions, and developing the virtues, particularly when confronted with a culture that often seemed to be sliding into decadence, power-struggles, or barbarism. The Stoic emphasis upon duty, endurance, and simplicity of life echoed the traditional Roman way of life, and military troops and commanders alike found its teachings quite congenial. Common people and even slaves found in Stoicism a doctrine that stressed the value of every human being, a cosmopolitanism that extended universally, and a means for preparing for and dealing with the stresses of day to day life in common with others.

One author in particular, who was not in fact a Stoic himself (he tended to identify with the Academic skeptic school), but from whom we learn a considerable amount about Early Stoic doctrines, the Middle Stoic reinterpretations of these, and the Roman reception and further reinterpretation of Stoicism, is Marcus Tullius Cicero. He had the opportunity to study and interact with some of the most well-known and highly regarded members of the major philosophical schools at the time, and through his works he reveals much about Stoicism as he encountered it, including what aspects of the Stoa he himself found attractive or compelling (their doctrine about the final end as virtue, for example).

The representatives of what is termed Late Stoicism -- Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, the three main Stoic thinkers whose writing we still do possess -- illustrate the breadth of Stoicism's appeal. Seneca had the fortune (good sometimes, but also bad, indeed very bad) to be the tutor and then adviser to the emperor Nero. Epictetus was born into slavery, but by the time he was freed, had devoted himself to studying Stoic philosophy with Musonius Rufus. Starting a career teaching philosophy in Rome, he was swept up in the general banishment of philosophers (by the emperor, Domitian) from the city, and relocated to Greece, where would eventually be listened to and befriended by the emperor Hadrian. Marcus Aurelius himself, a great later admirer of Epictetus, was raised to be emperor, and indeed conducted himself so well in that role that he was known as one of the last good emperors of Rome.

Each of these three left to us writings that, setting themselves in continuity with the by then classic school (Epictetus is teaching roughly four centuries after Zeno, to put it into perspective), powerfully reinterprets Stoicism within the context of their own culture and situation. And in turn, if we so choose, their own writings can fulfill a similar role for us in our own philosophical practice, study, and development, as Zeno's or Chrysippus' texts did for them. If not, at the least we have in their works intellectually challenging and rewarding articulations of the Stoic philosophy to study and reflect upon.