Historical Figures Codexery

Zeno of Citium

Founder of Stoicism, philosopher from Citium, Cyprus

Zeno of Citium was a Hellenistic philosopher from Cyprus who founded the Stoic school of philosophy in Athens around 300 BC.[1][2] He was born in Citium, Cyprus, around 334 BC.[3] His life details come mainly from Diogenes Laërtius and the Suda, a 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia.[4]

Quick Facts

Region
Western philosophy
Era
Hellenistic philosophy
Born
c. 334 BC
Birthplace
Citium, Classical Cyprus
Died
c. 262 BC (aged c. 72)
Place of death
Athens
School of thought
Stoicism
Main interests
  • Logic
  • physics
  • ethics

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Zeno's father was named Mnaseas or Demeas, according to the Suda.[5] According to his contemporaries, Zeno was attracted only to men, and Diogenes Laërtius names Chremonides as one he was enamored with.[6][7] King Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedonia admired Zeno and visited him when in Athens.[8] Zeno declined Athenian citizenship when offered, fearing disloyalty to his native land.[9]

Zeno's philosophy held that the universe is God, a divine reasoning entity, and that happiness comes from living according to nature and reason.[10][11][12] In that city, he came across Xenophon's Memorabilia and, upon asking the bookseller where to find men like Socrates, was directed to Crates of Thebes, the most famous Cynic of the time, and became his pupil.[13] Zeno's teachers included Stilpo, Diodorus Cronus, and Philo from the Megarian school, as well as the Platonist philosophers Xenocrates and Polemo.[14] For his moral influence on the youth, Zeno was awarded a golden crown and a tomb was constructed in his honor.[15]

What the cited sources add

A 2025 University of Pisa analysis of carbonized Herculaneum papyri reveals Zeno was mocked for poor Greek and that his work "The Republic" was described as morally questionable.[2] The same papyri, edited by Kilian Fleischer, contain 10% more Greek text than the 1994 edition.[2] The anarchist Peter Kropotkin considered Zeno the closest ancient thinker to anarchist philosophy, advocating a society without laws, courts, police, temples, or money.[16][17] The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states Zeno's thought did not prohibit same-sex sexuality.[7]

The Suda records a proverb "stronger than Zeno" and places his peak in the 120th Olympiad during Antigonos Gonatas' reign.[5]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Zeno of Citium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Craig, "The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy", Routledge, 2005, p. 1076 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. "Dai papiri carbonizzati nuovi dettagli su Zenone, fondatore dello stoicismo", University of Pisa, 2025. facts only, no text reused. unipi.it
  3. Wikipedia, "Zeno of Citium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hadjisavvas, "The Phoenician Period Necropolis of Kition", Shelby White and Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications, 2013, p. 1; Yon, "Kition in the Tenth to Fourth Centuries B.C.", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Nov 1997, p. 9–17 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Zeno of Citium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Suda https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-cgi-bin/search.cgi?login=guest&enlogin=guest&db=REAL&field=adlerhw_gr&searchstr=zeta,79 Zeno (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Suda https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-cgi-bin/search.cgi?login=guest&enlogin=guest&db=REAL&field=adlerhw_gr&searchstr=zeta,79 Zeno. facts only, no text reused. cs.uky.edu
  6. Wikipedia, "Zeno of Citium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pickett, B. (2020) Homosexuality, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/homosexuality/ (Accessed: 07 February 20; Laërtius, p. § 1 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Pickett, B. (2020) Homosexuality, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/homosexuality/ (Accessed: 07 February 20. facts only, no text reused. plato.stanford.edu
  8. Wikipedia, "Zeno of Citium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; Epictetus, Discourses, ii. 13. 14–15; Simplicius, in Epictetus Enchiridion, 51; Aelian, Varia Historia, ix. 26 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Zeno of Citium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Plutarch, de Stoicor. repugn, p. 1034; comp. .; Laërtius, p. § 1; ; Sidonius Apollinaris, Epistles, ix. 9; Laërtius, p. § 1; Laërtius, p. § 1; Laërtius, p. § 1; Laërtius, p. § 1; Brunt, "Studies in Stoicism", Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 87 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Zeno of Citium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Laërtius, p. § 1; Sextus Empiricus, adv. Math. ix. 104, 101; Cicero, de Natura Deorum, ii. 8.; Cicero, de Natura Deorum, ii. 22. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Zeno of Citium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cicero, de Natura Deorum, i. 14.; Laërtius, p. § 1; Cicero, de Natura Deorum, ii. 22.; Caldwell, "History of the World", The Greystone Press, 1964, p. 119 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Wikipedia, "Zeno of Citium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cicero, Academica, i. 10. 35–36 : "Zeno igitur nullo modo is erat qui ut Theophrastus nervos virtutis inciderit, sed contra qui omnia quae ad beatam vitam perti; Cicero, de Finibus, iii. 6. 8; comp. .; Stobaeus, 2.77. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  13. Wikipedia, "Zeno of Citium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Laërtius, p. § 1 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  14. Wikipedia, "Zeno of Citium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Laërtius, p. § 1; Laërtius, p. § 1; Laërtius, p. § 1; ; but note that Xenocrates died 314/13 BC; Laërtius, p. § 1 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  15. Wikipedia, "Zeno of Citium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Laërtius, p. § 1; Laërtius, p. § 1 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  16. Wikipedia, "Zeno of Citium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Can Stoicism Be Reconciled With Anarchy?", The Anarchist Library, p. 4 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  17. "Can Stoicism Be Reconciled With Anarchy?", The Anarchist Library, p. 4. facts only, no text reused. theanarchistlibrary.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Zeno of Citium (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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