The School of the Sextii was an eclectic Ancient Roman

school of philosophy {{Horizontal TOC, nonum=on A * Absurdism * Academic skepticism * Achintya Bheda Abheda * Advaita Vedanta * Agnosticism * Ajātivāda * Ājīvika * Ajñana * Alexandrian school * Analytic philosophy * Analytical Thomism * Anarchist schools of tho ...

founded around 50 BC by Quintus Sextius the Elder and continued by his son,

Sextius Niger Sextius Niger was a Roman writer on pharmacology during the reign of Augustus or a little later. He may be identical with the son of the philosopher Quintus Sextius, who continued his philosophical teachings. Life and work From Pedanius Dioscor ...

, however it went extinct shortly after in 19 AD due to the ban on foreign cults. The school blended elements of

Pythagorean Pythagorean, meaning of or pertaining to the ancient Ionian mathematician, philosopher, and music theorist Pythagoras, may refer to: Philosophy * Pythagoreanism, the esoteric and metaphysical beliefs purported to have been held by Pythagoras * Ne ...

Platonic Plato's influence on Western culture was so profound that several different concepts are linked by being called Platonic or Platonist, for accepting some assumptions of Platonism, but which do not imply acceptance of that philosophy as a whole. It ...

, Cynic, and

Stoic Stoic may refer to: * An adherent of Stoicism; one whose moral quality is associated with that school of philosophy * STOIC, a programming language * ''Stoic'' (film), a 2009 film by Uwe Boll * ''Stoic'' (mixtape), a 2012 mixtape by rapper T-Pain * ...

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 Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born in ...

, who was taught by one of its members named

Sotion Sotion of Alexandria ( grc-gre, Σωτίων, ''gen''.: Σωτίωνος; fl. c. 200 – 170 BC) was a Greek doxographer and biographer, and an important source for Diogenes Laërtius. None of his works survive; they are known only indirectly ...

, and the 5th century writer

Claudianus Mamertus Claudianus Ecdidius Mamertus (died c. 473 AD) was a Gallo-Roman theologian and the younger brother of Saint Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne. Biography Descended probably from one of the leading families of the country, Claudianus Mamertus relinquished ...

. Other members of the school included

Papirius Fabianus Papirius Fabianus was an Ancient Roman rhetorician and philosopher from the '' gens'' Papirius in the time of Tiberius and Caligula, in the first half of the 1st century AD. Biography Fabianus was the pupil of Arellius Fuscus and of Blandus i ...

, Crassicius Pasicles,

Celsus Celsus (; grc-x-hellen, Κέλσος, ''Kélsos''; ) was a 2nd-century Greek philosopher and opponent of early Christianity. His literary work, ''The True Word'' (also ''Account'', ''Doctrine'' or ''Discourse''; Greek: grc-x-hellen, Λόγ� ...

. While

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 Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

, engaging in the correspondence between words and life, and vegetarianism.Emily Wilson, ''The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca''. Oxford University Press, 2014. p.54-55

References

{{reflist} Roman-era philosophy Sextii

See also

References