Zeno of
Tarsus (, ''Zenon ho Tarseus''; fl. 200 BC) was a
Stoic
Stoic may refer to:
* An adherent of Stoicism
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in ancient Greece and Rome. The Stoics believed that the universe operated according to reason, ''i.e.'' by a God which is immersed i ...
philosopher and the son of
Dioscorides
Pedanius Dioscorides (, ; 40–90 AD), "the father of pharmacognosy", was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of (in the original , , both meaning "On Materia medica, Medical Material") , a 5-volume Greek encyclopedic phar ...
.
Biography
Zeno was a pupil of
Chrysippus
Chrysippus of Soli (; , ; ) was a Ancient Greece, Greek Stoicism, Stoic Philosophy, philosopher. He was a native of Soli, Cilicia, but moved to Athens as a young man, where he became a pupil of the Stoic philosopher Cleanthes. When Cleanthes ...
,
and when Chrysippus died c. 206 BC, he succeeded him to become the fourth
scholarch
A scholarch (, ''scholarchēs'') was the head of a school in ancient Greece. The term is especially remembered for its use to mean the heads of schools of philosophy, such as the Platonic Academy in ancient Athens. Its first scholarch was Plato h ...
of the Stoic school in
Athens
Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
.
[Eusebius]
''Praeparatio Evangelica,''
15. 18.
According to
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes Laërtius ( ; , ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek ph ...
, he wrote very few books, but left a great number of disciples.
According to the testimony of
Philodemus
Philodemus of Gadara (, ''Philodēmos'', "love of the people"; – prob. or 35 BC) was an Epicurean philosopher and poet. He studied under Zeno of Sidon in Athens, before moving to Rome, and then to Herculaneum. He was once known chiefly for h ...
, Zeno rebutted the opinions of the
Peripatetic
Peripatetic may refer to:
*Peripatetic school, a school of philosophy in Ancient Greece
*Peripatetic axiom, in philosophy
*Peripatetic minority, a mobile population moving among settled populations offering a craft or trade.
*Peripatetic Jats
T ...
philosopher
Hieronymus of Rhodes
Hieronymus of Rhodes (, ; – ) was a Peripatetic philosopher, and an opponent of Arcesilaus and Lyco of Troas. Only a few fragments of his works survive, preserved in the quotations of later writers.
Life
Hieronymus belonged to the Peripatetic ...
in "five books Against Hieronymus" (Philodemus, ''Sto. hist.'', col. 48, fr. 18).
Little is known about Zeno's philosophical views. He was apparently an orthodox Stoic, but doubted the doctrine of the
conflagration of the universe.
This was a considerable modification of the physical theory of the Stoics, who held that the universe periodically dissolved into fire.
It is not known when he died. He was succeeded as head of the Stoic school by
Diogenes of Babylon
Diogenes of Babylon (also known as Diogenes of Seleucia; ; ; c. 230 – c. 150/140 BC) was a Stoic philosopher. He was the head of the Stoic school in Athens, and he was one of three philosophers sent to Rome in 155 BC. He wrote many works, but ...
.
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{Authority control
3rd-century BC Greek philosophers
Hellenistic-era philosophers from Anatolia
Stoic philosophers
People from Tarsus, Mersin