THE ROMAN PHILOSOPHERS - Helix Library

[Pages:304]THE ROMAN PHILOSOPHERS

Roman philosophy developed from Greek Hellenistic philosophy, chiefly of the Academic, Stoic and Epicurean schools. In 155 BCE an embassy of Athenian philosophers so impressed its Roman audiences that Roman philosophy can be said to have developed from that event.

Mark Morford makes the huge output of the Roman philosophical authors (notably Cicero, Lucretius and Seneca) manageable for readers unfamiliar with the field, quoting extensively from original texts, in readable and accurate translations. He introduces figures such as Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, whose names are well known but whose works can be hard to read, and others including the poets Manilius, Lucan and Persius, and the philosopher Musonius, who were significant in the tradition of Roman philosophy.

The Roman Philosophers is the ideal route to understanding this important era in the history of thought.

Mark Morford was Professor of Classics at the University of Virginia and at Ohio State University. He is the author of books on the Neostoic scholar Justus Lipsius and the Roman Stoic poets Lucan and Persius. He is also the co-author of Classical Mythology (1971, 7th edn 2002) and currently teaches and researches at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.

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THE ROMAN PHILOSOPHERS

From the time of Cato the Censor to the death of Marcus Aurelius

Mark Morford

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2002 by Routledge

11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge

29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

? 2002 Mark Morford

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter

invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission

in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0-203-45181-3 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-76005-0 (Adobe eReader Format)

ISBN 0-415-18851-2 (hbk)

ISBN 0-415-18852-0 (pbk)

FOR JOAN

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend All losses are restored and sorrows end.

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CONTENTS

Preface

ix

List of abbreviations

xii

1 Philosophia Togata

1

2 The arrival of the Greek philosophers in Rome

13

3 Cicero and his contemporaries

33

4 Lucretius and the Epicureans

93

5 Philosophers and poets in the Augustan Age

124

6 Seneca and his contemporaries

153

7 Stoicism under Nero and the Flavians

180

8 From Epictetus to Marcus Aurelius

199

Bibliographical note

229

Notes

231

References

265

Indices:

Philosophers named in the text

274

Passages discussed

280

General index

282

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