ZENO - INFLUENCES

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>ZENO</FONT><BR> THE STOIC</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Influences</B></FONT><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>ROMAN STOICISM</B></FONT><BR> The Stoic ideals of civic duty and manly virtue had great appeal to the Romans. <A HREF="../t03/g050.html" TARGET="_top">Stoicism</A>, in a modified form, had much impact on Roman law, administration and literature. Seneca, an important political as well as literary figure in the first century AD, was a Stoic. Seneca fell out of favour with his former pupil, the emperor Nero, was implicated in conspiracy and ordered to suicide. The description of his death in Tacitus' "Annals" reveals his utter dedication to the Stoic principles of his writing. <BLOCKQUOTE>"Assaults of adversity do not affect the spirit of a stalwart man. He maintains his poise and assimilates all that falls to his lot to his own complexion, for he is more potent than the external world. I do not maintain that he is insensible to externals, but that he overcomes them. Unperturbed and serene, he rises to meet every obstacle. All adversity he regards as exercise."<P> (Seneca "On Providence")</BLOCKQUOTE> In the later Empire, the "Meditations" of the 2nd century emperor, <A HREF="../t06/t06f17.html" TARGET="_top">Marcus Aurelius</A> also promote Stoic principles:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>"If a good man had foreknowledge of what would happen, he would cooperate in his own sickness and death and mutilation, since he knows that these things are assigned to him according to the universal arrangement, and that the whole is superior to the part."</BLOCKQUOTE> Medieval Christianity found many of its basic tenets appealing, identifying Zeno's <A HREF="../t03/g028.html" TARGET="_top">Logos</A> with God. Even today, there is much appeal in the ideals of calmness in the face of adversity, duty and being true to one's self. <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>