Figure 84 View of interior of the Stoa of Attalus II, in the agora of Athens, built ca. 150 BC and
reconstructed between 1953 and 1956 by the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. Source: ©
Martin Garnham / Alamy Stock Photo.
Plutarch's ethical values had been molded by his period of study in Athens, at the Academy founded over
four hundred years previously by Plato. The Academy had naturally evolved considerably since the time
of its founding and, at the time when Plutarch studied there, it taught a rather eclectic version of Platonic
philosophy that incorporated some doctrines from other schools of philosophy. These included the school
founded by Plato's pupil Aristotle and another school, housed in a STOA, or portico, in Athens. This
school, known for this reason as the Stoic school, had been founded in about 300 BC by a Greek from
Cyprus named Zeno and became the most influential school of philosophy in the Roman Empire.
Fundamental to Stoicism is that its teachings enable the true Stoic to live in harmony with the world by
distinguishing through reason between those things that are within the individual's control and those that
are not. What are manifestly within the individual's control are his or her thoughts, behavior, and reactions
to external events, whereas the individual is often powerless to affect external events.
STOA A long colonnaded hall (Figure 84), sometimes capitalized (Stoa) to refer to the Stoic school
of philosophy, whose founder taught in the Stoa Poikile in Athens.Thus it is possible for the wise and virtuous Stoic to be in complete control of him or herself regardless
of external circumstances. This is one of the prime reasons for the appeal of Stoicism to the ancient
Greeks and Romans, both of whom regarded it as humiliating in the extreme to be under the control of
someone or something else. The Stoic slave is as free as the emperor of Rome. In fact, a slave and a