bad man unhappy, and that the good man's happiness differs in no way from God's. On the
question whether the soul survives death, there were conflicting opinions. Cleanthes maintained
that all souls survive until the next universal conflagration (when everything is absorbed into
God); but Chrysippus maintained that this is only true of the souls of the wise. He was less
exclusively ethical in his interests than the later Stoics; in fact, he made logic fundamental. The
hypothetical and disjunctive syllogism, as well as the word "disjunction," are due to the Stoics;
so is the study of grammar and the invention of "cases" in declension. * Chrysippus, or other
Stoics inspired by his work, had an elaborate theory of knowledge, in the main empirical and
based on perception, though they allowed certain ideas and principles, which were held to be
established by consensus gentium, the agreement of mankind. But Zeno, as well as the Roman
Stoics, regarded all theoretical studies as subordinate to ethics: he says that philosophy is like
an orchard, in which logic is the walls, physics the trees, and ethics the fruit; or like an egg, in
which logic is the shell, physics the white, and ethics the yolk.†Chrysippus, it would seem,
allowed more independent value to theoretical studies. Perhaps his influence accounts for the
fact that among the Stoics there were many men who made advances in mathematics and other
sciences.
Stoicism, after Chrysippus, was considerably modified by two important men, Panaetius and
Posidonius. Panaetius introduced a considerable element of Platonism, and abandoned
materialism. He was a friend of the younger Scipio, and had an influence on Cicero, through
whom, mainly, Stoicism became known to the Romans. Posidonius, under whom Cicero
studied in Rhodes, influenced him even more. Posidonius was taught by Panaetius, who died
about 110 B.C.
Posidonius (ca. 135-ca. 51 B.C.) was a Syrian Greek, and was a child when the Seleucid empire
came to an end. Perhaps it was his experience of anarchy in Syria that caused him to travel
westward, first to Athens, where he imbibed the Stoic philosophy, and then further afield, to the
western parts of the Roman Empire. "He saw with his own eyes the sunset in the Atlantic
beyond the verge of the
* See Barth, Die Stoa, 4th edition, Sturtgart, 1922. †Ib.