known world, and the African coast over against Spain, where the trees were full of apes, and
the villages of barbarous people inland from Marseilles, where human heads hanging at the
house-doors for trophies were an every-day sight." * He became a voluminous writer on
scientific subjects; indeed, one of the reasons for his travels was a wish to study the tides, which
could not be done in the Mediterranean. He did excellent work in astronomy; as we saw in
Chapter XXII his estimate of the distance of the sun was the best in antiquity. †He was also a
historian of note--he continued Polybius. But it was chiefly as an eclectic philosopher that he
was known: he combined with Stoicism much of Plato's teaching, which the Academy, in its
sceptical phase, appeared to have forgotten.
This affinity to Plato is shown in his teaching about the soul and the life after death. Panaetius
had said, as most Stoics did, that the soul perishes with the body. Posidonius, on the contrary,
says that it continues to live in the air, where, in most cases, it remains unchanged until the next
world-conflagration. There is no hell, but the wicked, after death, are not so fortunate as the
good, for sin makes the vapours of the soul muddy, and prevents it from rising as far as the
good soul rises. The very wicked stay near the earth and are reincarnated; the truly virtuous rise
to the stellar sphere and spend their time watching the stars go round. They can help other
souls; this explains (he thinks) the truth of astrology. Bevan suggests that, by this revival of
Orphic notions and incorporation of Neo-Pythagorean beliefs, Posidonius may have paved the
way for Gnosticism. He adds, very truly, that what was fatal to such philosophies as his was not
Christianity but the Copernican theory. ‡ Cleanthes was right in regarding Aristarchus of
Samos as a dangerous enemy.
Much more important historically (though not philosophically) than the earlier Stoics were the
three who were connected with Rome: Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius--a minister, a
slave, and an emperor, respectively.
* Bevan, Stoics and Sceptics, p. 88.â
€He estimated that by sailing westward from Cadiz, India could be reached after 70,000
stades. "This remark was the ultimate foundation of Columbus's confidence." Tarn,
Hellenistic Civilization, p. 249.â
€
¡The above account of Posidonius is mainly based on Chapter III of Edwyn Bevan Stoics
and Sceptics.