210 THE GREEKS
self-sufficiency and offered a safe haven for the individual less attached to the political
world.
Zeno of Citium in Cyprus (c. 333–c. 262) was the founder of the Stoic School at
Athens, so called from the Stoa Poikile, the colonnade, where Zeno and his suc-
cessors, who included Cleanthes of Assos on the coast of Asia Minor (c. 331–c. 213)
and Chrysippus of Soli in Cilicia (c. 280–207), conducted their teaching.
Zeno began philosophical life as one of the Cynics, whose chief doctrine was
that self-sufficiency could bring contentment in all the vicissitudes of life. The most
famous Cynic, Diogenes (c. 400–325), was reputed to have lived in a barrel in
accordance with his belief that happiness consisted in satisfying only the most basic
natural needs and in renouncing the world of conventional behaviour. The word cynic
comes from his nickname, from kyon-kynos, dog, said to have been given to him for
his shamelessness. From the austerities of cynicism, Zeno was converted by the
writings of Antisthenes (c. 445–c.360), a pupil and friend of Socrates (who may also
have influenced Diogenes), to Socratic philosophy whence he developed his own
teaching, divided into three parts comprising logic, physics and ethics, the most
enduring of which has been Stoic morality.
Virtue is based upon knowledge; only the wise man can be truly virtuous and
harmonize his reason with Nature which is ruled by the greater reason, the Logos,
identified with god and manifested in fate.
FIGURE 43 The Stoa of Attalus (c.155) as reconstructed