Tl iiaiioiis of Atticn;riis tnanifesi the wi<le range of
his iut»llig(!nt (furiosity. His collections and researches in natural history and other departments of natural sci- ence su[iplie<l .Seneca with the materials for his Sutnnil QM^-A/i'/rM. line of the most curious ofihe surviving treas- ures uf antiquity, rosidoiiius numbered many eminent
Romans among his hearers, and was induced, by his in- tluential pupils of the dominant race, to migrate to Rome himself towards the close of bis long life. He left the school at Rhodes under the charge of his grandson. Jason, the eighth and last of the regular succession of Stoic heresiarchs. The Stoic doctrine had, however, been very widely disseminated before this time. It had become coextensive with civilization. The philosophi- cal treatises of Cicero show how profoundly it had inter- ested the best intelligences under the expiring republic of Rome. The interest was not diminished by the es- tablishment of the empire, when a wider field and a new n'lle for the Stoic doctrine were presented both in pidjlic and private life. Indeed, Stoicism seems never to have been more widely diffused, more favorably accejjted, or more dominant than during the first two centuries of our sera. Athenodorus of Tarsus was the instructor, the friend, and the adviser of Augustus. But independent of any personal relations, the establishment of the em- pire was conducive to the spread of the doctrine. The marked cosmopolitan tendency of Stoicism; the obliter- ation by the Stoics of all distinctions of state, race, climate, or fortune; their disregard of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude," were congenial to a universal empire, and became more pronounced under an imperial system which embraced under its rule and under one political organization Romans, (ireeks, Egyp- tians; Spaniards, Gaids, CJermans ; "Parthians and IMedes and Elamites, and the dwellers in Jlesopotamia and in .Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia," etc. Hence, the Roman jurisprudence readily accepted from it dogmas which have become the foundation of natural, international, and often of constitutional law — the state of nature, the natural equality of man, etc. The influ- ence which the philosophy of the Porch exercised on the reorganization and scientific constitution of the Ro- man law cannot be doubted ; though the mode and the degree of its operation may still be open to debate. The most striking manifestation of the potency of Stoicism was, however, displayed in its ready coalescence with republican hopes and republican pretences. It became the characteristic and, too often, the shibboleth of a party which fretted and pouted and palavered under imperial rule, and hoped, or pretended to hope, for the restoration of the republic; which sometimes conspired against the emperors, in a small way, and, more frequently, cher- ished its sense of heroism by affecting conspiracy. This party found its expression alike in the philosophic os- tentation of Seneca, in the conduct of Helvidius Priscus and Partus Thraseas, in the crabbed satires of Persius, and in the declamatory and epigrammatic turgescence of Lucan. It seemed to ascend the imperial throne with Marcus Aurelius when the imperial station accepted the same moral and intellectual level with the slave Epicte- tus. The Stoic meditations of the emperor are, how- ever, an evidence of the natural goodness of the man, of the piirilicatioii of morals inider the Antonines, of the experienced need of a new heart in society, and of the pervading infliience of Christianity.
The Stoic tenets naturally underwent considerable alternlion in passing from the S])eculative ingenuity of the Hellenic schools to the hard, practical earnestness of Roman life. They were in much closer harmony with the spirit of the self-poised, arrogant Roman peo- ple than they had been, or could be, with the versatile and vivacious genius of the (Jreeks. This greater har- mony, with tiie intrinsic Hexiliility of Stoic opinion, facilitated the adaptation of the cloctrine to the diverse idiosyncrasy of the new race of disciples. Stoicism had been syncretistic and variable from the first, as already stated. It had been variously accepted by the imme- diate discijiles of Zeno; it had been modilied, and, in several respects, transmuted by his successors. It as- sumed a still more inisettled and elastic character in the writings and opinions of the Roman Stoics — sometimes co(|uetiing with Platonism, sometimes assimilating itself to Peripateticism ; more commonly blending itself with
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Cj'iiicism. Yet, with all its fluctuations, it became more iiitlueiitial than ever in regulating moral conduct, or, at least, moral professions, and in dotcrmining moral sentiments. With the progress of time and the enlarge- ment of social relations and conditions, it became more of a religion than of a philosophical tlicory. Its teach- ers became preachers; its instructions resembled homi- lies; its assemblies were like congregations of religious worshippers. Throughout its whole duration, unity of spirit and consistency of moral tone were more regarded than uniformity of doctrine. .Such unity and consist- ency it maintained. Hence, while the i)hilosophic doc- trine became laxer in details, it became more rigorous in its professed discipline. It was thus able to offer it- self as a pagan competitor to the rising Christianity. With the growth of the new religion it gradually waned. Its discrepances, discords, and intestine controversies destroyed its authority by dividing its followers. Its extravagances and absurdities, and its want of any ten- able philosophic basis, rendered it impotent in conflict with the new revelation. In its later period it borrow- ed much, undoubtedlv, from Christian teachings ; but it borrowed in vain. It was "impar congressus Achilli." The very consonance of its teachings with Christian precepts weakened it in the combat, and only promoted the victory of its rival. Yet whatever changes it un- derwent in its successive developments, it retained throughout its well-marked character as an authorita- tive scheme of ethics. The Stoics may, accordingly, be regarded as the precursors of the Christian faith in the department of practical morals, and as having prepared the path and made smooth the way for the progress and reception of its heavenly successor.