There is no native Roman philosophy. Greek systems were introduced to Rome in 155 BCE by an embassy of philosophers of the Academic (Platonic), Peripatetic (Aristotelian) and Stoic schools. On the whole, the Romans were never much interested in speculation, and preferred concrete ethics, thus favoring the Stoic and Epicurean schools.

(A) STOICISM

Stoicism was founded by the Greek philosopher ZENO of Citium (c. 335-263 BCE), and named after the porch (stoa) in which his school was housed in Athens. In Rome it was best represented by CICERO (106-43 BCE); SENECA (4 BCE-65 CE), who tutored the emperor Nero; and the emperor MARCUS AURELIUS (161-180 CE), who wrote his Meditations in Greek. Add also EPICTETUS (c. 55-135 CE), a former slave who taught in Rome; four books of his Greek lectures survive.

Stoicism is chiefly concerned with the attainment of moral perfection (virtus); its epistemology and metaphysics are secondary to this aim.

Epistemology.Virtus requires knowledge: only the wise man can be virtuous. Truth is attained only when concepts accurately mirror external realities. Much attention is devoted to demonstrating how such correspondence is verifiable; this entails the development of a fairly complex system of logic. In the final analysis, however, the possibility of true knowledge is proved by asserting that otherwise no conduct based on reasonable conviction would be possible.

Metaphysics. The aim is to live "in harmony with nature." The universe is essentially one "stuff"—material, animate, rational, divine; its permutations give rise to things in the world. This stuff is ultimately LOGOS (Rationality), which in its purest manifestation is God and Fate; it is the human faculty of Reason; in its most physical aspect, Fire. Stoics believed in the periodic destruction of the universe by fire (ecpyrosis), followed by the emergence of a new universe. Time is thus an endless succession of creation and destruction; but since this process always obeys the same rational laws, the same people, things, and events recur down to the minutest details. An unbreakable chain of cause and effect determines everything.

Ethics. Freedom of will means to will the necessary. Unhappiness consists in refusing to conform to the inevitable. The only good is virtus, the only evil is failure to achieve it; everything else is indifferent. Less doctrinaire Stoics recognize "desirables" (self-preservation, health, honor, wealth) and "undesirables" (death, pain, illness, poverty) which one may seek or avoid so long as they involve no unvirtuous acts. True happiness is unaffected by them, however. Pain and death are not evil; hence the Stoic can be absolutely brave. Pleasure is not a good; hence he can be absolutely continent. Life itself is not inherently good; hence he condones suicide as an honorable way out of compromising situations.

Virtue and vice show no difference of degree; all virtues are equal in value, and all vices equally reprehensible. One cannot have partial virtue—it is all or nothing. True happiness consists chiefly in freedom from disturbance (apathia) by outward events and inward passions. The Stoic is impassive and resigned, and eradicates all feelings and emotions, since they are opposed to reason. Thanks to his rationality, man is linked to the divine LOGOS. He devotes himself to the whole, since he is similar to all other rational beings. Recognition of universal brotherhood compels the Stoic to live for others, in total commitment to family, city, nation, and race.

(B) EPICUREANISM

Epicureanism was founded by the Greek philosopher EPICURUS of Samos (c. 341-270 BCE). Its chief Roman representative was the poet LUCRETIUS (95-55 BCE), whose De rerum natura ("On Reality") is a grand elaboration of the Epicurean system.

The principal concern of Epicureanism is ethical; its physics is based on the atomism of the Greek philosopher DEMOCRITUS (460-370 BCE).

Physics. Reality is composed of innumerable invisible particles called atoma ("things that cannot be cut any further") in infinitely different sizes and shapes. As they travel downward through empty space, at indeterminate times and places they swerve from the vertical and cause a chain-reaction. Clusters of interlocking atoms form as a result, and give rise to the variety of things in the world.

Epistemology. All objects shed "images," clustered atoms in thin films producing sensations on impact with our organs of sense. The Epicurean thus regards sense perception (not reason) as the criterion of truth. Falsehood arises in the faculty of judgement—all perceptions per se are true. All ideas must be verified by the senses.

Theology and Ethics. The gods (like the soul) are made of fine, round atoms, and can neither be touched, nor can they touch human beings. As such, they are totally indifferent, and religion is pointless. Death is a dispersal of atoms, after which there is no sensation; thus one need not fear it either. Delivered from fear, the Epicurean cultivates private existence, retires from public life, avoids marriage and children. The only unconditional good is what the senses identify as good—pleasure. The only unconditional evil is pain. But pleasure does not mean sensual license; it is instead mainly negative, meaning freedom from pain and trouble (ataraxia), a peaceful state of body and mind. Moderation is the rule, rather than "eat, drink and be merry." And this is a course the Epicurean can choose freely—for unlike the Stoic, he believes in free will, as a corollary to the "swerve" of the atoms.

The Epicurean maintains that it serves no good to engage in public life, except as a defence against injustice. While others must be deterred by punishment, the wise man freely abstains from injustice—for detection, after all, entails pain.
 
 

(A) THE GODS

Stoic: To those who ask, "Where have you seen the gods? How do you know they exist?", I answer: first, they can even be seen with the eyes; second, I have not seen my own soul, but I still honor it. With reference to the gods, I know they exist and venerate them on the basis of what I experience of their power. (Med. 12,18)

Epicurean: It is essential to the nature of deity that it enjoy immortal existence in utter tranquillity, aloof and detached. It is free from pain and peril, exempt from any need of us, indifferent to our merits, immune from anger. (RN 2,646-51)

(B) DEATH

Stoic: The man to whom only what comes in due season is good, and to whom it is the same whether he has done more or fewer acts in accordance with reason, and to whom it makes no difference whether he contemplates the world for a longer or a shorter time—for him death is nothing terrible. (Med. 12,35)

Epicurean: Death is nothing to us. When we are no more—when the union of body and spirit that engenders us has been disrupted—then to us, who will be nothing, nothing can happen any longer. (RN 3,830f., 838-41)

(C) PLEASURE

Stoic: Repentance is a kind of self-reproach for having neglected something useful. Now, whatever is good is useful, and the perfectly good man should seek it. But no such man would repent over having refused some pleasure. Therefore pleasure is neither good nor useful. (Med. 8,10)

Epicurean: Don't you see nature is clamoring for two things only: a body free from pain, a mind released from worry and fear to enjoy pleasurable sensations? (RN 2)

(D) FREE WILL

Stoic: What is the duty of the good man? To offer himself to Fate. I am not under duress, I do not submit against my will, I am not god’s slave but his follower, and more willingly because I know that everything happens by a fixed and eternally valid law. Fate directs us, and the hour of our birth determines each man’s span. Cause is linked with cause, and a long chain of events governs all matters public and private. Everything must thus be endured bravely because events do not just happen but instead arrive by appointment. (On Providence 5)

Epicurean: If motion is always one long chain-reaction, and new motion always comes from old motion in an invariable order, and if, by swerving, the atoms do not create new movement to snap the everlasting sequence of cause and effect—then what is the source of that will-power snatched from Fate, thanks to which we follow the path led by pleasure, swerving from our course only at the bidding of our own hearts? There is no doubt that individual will is the origin of the movements that trickle through the limbs. (RN 2,251-62)

(E) SELF AND COMMUNITY

Stoic: There is only one fruit of this life: a pious disposition and social activity. (Med. 6,30) I resolve to seek public office not for the allurement of the purple and the mace, but to be more serviceable to my friends and relatives, to all my fellow citizens, and eventually to all mankind. (On Tranquillity 1)

Epicurean: How sweet it is, when the winds trouble the waters across a great sea, to gaze from the shore at another’s tribulations—not because they are a joy and a delight, but because to perceive what evils you are free from is pleasant. It is also sweet to behold great battles spread over the plains, with nothing of yours at peril. But the sweetest of all is this: to stand aloof in a quiet stronghold, stoutly fortified by the teaching of the wise, and to gaze down from that elevation on others wandering aimlessly in a vain search for the way of life, struggling night and day with restless effort to scale the heights of wealth and power. (RN 2,1-12)