Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The Stoics believed that the practice of virtue is enough to achieve eudaimonia: a well-lived life. The Stoics identified the path to achieving it with a life spent practicing the four virtues in everyday life: wisdom, courage, temperance or moderation, and justice, and living in accordance with nature. It was founded in the ancient Agora orf Athens by Zeno of Citium around 300 BC.
Our Stoic Philosophers tea towel features quotations from five stoic philosophers:
- Zeno of Citium (334-c.262 BC), the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, which he taught in Athens from about 300 BC.
- Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD), second century Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher. His Meditations, which he wrote to and for himself, offer readers a unique opportunity to see how an ancient person (indeed an emperor) might try to live a Stoic life.
- Epictetus (c50-135 AD) was born into slavery in Western Turkey and lived in Rome until his banishment. He taught that philosophy is a way of life and not simply a theoretical discipline.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (4BC-AD 65), usually known as Seneca, a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist and satirist from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature.
- Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, also known as Cato the Younger (95 BC-46 BC), was an influential conservative Roman senator during the late Republic.
