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Roman philosophy[edit]

"Latin Philosophy" redirects here.

Ancient Roman philosophy was heavily influenced by the philosophical works of the ancient Greeks, however, unique developments in philosophical schools of thought occurred during the Roman period as well. During this time Athens began to decline as an intellectual center of thought while new sites such as Alexandria and Rome became locations that hosted a variety of philosophical discussion.^[1] Epicureanism and Stoicism, while Greek in origin, continued to develop as active schools, with Stoicism in particular becoming a heavy influence in Roman law and politics. The school became an interest of study for senators such as Cicero and Cato the Younger, and even the emperor Marcus Aurelius.^[2] Both leading schools of law of the Roman period, the Sabinian and the Proculean Schools, drew their ethical views from readings on the Stoics and Epicureans respectively^[3], allowing for the competition between thought to manifest in a new field in Rome's jurisprudence. Meanwhile, it was during the Roman period that Plato and Aristotle's academies concluded their practices. Although, it was also during this period that a common tradition of the western philosophical literature was born in commenting on the works of Aristotle.^[1]

Contents[edit]

Characteristics[edit]

While philosophers are often categorized according to school, some senators and philosophers of the Roman period held eclectic beliefs, taking teachings from more than one school. Such was the case of Seneca the Younger, who while mostly practiced Stoicism, and is primarily known as a Stoic philosopher, also lived according to some of the teachings of the Neopythagoreans^[4]. This was indicative of the new, diverse field of discussion that flourished in Rome. While this was the case, there still did exist philosophers, such as Epictetus who devoted their studies to a single school and who specialized in its teachings.

Key characteristics of the two most popular schools of philosophy at the time, Epicureanism and Stoicism, include the hedonism (not to be confused with the pejorative) of Epicureanism and the emotional attuning of Stoicism.^[5] Instances of this would include the binge-purge eating that some Romans partook in being indicative of the hedonism of Epicureanism. As for the Stoics, both the senator Seneca the Younger and the emperor Marcus Aurelius reference practicing Stoic psychological techniques. This reveals that not only did the Stoics impact legal thought, as in the case of the senators Cato the Younger and Cicero, but that their teachings did in fact guide the daily interactions of those who chose to follow them. The Sabinian and Proculean schools of law, the two largest schools of legal thought in the Roman period, derived their understanding of ethics heavily from Stoicism and Epicureanism respectively, again providing a current for philosophical thought to influence life in the Roman period.

Stoicism[edit]

Despite a large amount of Roman philosophy being derived or originated from Greek philosophy, there are themes that appear discretely during the Roman period that are absent in the Greek period. For example, the Stoics who previously endorsed free love and a communistic style society^[2] began to hold both a more cosmopolitan and sexually intimate viewpoint.^[6] Stoics such as Musonius Rufus describe a natural form of relationships between the sexes that stands in contrast to the teachings of early Greek Stoic leaders such as Zeno. Stoicism became less Utopian, as was previously indicated to be the case by Zeno's Republic, the lost literature of Zeno which detailed the perfect state to live in, and became more personal, detailing how to live best in the world despite your circumstances, as was the main theme of Aurelius' Meditations or Epictetus' Discourses to give some examples. In modern times, these intrapersonal emotional tuning techniques influenced Albert Ellis to create his REBT (Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy) in 1955, which aided in the developments of modern behavioral therapy techniques such as CBT or DBT. Ellis credits all of his early influence in the creation of REBT to Stoic philosophers, and not to the psychological theories of the time.^[7]

Epicureanism[edit]

Unlike Stoicism, Epicureanism did not change in content as greatly during the shift from the Greek to the Roman period. However, philosophers such as Lucretius, whose work De Rerum Natura, or, On the Nature of Things, provided some of the earliest deist or atheist perspectives of the time. De Rerum Natura is written in the form of an epic poem, and argues for the logical inability of the Hellenistic gods to possibly have been responsible for the everyday aspects of life that they are typically associated with. Lucretius' work, while lost for many centuries, was influential enough to have inspired David Suzuki to name his homonymous television show after the poem.^[8] Epicureanism as a whole expressed trends towards the arguments of Lucretius' work, holding either deist of atheist beliefs, and rejecting notions of imperative behavioral norms in favor of a pursuit of tranquility. This tranquility is described as being devoid from both excessive pleasure and excessive pain (which are argued to lead into each other) and, as is argued by Epicurus, the founder of the school, in doing so one will live the best life. Epicureanism is also noted as the school that invented the concept of atomism, the belief that the universe is comprised of atoms, as it was a tenet passed down to Epicurus by his teacher, Democritus.

Neopythagoreanism[edit]

Another adaptation of Greek philosophy came in the revival of Pythagoras' lifestyle teachings in the school of Neopythagoreanism. The Neopythagoreans focused heavily on mathematical metaphysics and held beliefs of immortality of the soul, as was the philosophy of Pythagoras himself. They also believed in the pursuit of harmony with the highest transcendent principle which would lead to a state of mental ecstasy.^[9] This revival of Pythagoras' teachings followed closely to the original paradigm of Pythagoreanism and held tenets such as the world being comprised of numbers and of the importance of the symbology of numbers, as well as vegetarianism, as all life was regarded as being precious in the philosophy's doctrine.

History[edit]

While philosophy was often admired by jurists and aristocrats, of the emperors the affinity that Hadrian held for philosophy stands out, a feature that was likely amplified by his philhellenism. Hadrian was recorded to have attended lectures by Epictetus and Favorinus on his tours of Greece, and invested heavily in attempting to revive Athens as a cultural center in the ancient world through methods of central planning on his part. ^[10] Hadrian held philosophy in high regard, something unusual for Roman emperors, who were often indifferent, if not oppositional to it as a practice. These sentiments however, were also shared by Nero and Julian the Apostate, and Aurelius himself, as he is considered today to be a philosopher.

During the autocratic rule of the Flavian Dynasty, A group of philosophers vocally and politically protested against the actions of the emperor, particularly under Domitian and Vespasian. This resulted in Vespasian reacting via banishing all philosophers from Rome, save for Musonious Rufus, although he was later also banished from Rome. ^[11] This event later became known as the Stoic Opposition, as a majority of the protesting philosophers were of the Stoic school of thought. Stoics regarded the opposition under the emperors highly later in the Roman period, however the term of Stoic Opposition was not coined until the 19th century due to the writings of Gaston Boissier. ^[12]