Roman Philosophy

roman_philosophyRoman philosophy is thoroughly grounded in the
traditions of Greek philosophy. Interest in the subject was first
excited at Rome in 155 BCE. by an Athenian embassy, consisting of the
Academic Carneades, the Stoic Diogenes, and the Peripatetic Critolaus.
Of more permanent influence was the work of the Stoic Panaetius, the
friend of the younger Scipio and of Laelius; but a thorough study of
Greek philosophy was first introduced in the time of Cicero and Varro.
In a number of works they tried to make it accessible even to those of
their countrymen who were outside the learned circles. Cicero chiefly
took it up in a spirit of eclecticism ; but among his contemporaries
Epicureanism is represented in the poetical treatise of Lucretius on
the nature of things, and Pythagoreanism by Nigidium Figulus. In
Imperial times Epicureanism and Stoicism were most popular, especially
the latter, as represented by the writings of Seneca, Cornutus, and
the emperor Marcus Aurelius; while Eclectic Platonism was taken up by
Apuleius of Madaura. One of the latest philosophical writers of
antiquity is Boethius, whose writings were the chief source of
information as to Greek philosophy during the first centuries of the
Middle Ages.