Stoicism and Roman Politics: Introduction and Prospects
By the year 129 B.C., writes D.R. Dudley, the Stoic philosophy was firmly established among the ruling classes of Rome in a form cut to suit the Roman virtues.
“Unless,” said I, “philosophers became kings, or those who now bear the name of king study philosophy truly and adequately... there will be no respite from evils for the cities, my dear Glaucon, no, nor for humanity itself...”
So Socrates in the Republic of Plato (V. 473. c). But how many instances can history show of either of these combinations? Marcus Aurelius? The Jesuits in Paraguay? The “benevolent despots” of the eighteenth century? Too few, no doubt, to allow any statistical verification of Socrates’ proposition. Yet philosophy has not lacked chances, if not of directing, at least of influencing the conduct of political affairs. And, in this sort, there can seldom have been such grounds for hope or reward for success as the prospects that opened up, briefly, before the Stoic philosopher Panaetius and his Roman friends. For Stoicism was first effectually brought to Rome by Panaetius of Rhodes.
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