Academy – School of philosophy at Athens founded by Plato, dominated by Skepticism in the Hellenistic period (then called the New Academy).
Aenesidemus – Formerly a member of the New Academy, then, after a break with the Academy, founder of the neo-Pyrrhoist movement in the first century B.C.E.
Arcesilaus – Skeptical philosopher, head of the New Academy from c.273-242 B.C.E.
Aristotle – 384-322 B.C.E. Major Greek philosopher, founder of the Peripatetic school in Athens
Aurelius, Marcus – Roman emperor 161-80 B.C.E. and Stoic philosopher, author of Meditations (in the Greek language).
Carneades – Fourth head of the New Academy, mid-second century B.C.E.; retired 137, died 129.
Chryisippus – c. 280-206 B.C.E. Leading Stoic philosopher, third head of the school beginning 232. Author of a large number of works in logic, metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, moral and political philosophy. He was probably the most philosophically able of the early Stoics, and certainly the most prolific. His influence in the Hellenistic and Roman worlds equaled that of Plato and surpassed that of the early Aristotle.
Cicero, Marcus Tullius – 106-43 B.C.E. Leading Roman orator, statesman, and philosopher. Toward the end of his life he wrote a large number of works, most of them dialogues, and most of them surviving, in which he explained the views of the major Hellenistic schools and subjected them to scrutiny. He is a major source for reports and citations of the views of leading philosophers, as well as a thinker in his own right.
Cleanthes – 331-232 B.C.E. Stoic philosopher and poet, second head of the school at Athens, from 262. Of the three major early heads of the school, he seems to have been the least analytically inclined, and to have had the influence of the development of the school’s philosophical views.
Colotes - Epicurean philosopher, active between c. 310-260 B.C.E. His reverence to Epicurus is well documented. He was attacked by Plutarch in the anti-Epicurean work Against Colotes.
Cynic School – School of philosophers founded by Diogenes of Sinope in the mid-fourth century B.C.E. Claiming to follow Socrates they led unconventional and deliberately shocking lives, insisting on their indifference to wealth, comfort, and convention.
Cyrenaic School – School of philosophers founded by Aristippus of Cyrene, active in the fourth and early third centuries B.C.E. They professed hedonism, but differed from Epicurus in their focus on immediate bodily sensations.
Democritus – Mid to late fifth century B.C.E. Atomist philosopher, associated with Leucippus. Epicurus began as a follower of his philosophical views which stressed the importance of a calm state of well-being.
Diogenes of Babylon – Head of Stoic school in early to mid-second century B.C.E. He wrote on many familiar Stoic topics, including rhetoric and poetics.
Diogenes Laertius – Early third century C.E. Writer about the lives and doctrines of Greek philosophers, a major source for our knowledge of the Hellenic schools. The earliest published work of Nietzsche was a rigorous historical examination of the sources of his work.
Diogenes of Oenoanda – Wealthy Epicurean philosopher of the second century C.E. who had an account of Epicurus’ philosophy inscribed on a stone in a public colonnade in what is now central Turkey.
Epictetus – c.55-c. 135 C.E. Major Stoic philosopher at Rome, a former slave. His lectures (in Greek) were transcribed by his pupil Arrian and are among our major sources for Roman Stoic philosophy.
Epicurean School – School of philosophers founded by Epicurus, influential in both Greece and Rome. Its major philosophers include Epicurus, Metrodorus, the Roman Lucretius and Philodemus, and Diogenes of Oenoanda.
Epicurus – 341-271 B.C.E. Leading Greek philosopher and founder of the Epicurean school. Author of a very large number of books. Three lengthy letters and a collection of maxims, cited in Diogenes Laertius, preserve his own account of his central doctrines. Copious citations and summaries in ancient sources and a large number of papyrus fragments of his major works contribute to our evidence, as does the poem of his follower Lucretius.
Galen – Greek doctor, medical writer, and philosopher, late second century C.E. He is a central source for Chrysippus’ theory of the passions, of which he is a very hostile critic
Hierocles - Stoic philosopher, active around 100 C.E.
Lucretius – Early to mid first century B.C.E. Roman poet and philosopher, follower of Epicureanism, author of the six-book didactic poem De Rerum Natura (On the Way Things Are), an account of Epicurean views on the universe, mind, death, sexuality, and political community.
Metrodorus of Lampsacus – C. 331-278 B.C.E. Epicurean philosopher and close associate of Epicurus. Epicurus’ will makes provision for the support of his children.
Musonius Rufus, Gaius – Roman Stoic philosopher, active in the first century C.E., teacher of Epictetus. His surviving works (in Greek) include arguments in favor of equal education for women, arguments against the sexual double standard in marriage, arguments against infanticide, arguments that the philosopher ought to marry and take part in the life of the community.
Nausiphanes – Democritean philosopher, teacher of Epicurus.
Panaetius – C. 185-110 B.C.E. Stoic philosopher from Rhodes, head of the school from around 129. His views, which in some respects appear to have modified the original Greek Stoic doctrines, were very influential at Rome.
Peripatetic School – School of philosophers founded by Aristotle, later headed by Theophrastus and Strato. Less influential in the Hellenistic period than Epicureanism, Skepticism and Stoicism.
Philodemus – Epicurean philosopher of the first century B.C.E., whose works were influential in Roman intellectual circles. Extensive papyrus fragments of his writings have been found at Herculaneum.
Plato – C. 429-347 B.C.E. Major Greek philosopher, founder of the Academy.
Plutarch – Late first to early second centuries C.E. Leading Greek writer and thinker. His lives of Greek and Roman figures are animated by a moral purpose, and his extensive writings on philosophical matters, group together as the Moralia, are among our major sources of information about Hellenistic thought. A Platonist, he writes extensive, critical accounts of both Epicureanism and Stoicism, and his criticisms are frequently philosophical acute. He remained a very widely read figure throughout much of the history of modern Western culture; for example, he was one of the central classical influences on the American Founders, and one of their central sources for Hellenistic thought.
Posidonius - C. 135-50 B.C.E. Stoic philosopher, based in Rhodes, a pupil of Panaetius. Heavily influenced by Plato as well as by Stoicism, he differed from Chrysippus about the structure of the soul, the nature of the emotions, and the proper use of music and literature in education. His views on these matters survive primarily through reports and citations in Galen, who prefers them to the views of Chrysippus.
Pyrrho – C. 365-270 B.C.E. Founder of the Skeptical movement in philosophy, and legendary sage figure for later Skeptical philosophers. Diogenes Laertius’ account of his life is among our major sources for the views of the Skeptics. The report that he visited India with Alexander the Great has at least some plausibility, given the close relationship between some Skeptical patterns of argument and contemporary arguments in Indian philosophy.
Pyrrhonist School – School founded by Aenesidemus, active from the first century B.C.E. until at least 200 C.E. Sextus Empiricus belonged to this school.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus – C. 1- 65 C.E. Major Roman Stoic philosopher and poet, writing in the Latin language. He was also active in politics, serving as tutor and advisor to the young emperor Nero. On his life, see M. Griffin, 1976. Seneca’s drama had a major influence on the development of Elizabethan tragedy. His philosophical works were extremely widely read from the Renaissance to the present century, and had a major influence on thinkers such as Descartes, Spinoza, and the American founders, Kant, and Nietzsche.
Sextus Empiricus - Pyrrhonist Skeptical philosopher, active in the second century C.E. He was apparently a doctor of either the Empiricist or the Methodist school. His writings are our central source for Pyrrhonist and other Skeptical doctrines, as well as for the views of the schools whom he attacks.
Socrates – 469-399 B.C.E. Athenian philosopher who wrote nothing; his views are portrayed in works of Plato and Xenophon, and described by Aristotle. His life and activity have a major influence not only on Platonists, but also on Cynics, Stoics, and Skeptics, all of whom appeal to him in some manner as a model and source.
Stoic School – The most influential philosophical school of the Hellenistic period. Founded by Zeno of Citium, and later headed by Cleanthes and then Chrysippus, its early phase lasted from 300 to 130 B.C.E. Panaethus and Posidonius introduced some modifications, and their period is sometimes called
"Middle Stoicism." At Rome, Stoicism is represented by Musonius Rufus, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius and Hierocles.Timon of Phlius – C. 325-235 B.C.E. Skeptical philosopher and poet, follower of Pyrrho.
Zeno of Citium – 334-262 B.C.E. Stoic philosopher, founder of the Stoic School. Along with Chrysippus, the originator of the school’s most important philosophical views and arguments. It is very difficult to tell to what extent, if any, Zeno and Chrysippus differed philosophically, but Zeno appears to have had an independent theory of the passions.
| Last Updated: 10/19/22 |