Introduction Junius Rusticus was a 2nd-century Stoic philosopher. The grandson of a member of The Stoic Opposition, Rusticus must have heard story after story of those revered philosophers. And he must have been enchanted because the sense of duty that compelled his grandfather summoned Rusticus as well. He became a soldier then a general then a consul […]

Introduction Helvidius Priscus was a 1st-century Stoic philosopher. He was born to a low Plebeian class family but rose to become a powerful figure in the Roman Empire. From an early age, Helvidius seemed to sense how he might transcend his humble origins. A few decades after Helvidius died, the Roman historian Tacitus wrote that […]

Introduction Thrasea Paetus was born in 14 AD, the same year the first Roman Emperor Augustus died. It was now six decades since Cato The Younger bled out alongside The Roman Republic. In Thrasea’s Rome then, for most, the old Republic ideals—freedom, mainly—were ancient history. They accepted what Rome had become—a regime of increasingly autocratic […]

INTRODUCTION Born around 20 AD in Libya, Lucius Annaeus Cornutus was a Phoenician like the Stoic founder Zeno. He was at some point brought to Rome, most likely by Seneca’s brother Mela. Perhaps it was seeing what an impact Seneca’s childhood tutor—the Stoic Attalus—had on his brother that Mela hired Cornutus to tutor his own […]