ABSTRACT
Philosophy in Rome, like literature and to a great extent the fine arts, is a Greek import. The 'Roman philosophers' or authors of philosophical works were not founders or leaders of schools. Instead they defended the positions that had been developed in the Greek schools: Cicero for Academic Scepticism, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius for Stoic philosophy, Lucretius for the philosophy of Epicurus. Of these, Cicero, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius were all also active and prominent in Roman politics. Stoic and Epicurean philosophy was a success among the Roman upper classes probably not least because their ties to traditional religion had weakened and answers to questions of how to live one's life were increasingly sought also in philosophy. The language of philosophy, into the first century bce, was almost exclusively Greek, and, even after Cicero's comprehensive efforts to establish a Latin philosophical literature, Greek remained prominent as a language of instruction and literature in Rome.
