ABSTRACT
S T O IC IS M IN R O M A N H IS T O R Y A N D L IT E R A T U R E .
422. A L T H O U G H up to this point it has been our main Spread of purpose to set forth the doctrines of Stoicism, stoicism. we have seen incidentally that these came to
exercise a wide influence in Roman society, and that the later teachers are far less occupied in the attainment of truth than in the right guidance of disciples who lean upon them. In the present chapter we propose to describe more particularly the practical influence of Stoicism. Our information, whether drawn from history or from poetry, refers generally to the upper classes of Roman society; as to the influence of the sect amongst the poor we have no sufficient record. But although it is very generally held that the Stoics made no effort to reach the working classes of Rome, or met with no success in that direction1, the evidence points rather to an opposite conclusion, at any rate as regards all that development of the system which was coloured by Cynism, the philosophy of the poor2. Our actual records are therefore rather of the nature of side-lights upon the system ; the main stream of Stoic influence may well have flowed in courses with which we are imperfectly acquainted, and its workings may perhaps come to light first in a period of history which lies beyond our immediate scope.
