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The Posidonivs Myth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. F. Dobson
J. F. Dobson
Affiliation:
The University, Bristol
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Extract

Posidonivs was fortunate to be born in an age when the Romans had begun to recognize their own intellectual limitations, and had turned for guidance to a hitherto despised nation, admitted by themselves to be as much their superior in originality as it was inferior to them in practical matters. He was, moreover, the official exponent of a philosophical system which, destined as it was to exercise for hundreds of years the strongest moral influence over the world, had already taken a firm hold on the more thoughtful minds at Rome. Probably any Greek teacher of ability had, in the time of Cicero, a good chance to make a name; Posidonius, who was a man of considerable intellectual gifts, great learning, and some originality, and who was, moreover, the accredited successor to Zeno and Chrysippus, obtained a reputation which lasted for some centuries.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 12 , Issue 3-4 , October 1918 , pp. 179 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1918

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