Ἀπομνημονεύματα - Apomnemoneumata - aka Memorabilia1 - is, of course, the title of Xenephon's collection of Socratic dialogues, essentially an apologia (ie., defence) of Socrates by Xenephon offering edifying examples of Socrates' conversations and activities (along with occasional commentary from Xenophon, a student of Socrates). These ἀπομνημονεύματα differ from both Xenophon's Apology of Socrates to the Jury and Plato's Apology in that those Apologies present Socrates as defending himself before a jury.
Cynicism (said to have originated with Antisthenes, also said to have been a pupil of Socrates) extended into the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods, even experiencing a revival with the rise of the Roman Empire in the 1st century: Cynics could be found preaching throughout the cities of the empire. It has been proposed, eg., by Burton Mack and James Dominic Crossan, that Cynic ascetic and rhetorical ideas influenced and even appear in early Christianity.
Of the Cynic epistles, written in Koine Greek, most of those attributed to Diogenes were probably written or altered in the 1st century BCE, whereas the letters of Crates, some of which seem to be based on the Diogenes letters, probably date from the 1st century CE (there are also 35 so-called Socratic epistles attributed to Socrates and his followers: Xenophon, Antisthenes, Aristippus, Aeschines, etc.; ten spurious epistles attributed to Anacharsis, which may have been written in the 3rd century BCE; and 9 epistles attributed to Heraclitus, which probably date from the 1st century CE).
Stoicism also began near the end of the 4th century BCE (from Antisthenes' son Crates of Thebes' influence on the said founder, Zeno of Citium) and also continued through the Roman Imperial Period (though probably was not as popular or revered as Cynicism near the end of the empire).
Stoicism became the foremost popular philosophy among the educated elite in the Hellenistic world and the Roman Empire to the point where, in the words of Gilbert Murray, "nearly all the successors of Alexander [...] professed themselves Stoics". Later Roman Stoics focused on promoting a life in harmony within the universe within which we are active participants.
Scholars usually divide the history of Stoicism into three phases: the Early Stoa, from Zeno's founding to Antipater; the Middle Stoa, including Panaetius and Posidonius; and the Late Stoa, including Musonius Rufus, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. No complete works survived from the first two phases of Stoicism. Only Roman texts from the Late Stoa survived.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism#History
* https://lsj.gr/wiki/προαίρεσις
* Etymology and Meaning of προαίρεσις in Aristotle's Ethics
* προαίρεσις in Epictetus
- aka Commentarii and a variety of English terms: Recollections, Memoirs, Conversations of Socrates, etc.
- The Memorabilia contains 39 chapters broken into four books: Book I contains 7 chapters, Book II contains 10 chapters, Book III contains 14 chapters and Book IV contains 8 chapters.
- Xenophon's Ἀπομνημονεύματα at Perseus"...The indictment against him was to this effect: Socrates is guilty of rejecting the gods acknowledged by the state and of bringing in strange deities: he is also guilty of corrupting the youth ..."... It has often been argued that Xenophon was not, in fact, responding to charges at time of the trial of Socrates in 399 BCE, but to charges made some years later by the Athenian sophist Polycrates in his Accusation of Socrates. But Polycrates' work is lost, and sources for reconstructing it are late and unreliable. The assumption that Xenophon was responding to Polycrates point by point may be driven as much by the traditionally low esteem for Xenophon's literary powers as to any historical influence from Polycrates. The role of Polycrates [or not] is one item in the debate over whether Xenophon's treatment of Socrates reflects the historical Socrates or is a largely fictional contribution to the literary debate about Socrates. This debate is in turn an important element in our understanding the trial of Socrates, and in particular to the debate over whether the religious terms of the official accusation against Socrates (impiety) were a cover for political animosity against him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorabil ... d_contents
Cynicism (said to have originated with Antisthenes, also said to have been a pupil of Socrates) extended into the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods, even experiencing a revival with the rise of the Roman Empire in the 1st century: Cynics could be found preaching throughout the cities of the empire. It has been proposed, eg., by Burton Mack and James Dominic Crossan, that Cynic ascetic and rhetorical ideas influenced and even appear in early Christianity.
The most notable representative of Cynicism in the 1st century CE was Demetrius, whom Seneca praised as "a man of consummate wisdom, though he himself denied it, constant to the principles which he professed, of an eloquence worthy to deal with the mightiest subjects." Cynicism in Rome was both the butt of the satirist and the ideal of the thinker. In the 2nd century CE, Lucian, whilst pouring scorn on the Cynic philosopher Peregrinus Proteus, nevertheless praised his own Cynic teacher, Demonax, in a dialogue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicism_ ... oman_world
Of the Cynic epistles, written in Koine Greek, most of those attributed to Diogenes were probably written or altered in the 1st century BCE, whereas the letters of Crates, some of which seem to be based on the Diogenes letters, probably date from the 1st century CE (there are also 35 so-called Socratic epistles attributed to Socrates and his followers: Xenophon, Antisthenes, Aristippus, Aeschines, etc.; ten spurious epistles attributed to Anacharsis, which may have been written in the 3rd century BCE; and 9 epistles attributed to Heraclitus, which probably date from the 1st century CE).
Stoicism also began near the end of the 4th century BCE (from Antisthenes' son Crates of Thebes' influence on the said founder, Zeno of Citium) and also continued through the Roman Imperial Period (though probably was not as popular or revered as Cynicism near the end of the empire).
Stoicism became the foremost popular philosophy among the educated elite in the Hellenistic world and the Roman Empire to the point where, in the words of Gilbert Murray, "nearly all the successors of Alexander [...] professed themselves Stoics". Later Roman Stoics focused on promoting a life in harmony within the universe within which we are active participants.
Scholars usually divide the history of Stoicism into three phases: the Early Stoa, from Zeno's founding to Antipater; the Middle Stoa, including Panaetius and Posidonius; and the Late Stoa, including Musonius Rufus, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. No complete works survived from the first two phases of Stoicism. Only Roman texts from the Late Stoa survived.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism#History
The Stoics are especially known for teaching that "virtue is the only good" for human beings, and that external things, such as health, wealth, and pleasure, are not good or bad in themselves (adiaphora) but have value as "material for virtue to act upon". Many Stoics—such as Seneca and Epictetus—emphasized that because "virtue is sufficient for happiness", a sage would be emotionally resilient to misfortune. The Stoics also held that certain destructive emotions resulted from errors of judgment, and they believed people should aim to maintain a will (called prohairesis/προαίρεσις)* that is "in accordance with nature". Because of this, the Stoics thought the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not what a person said but how a person behaved. To live a good life, one had to understand the rules of the natural order since they believed everything was rooted in nature.
* https://lsj.gr/wiki/προαίρεσις
* Etymology and Meaning of προαίρεσις in Aristotle's Ethics
* προαίρεσις in Epictetus
Statistics: Posted by MrMacSon — Mon Nov 11, 2024 5:57 pm