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the founder of Roman Stoic philosophy, and a friend of
Scipio Aemilianus and of Polybius.
A pupil in Athens of Diogenes of Seleucia and of
Antipater of Tarsus, Panaetius also studied the philosophies
of Plato and of Aristotle. Many years a resident in Rome, he
was an influential member of the Scipionic circle and was
invited to be Scipio’s sole companion on an ambassadorial
visit to the Orient about 140 bc. Panaetius succeeded
Antipater as head of the school and passed the last 20 years
of his life in Athens. While adhering to fundamental Stoic
teaching, Panaetius tempered the rigid austerity of the
ancient Stoa and introduced a new humanist note. He appears
to have written less voluminously than other leading Stoics,
and none of the five treatises attributed to him is extant.
His important ethical treatise On the Appropriate was
Cicero’s model for the first two books of the De Officiis.
His chief disciple was Poseidonius of Apamea.
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