Archive · In History

October 2 in History

Classical Antiquity: Rome, Greece, and the foundations of Western and Eastern thought.

7thinkers in the spotlight
9featured quotes
Classical Antiquity

Thinkers of the Classical Antiquity

Epictetus

Epictetus

50 – 138

Philosophy
154

quotes

Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was born into slavery at Hierapolis, Phrygia and lived in Rome until his banishment, after which he spent the rest of his life in Nicopolis in northwestern Greece.

Upon all occasions we ought to have these maxims ready at hand:

Seneca the Younger

Seneca the Younger

4 BCE – 65

Philosophy
154

quotes

Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, a dramatist, and in one work, a satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature.

I am endeavouring to live every day as if it were a complete life.

Philo

Philo

14 BCE – 50

Philosophy
39

quotes

Philo of Alexandria, also called Philō Judæus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt.

Nothing will a man rue more than refusal to listen to the wise.

Justin_Martyr

Justin_Martyr

100 – 165

Philosophy
6

quotes

Justin Martyr, also known as Justin the Philosopher, was an early Christian apologist and philosopher. The First Apology, his most well-known text, passionately defends the morality of the Christian life and provides various arguments to convince the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius to abandon persecution of the Church. Justin also indicates that historical manifestations of the Logos predated Christ's incarnation, and that many historical Greek philosophers were unknowing Christians.

Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder

20 – 79

Science
28

quotes

Gaius Plinius Secundus, known in English as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, scientist, naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, procurator, and friend of the emperor Vespasian. Pliny wrote the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia, a thirty-seven-volume work covering a vast array of topics on human knowledge and the natural world, which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. He spent most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field.

It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth.

Quintilian

Quintilian

35 – 96

Literature
3

quotes

Apollonius of Tyana

Apollonius of Tyana

15 – 100

Philosophy
15

quotes

Apollonius of Tyana was a Greek philosopher and religious leader from the town of Tyana, Cappadocia in Roman Anatolia, who spent his life travelling and teaching in the Middle East, North Africa and India. He is a central figure in Neopythagoreanism and was one of the most famous "miracle workers" of his day.

To speak falsely is the mark of a slave, but the truth is noble.