ZENO

founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, was born in Cyprus about the beginning of the 3rd century B.C. He settled and taught in Athens, in the Stoa, a porch adorned with the pictures of Polygnotus, whence his followers were called Stoics or ‘disciples of the Porch.’ His writings are all lost; but in his ethical system the nature of moral obligation was recognized as unconditional, virtue the only good, and vice, not pain, the only evil. Developed by Zeno’s succe ors, Stoicism became the creed of the noblest of the Romans, until Christianity was generally accepted.