Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography/Volume 3/Panætius
PANÆTIUS, a celebrated stoic philosopher, was born at Rhodes, probably between 180 b.c. and 170 b.c. He studied at Athens in early life, but Rome was the principal scene of his mature philosophical labours. At this time the republic was in its most flourishing condition. It was the era of the third Punic war. The arms of Rome were everywhere victorious, and the rudeness of her primitive manners had begun to be tempered by more polished tastes. Literature had sprung up in the poetry of Ennius and Lucilius, and in the plays of Plautus and Terence, the latter of whom was but recently dead. Scipio Africanus the younger, the conqueror of Carthage, and Lælius, whom Cicero has immortalized in his treatise De Senectute, were warm patrons of philosophy and all liberal accomplishments. Under the auspices of these illustrious men, with whom he lived on terms of intimate friendship, Panætius introduced stoicism to the Romans, about 145 b.c. The anti-philosophical party, with Cato at their head, protested in vain against the importation of Greek philosophy. Fostered by the great names of Scipio and Lælius, the doctrines of Panætius took root and flourished. His stoicism was of a modified and moderate character. He avoided the extreme opinions of the earlier stoics. He softened their severity and harshness; he abjured their "insensibility and apathy" (Aulas Gellius, 12. 5), and skilfully incorporated with their doctrines many of the opinions of Plato, Aristotle, Xenocrates, and Theophrastus. In opposition to the credulity of most of his sect, he scouted the predictions of astrologers, and exercised in everything a sound judgment, no less than an eloquence which fitted him to recommend the doctrines he professed to so practical a people as the Romans. This philosophy was in itself peculiarly adapted to their genius, whether in their greatness or in their decline. In the palmy days of the republic it armed them with the fortitude of power; in the tragic gloom and sinking fortunes of the empire it upheld them with the fortitude of despair. It is with the spring-time of Roman stoicism that the name of Panætius is associated. None of his writings have come down to us, but how highly they were esteemed in their day is proved by the fact that Cicero thought it not beneath him to copy his own treatise De Officiis from one of the works of Panætius. Panætius died at Athens about 112 b.c.—J. F. F.