About the year 146 B.C., Greece was reduced to the condition of a Roman province. And then the arms of Rome, we may say, began to be interchanged for the arts of Athens. Philosophy now migrated for the first time to the Eternal City.
2. Panætius, who was born at Rhodes, was the philosopher who indoctrinated the Romans with the principles of Stoicism. At this time (that is, about 145 or 150 B.C.) 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 immortalised 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. This happened, as I said, about 145 B.C. The antiphilosophical 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
