Identifier: historyofancient03good (find matches)
Title: A history of the ancient world, for high schools and academies
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Goodspeed, George Stephen, 1860-1905
Subjects: History, Ancient
Publisher: New York, C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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d contrib^uted little to the defence of Greek freedom. The ^EtolianLeague was another flourishing bulwark of defence, butjealousies between the two leagues still further hinderedtheir service. The other cities also were too jealous oftheir own rights to work heartily in accord with the leaguesfor their common freedom. 293. This political turmoil did not hinder the progressof art and literature for which Athens in the third centurystood pre-eminent. That city became the real universityof the world, whither students flocked to study philosophy.Two leading schools of thought divided their suffrages.The one was founded by Zeno (340-265 B.C.), who taughtin the Stoa poilike or Painted Porch, in the heart of thecity, a way of life and thought which was called Stoicism.He held that, in the midst of the seeming confusion ofthings about us, there was a real order, governed by un-changeable laws; that the secret of life consists in seeingthis order and obeying it. The chief word of this philoso-
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Stoicism and Epicureanism 235 phy was *virtue, and he is the wise man who strivesafter it. Everything else is unimportant; even hfe itselfis not worth living, if virtue cannot be realized. Virtuecan be found in ones own soul, in that reason which ismans way of expressing the order of the universe. Allmen everywhere in whom reason or virtue rulesare brothers. On the other hand, Epicurus (341-270 The Epi-B.C.) taught that true virtue is found in happiness, ^^•everything that contributes to make man happy shouldbe sought, while all that is disturbing should be avoided.Hence, to him rehgion, which spoke of reward andpunishment from the gods above, was harmful andshould be abolished. This philosophy was called afterits founder Epicureanism. Both systems are illustra-tions of the broad cosmopolitan spirit of the age, whichrecognized no bounds of city or race. They had a verywide influence in this age and in the centuries following.In Athens, also, the third century saw the birth of theNew

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