Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​For in truth he surpassed everyone in this trait, in dignity, and indeed, by Zeus, in felicity; for having lived ninety-eight years he ended his life, remaining disease-free and healthy. But Persaeus in his Ethical Lectures says that he died at seventy-two, having come to Athens at twenty-two; while Apollonius says that he presided over the school for two years short of sixty (fifty-eight years). He met his end as follows: as he was leaving the school, he stumbled and broke his toe; striking the earth with his hand, he quoted the line from Niobe: "I come; why do you call me?" and immediately died, having suffocated himself.

​The Athenians buried him in the Ceramicus and honored him with the decrees mentioned before, bearing witness to his virtue. And Antipater of Sidon composed the following epigram on him: "Here lies that Zeno, dear to Citium, who once ran to Olympus, not by piling Pelion on Ossa, nor did he perform the labors of Heracles; but the path to the stars he found from temperance alone."

​And another by Zenodotus the Stoic, pupil of Diogenes: "You established self-sufficiency, discarding vainglorious wealth, Zeno, solemn with gray brow; for you found a virile reason, and by forethought wrought out a school, mother of fearless freedom; and if your fatherland was Phoenician, what cause for envy? Was not Cadmus also from there, from whom Greece possesses the written page?" And collectively concerning all the Stoics, Athenaeus the epigrammatist speaks thus: "O knowers of Stoic tales, O you who laid down the most excellent doctrines in sacred pages, that virtue alone is the good of the soul; for this alone has rescued both life and cities of men. While the luxury of the flesh, a cherished end to other men, one of the daughters of Memory (Mnemosyne) brought to pass."

​We too have told how Zeno died in the Pammetros in this manner: "Report has it that Citian Zeno died when, worn out by old age, he was released by remaining without food; while others say that, having stumbled, he struck the earth with his hand and said: 'I come of my own accord; why indeed do you call me?'" For some say that he died in this way as well. And concerning his death, this is sufficient. Demetrius of Magnesia in his Homonyms says that his father Mnaseas, being a merchant, often visited Athens and brought back many of the Socratic books to Zeno while he was still a boy;

​whence he was already well trained in his homeland. And having thus come to Athens, he attached himself to Crates. Demetrius also says that he seems to have defined the end of goods himself, while the others were wandering concerning the declarations. And they say that he used to swear by the caper, just as Socrates swore by the dog. Some, however—among whom are those around Cassius the Skeptic—accuse Zeno on many points, saying first that he declares general education useless at the beginning of the Republic; and secondly, that he says all who are not virtuous are enemies, foes, slaves, and alienated from one another, including parents from children, brothers from brothers, and relatives from relatives.

​Again, in the Republic, presenting only the virtuous as citizens, friends, relatives, and free men, so that according to the Stoics parents and children are enemies (for they are not wise). He likewise decrees community of women in the Republic, and around the two-hundredth line that neither temples, law courts, nor gymnasia should be built in the cities. And concerning currency he writes thus: "One should not think it necessary to provide currency either for the sake of exchange or for traveling abroad." He also commands that both men and women wear the same dress, and that no part of the body be kept covered.