Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​The Athenians held Zeno in exceedingly high honor, so much so that they entrusted him with the keys to the walls and honored him with a golden crown and a bronze statue. His fellow citizens did the same, regarding the statue of this man as an ornament to their city. The Citians living in Sidon also claimed him as their own. Antigonus too favored him, and whenever he visited Athens, he listened to him and repeatedly invited him to come to him. Zeno declined this request, but sent Persaeus, one of his acquaintances, who was the son of Demetrius, a Citian by birth, and flourished about the hundred and thirtieth Olympiad, when Zeno was already an old man. Antigonus' letter ran as follows, just as Apollonius of Tyre says in his work On Zeno:

"King Antigonus to Zeno the philosopher, greetings. "I consider myself to surpass your life in fortune and fame, but to fall short in reason and culture, and in that complete happiness which you possess. For this reason I have decided to invite you to come to me, convinced that you will not refuse this request. Endeavor, therefore, by all means to meet with me, bearing this in mind, that you will be the educator not of me alone, but of all the Macedonians together. For he who educates the ruler of Macedonia and guides him toward virtue will visibly prepare his subjects also for noble manhood. For as the ruler is, such for the most part the subjects naturally become." And Zeno replied as follows:

"Zeno to King Antigonus, greetings. "I welcome your love of learning in so far as you hold fast to that education which is true and tends toward utility, rather than that which is vulgar and tends to corrupt character. He who reaches out for philosophy, turning away from much-vaunted pleasure, which effeminates the souls of some young men, is visibly inclined toward nobility not merely by nature, but also by choice. A noble nature, having acquired moderate training and moreover a teacher without grudging, easily attains to the complete possession of virtue.

"I, however, am held fast by an infirm body owing to old age; for I am eighty years old; wherefore I cannot meet with you. But I send you certain of my fellow students, who in matters of the soul do not fall short of me, and in matters of the body surpass me; and by associating with them you will fall short in none of the things that pertain to complete happiness." And he sent Persaeus and Philonides the Theban, both of whom Epicurus mentions as living with Antigonus in his letter to his brother Aristobulus. It seemed good to me to subjoin also the decree of the Athenians concerning him.

​It runs as follows: "In the archonship of Arrhenides, in the fifth prytany, of the tribe Acamantis, on the twenty-first of Maimacterion, the twenty-third day of the prytany, at a regular assembly, Hippon, son of Cratistoteles, of Xypete, one of the proedroi, and his fellow proedroi put the vote, and Thrason, son of Thrason, of Anacaia, moved: "'Whereas Zeno, son of Mnaseas, of Citium, having spent many years in the city devoted to philosophy, and having continuously conducted himself as a good man in all other respects, exhorted to virtue and temperance those of the youth who came to associate with him and spurred them on to what is best, offering his own life to all as a pattern in harmony with the doctrines he taught,

"'May it be resolved by the people, with good fortune, to commend Zeno, son of Mnaseas, of Citium, and to crown him with a golden crown in accordance with the law on account of his virtue and temperance, and to build him a tomb at public expense in the Ceramicus; and that the people forthwith elect by show of hands five men from the Athenians to take charge of the making of the crown and the building of the tomb; and that the secretary of the people inscribe this decree on two stone stelae, and that it be permitted to set up one of them in the Academy and the other in the Lyceum; and that the magistrate over the administration apportion the expense incurred for the stelae, so that all may know that the people of Athens honor good men both while they live and after they are dead.'"