Definition: Zeno of Citium (not the same as Zeno of Elea) was the founder of the Stoic philosophy. Citium was a Greek colony in Cyprus. Zeno's ancestry was probably not entirely Greek. He may have had Semitic, perhaps Phoenician, ancestors. Zeno died in c. 264 B.C. and was probably born in 336. He probably arrived in Athens in 314 where he studied under various philosophers, including the Cynic philosopher Crates. By 294 B.C., Zeno opened his own school of philosophy. The Stoic philosophy is named for the location of Zeno's school, the stoa poikile, a colonnade or porch.
None of the writing of Zeno remains, although quotations about him are contained in Book VII of Diogenes Laertius' Lives of Eminent Philosophers.
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