Death of Cicero by order of Mark Antony
40/35
Philodemus dies in Herculaneum, leaving his library at the Villa of Piso
31
Octavian defeats Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Actium
30
Octavian enters Alexandria with Arius Didymus
27
Octavian becomes Augustus, the first Roman emperor
c. 4
Birth of Seneca in Corduba (modern Córdoba) in southern Spain
AD
10
Death of Arius Didymus
c. 20
Birth of Gaius Musonius Rufus in Volsinii, Etruria
c. 35
Birth of Euphrates of Tyre
37
Death of Tiberius, succession of Caligula
Birth of Nero
c. 40
Birth of Dio Chrysostom in Prusa, Bithynia
41
Death of Caligula; succeeded by Claudius
Seneca exiled to Corsica by Claudius
49
Seneca recalled from Corsica to tutor Nero
50
Cornutus begins teaching in Rome, students include Lucan and Persius
c. 52
Saint Paul appears in court before Seneca’s brother Gallio (Acts 18:12–17)
Before or after this date, Paul gives his sermon on “Mars Hill” (Areopagus) in which he refers to Cleanthes’s Hymn to Zeus
54
Death of Claudius; succeeded by Nero
55
Birth of Epictetus in Hierapolis, Phrygia
60–62
Gaius Rubellius Plautus sent to exile in Syria by Nero, accompanied by Musonius Rufus
61
Birth of Pliny the Younger in Como, Italy
62
Plautus executed in Syria by Nero’s troops; Musonius Rufus returns to Rome
62–65
Seneca retreats from court life and begins his last flurry of writing, including his Moral Letters to Lucilius
64
Great Fire of Rome
65
Seneca commits suicide under the order of Nero
65–68
Musonius Rufus banished by Nero to the island of Gyara
66
Death of Thrasea Paetus
68–69
Nero commits suicide with the assistance of Epaphroditus; succeeded by Galba
Musonius Rufus returns to Rome under Galba
69
Year of the Four Emperors; Vespasian consolidates power
71
Vespasian banishes all philosophers from Rome except for Musonius Rufus for a time
75
Vespasian exiles and murders Helvidius Priscus; Musonius Rufus returns to Syria
78
Musonius Rufus returns to Rome with the support of Titus
79
Death of Vespasian; succeeded by Titus
Eruption of Vesuvius, witnessed by an eighteen-year-old Pliny the Younger
81
Death of Titus; succeeded by Domitian
Pliny the Younger serves as staff officer to the Gallic Third Legion in Syria, writes about his time with Euphrates there later
85
Epictetus, already studying with Musonius Rufus, is freed by Epaphroditus, Nero’s personal secretary; starts his own school in Rome
86
Birth of Arrian, historian and Stoic student of Epictetus who recorded his teachings, in Nicomedia, Bithynia
93
Domitian banishes philosophers from Rome, including Epictetus, who moves his school to Nicopolis
95
Domitian murders Epaphroditus for his role in Nero’s death
96
Death of Domitian; succeeded by Nerva
98
Death of Nerva; succeeded by Trajan
100
Birth of Junius Rusticus, grandson of Arulenus Rusticus, and Stoic mentor of Marcus Aurelius
101
Death of Musonius Rufus?
107–11
Arrian attends Epictetus’s lectures in Nicopolis and records them in what will become the Discourses and Handbook
112/3
Death of Pliny the Younger in Bithynia
117
Death of Trajan; succeeded by Hadrian
118
Euphrates of Tyre commits suicide by drinking hemlock, with Hadrian’s blessing
120
Hierocles flourishes, composing his Circles around this time
121
Birth of Marcus Aurelius in Rome on April 26
135
Death of Epictetus
131–37
Arrian appointed governor of Cappadocia by Hadrian
138
Death of Hadrian; succeeded by Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius’s adoptive father
161
Death of Antoninus Pius; succeeded by Marcus Aurelius
165
Execution of Justin Martyr by judgment of Junius Rusticus
170
Death of Junius Rusticus
176
Marcus Aurelius reestablishes the four chairs of philosophy in Athens
180
Death of Marcus Aurelius in Vindabona on March 17
197
Tertullian writes positively in Carthage about Cleanthes’s theology and Marcus Aurelius’s being “a protector” of Christians in his Apologetics
c. 200
Sextus Empiricus and Alexander of Aphrodisias write polemics against Stoicism
Clement of Alexandria writes about Stoic philosophical positions in his Stromata
Diogenes Laërtius begins the studies that will produce his Lives of the Eminent Philosophers
SOURCES CONSULTED AND FURTHER READING
Primary Stoic Texts and Histories
Annas, Julia, ed. Cicero: On Moral Ends. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Contains a very helpful introduction and timeline of Cicero’s writings.
Dyck, Andrew R. A Commentary on Cicero, De Officiis. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996.
Edelstein, Ludwig, and I. G. Kidd. Posidonius. Vol. 1, The Fragments. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Graver, Margaret. Cicero on the Emotions: Tusculan Disputations 3 and 4. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Graver, Margaret, and A. A. Long, trans. and commentary. Letters on Ethics by Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015.
Kidd, I. G. Posidonius. Vol. 2, The Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
———. Posidonius. Vol. 3, The Translation of the Fragments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Includes important doxographical and historical source works such as Diogenes Laërtius, Plutarch, Tacitus, Suetonius, Dio Cassius, Athenaeus, Aulus Gellius, Historia Augusta, and others, along with Cicero and the many primary Stoic texts by Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. www.loebclassics.com.
Long, A. A., trans. How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life, Epictetus’ Encheiridion and Selections from Discourses. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018.