Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living From Zeno to Marcus Aurelius

Death of Cato by suicide in Utica, Carthage; Cicero and Brutus write eulogies; Cicero writesStoic Paradoxes

45

Cicero writesConsolation to HimselfandHortensius: An Exhortation to Philosophy(now lost),Academica,andOn Moral Ends

45–44

Cicero writesTusculan DisputationsandOn the Nature of the Gods

44

Cicero writesCato Maior(On Old Age),On Divination,On Fate,On Reputation,Topica,Laelius(On Friendship), andOn Duties(his last book)

Athenodorus Cananites comes to Rome with young Octavian

43

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 hisMoralLettersto 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