Attalus (Stoic)

Attalus was a Stoic philosopher in the reign of Tiberius (c. 25 AD), who was defrauded of his property by Sejanus, and reduced to cultivating the ground.[1] He taught the philosopher Seneca,[2] who frequently quotes him, and speaks of him in the highest terms.[3] The elder Seneca describes him[1] as a man of great eloquence, and by far the acutest philosopher of his age. We have mention of a work of his on lightning;[4] and it is supposed that he may be the author of the Proverbs referred to by Hesychius[5] as written by one Attalus.

Notes

  1. ^ a b Seneca, Suasoriae, 2.
  2. ^ Seneca, Epistles. 108.
  3. ^ Compare Naturales Quaestiones, ii. 50, Epistles, 9, 63, 67, 72. 81, 109.
  4. ^ Seneca, Naturales Quaestiones, ii. 48.
  5. ^ Hesychius, Korinnousi.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).