Attalus (; el, Ἄτταλος) was a
Stoic philosopher
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century Common Era, BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asser ...
in the reign of
Tiberius
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...
around 25 AD. He was defrauded of his property by
Sejanus
Lucius Aelius Sejanus (c. 20 BC – 18 October AD 31), commonly known as Sejanus (), was a Roman soldier, friend and confidant of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Of the Equites class by birth, Sejanus rose to power as prefect of the Praetorian Guar ...
, and exiled where he was reduced to cultivating the ground.
[Seneca, ''Suasoriae'', 2.] The
elder Seneca describes him as a man of great eloquence, and by far the acutest philosopher of his age.
He taught the Stoic philosophy to
Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature.
Seneca was born in ...
, who frequently quotes him, and speaks of him in the highest terms. Seneca reminisces about Attalus in his 108th Letter:
In the same letter, Seneca describes some of the Stoic training he received from Attalus:
Of his written works, none survive. Seneca mentions a work of his on lightning; and it is supposed that he may be the author of the ''Proverbs'' referred to by
Hesychius[Hesychius, ''Korinnousi''.] as written by one Attalus.
Notes
*
1st-century deaths
1st-century philosophers
Roman-era philosophers
Stoic philosophers
Year of birth unknown
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