Chrysippus

Chrysippus, an eminent Stoic philosopher, was born about 280 B.C., at Soli in Cilicia. He came to Athens when still a youth, and devoted himself with ardour to philosophy. His principal master was Cleanthes, but he is said to have studied also under the academic teachers, Arcesi- laus and Lacydes. He had the reputation of being the keenest disputant and best logician of his age, so much so that people used to say: 'If the gods make use of dialectic, it can only be that of Chrysippus.' Although he did not create a new system, and explained the physical universe like the rest of his school, in morals he modified the more extreme views of the earlier Stoics. Chrysippus seldom wrote less than 500 lines a day, and is said to have composed more than 700 works. Of these but a few fragments remain, which were edited by Petersen in 1827. See Zeller's great work on the history of Greek philosophy.