ROMAN PHILOSOPHY

Roman Philosophy. Although the Romans were a practical people throughout their history, the influence of the Greeks also made its presence felt in the field of philosophy. This has been increasingly configured since 168 BC, when the Romans conquered Macedonia. From this moment on, many philosophers and rhetoricians from Greece began to come to Rome. Stoicism was the most widespread and influential philosophical current in the Roman Empire, until Christianity became the state religion. Thus, Late Stoicism or New Roman Stoicism/Roman Neo-Stoicism had the most followers and admirers in Rome, both during the Republic and the Empire period. Among the representatives of this philosophical system, the most influential were Seneca (4 BC-64 AD), Musonius Rufus (c.30-c.101), Epictetus (55-135) and the emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-181). These philosophers left us an important literary heritage that partially compensates for the loss of the works of the ancient Stoics. Epicureanism was another current which was widely spread in the Roman world. In Rome, Epicureanism found its second homeland, thanks to the merits of the poet Lucretius (94-55 BC). Skepticism also managed to occupy a rather important place within Roman society. In Rome, one of the representatives of skepticism was Marcus Vispasianus Agrippa (62 BC-12 AD). Cicero (106-43 BC), through his vast erudition, but also through his immense work, was the one who managed to combine elements taken from different systems of thought. Through his writings, he succeeded in bringing and propagating Greek philosophical themes to the Latin world. At the same time, he managed to convince the Latins of the great educational and practical importance of philosophy. Cicero also has the great merit of having given Greek terminology Latin equivalents, which have been preserved to this day.