Most Famous Hellenistic Philosophers

Philosophers in this tradition

• Marcus Aurelius 121 – 180 · Roman

  Marcus Aurelius was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and the last of the so-called Five Good Emperors. He is remembered as much for his philosophical writing as for his rule, wh...

• Cicero 106 BC – 43 BC · Roman

  Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, orator, lawyer, and philosopher of the late Roman Republic, who served as consul in 63 BC and was murdered in 43 BC during the prosc...

• Seneca the Younger 4 BC – 65 · Roman

  Lucius Annaeus Seneca, commonly known as Seneca the Younger, was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist of the first century. He served as tutor and later adviser t...

• Epicurus 341 BC – 270 BC · Greek

  Epicurus was a Greek Hellenistic philosopher who founded the school known as the Garden in Athens around 307 BC. His ethics taught that pleasure, properly understood as the abse...

• Diogenes of Sinope c. 412 BC – 323 BC · Greek

  Diogenes of Sinope was an ancient Greek philosopher and one of the founders of the Cynic school. After his exile from Sinope on the Black Sea coast he settled in Athens, where h...

• Philo of Alexandria 25 BC – 50 AD · Hellenistic Jewish

  Philo of Alexandria was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who synthesized the Hebrew scriptures with Greek philosophical thought, especially Platonism and Stoicism. He developed ...

• Epictetus c. 50 – c. 135 · Greek

  Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher of the first and early second centuries, born into slavery in Hierapolis in Roman Phrygia and freed in adulthood. He taught Stoic philoso...

• Lucretius c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC · Roman

  Titus Lucretius Carus was a 1st-century BC Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher, known for his sole surviving work, the long Latin poem De Rerum Natura, On the Nature of Things....

• Galen 129 AD – c. 216 AD · Greek

  Aelius Galenus, known as Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon, and philosopher of the Roman Empire and the most influential medical author of antiquity. Trained in ...

• Chrysippus 279 BC – 206 BC · Greek

  Chrysippus of Soli was a Greek philosopher and the third head of the Stoic school, often regarded as its second founder. He was an extraordinarily prolific writer, credited in a...

• Arcesilaus 316 BC – 241 BC · Greek

  Arcesilaus of Pitane was a Greek philosopher and the founder of the New, or skeptical, Academy. As head of Plato's school he turned its dialectical method against the dogmatic c...

• Cleanthes 330 BC – 230 BC · Greek

  Cleanthes of Assos was a Greek Stoic philosopher who succeeded Zeno of Citium as head of the Stoa around 262 BC. Originally a boxer who arrived in Athens with little money, he s...

• Crantor c. 340 BC – c. 275 BC · Greek

  Crantor of Soli was a Greek philosopher of the Old Academy and the first systematic commentator on Plato's Timaeus. A pupil of Xenocrates and the close friend and associate of P...

• Diogenes Laertius c. 180 – c. 240 · Greek

  Diogenes Laertius was a Greek biographer of philosophers of the third century AD, the author of the Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, the most extensive surviving anci...

• Zeno of Citium 334 BC – 262 BC · Greek

  Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher of Phoenician descent and the founder of Stoicism. After surviving a shipwreck on the voyage to Athens around 312 BC, he became a student ...

• Alexander of Aphrodisias c. 150 – c. 210 · Greek

  Alexander of Aphrodisias was a Peripatetic philosopher of the late second and early third centuries AD, head of the Aristotelian school in Athens at the end of the second centur...

• Demonax c. 70 – c. 170 · Greek

  Demonax was a Cypriot Cynic philosopher of the second century AD who lived for most of his long life in Athens. The biographer Lucian, his pupil, devoted to him a brief Life tha...

• Sextus Empiricus c. 160 – c. 210 · Greek

  Sextus Empiricus was a Greek physician and philosopher of the second and early third centuries AD, the principal extant source for ancient Pyrrhonian Skepticism. His major works...

• Bion of Borysthenes c. 325 BC – c. 250 BC · Greek

  Bion of Borysthenes was a Greek philosopher of the third century BC, the son of a freedman and a courtesan, who reinvented the ancient diatribe as a vehicle of moral instruction...

• Posidonius 135 BC – 51 BC · Greek

  Posidonius of Apamea was a Greek Stoic philosopher, polymath, and one of the most learned men of antiquity. Settling in Rhodes, where he taught the young Cicero, he produced enc...

• Philodemus c. 110 BC – c. 30 BC · Greek

  Philodemus of Gadara was a 1st-century BC Greek Epicurean philosopher and poet, who taught in Italy under the patronage of the Roman politician Lucius Calpurnius Piso. His works...

• Aristo of Chios c. 320 BC – c. 250 BC · Greek

  Aristo of Chios was a Greek Stoic philosopher and pupil of Zeno of Citium who broke with his master on several important doctrines and led an austere variant of early Stoicism. ...

• Pyrrho of Elis c. 360 BC – c. 270 BC · Greek

  Pyrrho of Elis was an ancient Greek philosopher of the late fourth and early third centuries BC, the founder of the philosophical school of Skepticism that bears his name as Pyr...

• Aetius the Doxographer c. 50 – c. 120 · Greek

  Aetius, sometimes called Aetius the Doxographer, was a Greek philosophical author of the first or second century AD, the compiler of a now-lost handbook of philosophical opinion...

• Agrippa the Skeptic c. 10 – c. 80 · Greek

  Agrippa the Skeptic was a Greek Pyrrhonist philosopher of the first century AD, traditionally the author of the famous Five Modes of skeptical argument, preserved in Sextus Empi...

• Andronicus of Rhodes c. 100 BC – c. 40 BC · Greek

  Andronicus of Rhodes was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher of the first century BC, traditionally counted as the eleventh head of the Aristotelian school in Athens, and the editor...

• Antiochus of Ascalon 130 BC – 68 BC · Greek

  Antiochus of Ascalon was a Greek philosopher who broke with the skeptical New Academy of Carneades and Philo of Larissa to revive a positive, dogmatic Platonism. As head of the ...

• Antipater of Tarsus c. 200 BC – c. 130 BC · Greek

  Antipater of Tarsus was a Greek Stoic philosopher and the head of the Stoic school in the second century BC, succeeding Diogenes of Babylon at Athens around 152 BC. His writings...

• Apollodorus the Garden Tyrant c. 150 BC – c. 110 BC · Greek

  Apollodorus, called the Garden Tyrant, was a Greek Epicurean philosopher of the second century BC and head of the Garden in Athens, the eighth or ninth scholarch of the school. ...

• Arete of Cyrene c. 370 BC – c. 340 BC · Greek

  Arete of Cyrene was a Greek philosopher of the Cyrenaic school and one of the earliest women in the Western philosophical tradition. The daughter of Aristippus the Elder, the fo...

• Aristides Quintilianus c. 250 – c. 350 · Greek

  Aristides Quintilianus was a Greek philosophical music theorist of late antiquity, the author of the most extensive surviving ancient treatise on music, On Music in three books,...

• Aristippus 435 BC – 356 BC · Greek

  Aristippus of Cyrene was a Greek philosopher and the founder of the Cyrenaic school. A pupil of Socrates who reacted in a very different direction from Plato, he held that the g...

• Athenodorus Cananites c. 74 BC – c. 7 AD · Greek

  Athenodorus Cananites of Tarsus was a Greek Stoic philosopher of the first century BC and the first century AD, a pupil of Posidonius and the principal philosophical tutor of th...

• Carneades 214 BC – 129 BC · Greek

  Carneades of Cyrene was a Greek philosopher and the most important head of the New Academy, the skeptical phase of Plato's school. He was famous for his ability to argue with eq...

• Critolaus of Phaselis c. 200 BC – c. 118 BC · Greek

  Critolaus of Phaselis was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher and the head of the Aristotelian school in the second century BC, one of the three philosophers, with Diogenes of Babyl...

• Demetrius the Cynic c. 10 AD – c. 80 AD · Greek

  Demetrius the Cynic was a Greek philosopher of the first century AD and one of the most admired Cynics of the Roman period. Active in Rome and Greece, he was a close friend of S...

• Diodorus Cronus c. 340 BC – c. 284 BC · Greek

  Diodorus Cronus was a Greek philosopher of the Dialectical school descended from the Megarians and one of the most important logicians of the early Hellenistic age. Active at Al...

• Diogenes of Babylon c. 230 BC – c. 150 BC · Greek

  Diogenes of Babylon, also called Diogenes the Stoic, was a Greek philosopher, the head of the Stoic school after Chrysippus, and one of the three philosophers, with the Academic...

• Diogenes of Oenoanda c. 150 – c. 220 · Greek

  Diogenes of Oenoanda was an Epicurean philosopher of the second century AD who, in old age and at his own expense, had a long Epicurean inscription carved on the columned wall o...

• Eubulides of Miletus c. 400 BC – c. 330 BC · Greek

  Eubulides of Miletus was a Greek philosopher of the Megarian school and a contemporary and vigorous critic of Aristotle. He was renowned in antiquity for the invention or refine...

• Hecato of Rhodes c. 150 BC – c. 75 BC · Greek

  Hecato of Rhodes was a Greek Stoic philosopher of the late second and early first centuries BC and one of the most prolific moralists of the late Hellenistic Stoa. A pupil of Pa...

• Heraclides Lembus c. 200 BC – c. 130 BC · Greek

  Heraclides Lembus was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher and Egyptian official of the second century BC, who served Ptolemy VI Philometor and is credited with negotiating the famou...

• Hermarchus c. 325 BC – c. 250 BC · Greek

  Hermarchus of Mytilene was a Greek philosopher and Epicurus's chosen successor as the second head of the Garden in Athens. The principal philosophical writings attributed to him...

• Hierocles the Stoic c. 100 AD – c. 180 AD · Greek

  Hierocles the Stoic was a Greek Stoic philosopher of the second century AD, distinct from the later Neoplatonist Hierocles of Alexandria. Substantial portions of his Elements of...

• Lucius Annaeus Cornutus c. 20 – c. 65 · Roman

  Lucius Annaeus Cornutus was a Roman Stoic philosopher of the first century AD, a freedman of the Annaean family from Leptis Magna in North Africa, who taught philosophy in Rome ...

• Menippus of Gadara c. 280 BC – c. 180 BC · Greek

  Menippus of Gadara was a Greek Cynic philosopher and satirist of the third century BC, traditionally born a slave and later freed, whose mixed-genre satires of philosophical pre...

• Oenomaus of Gadara c. 120 – c. 180 · Greek

  Oenomaus of Gadara was a Greek Cynic philosopher of the second century AD, the author of a celebrated polemic against Greek and Roman oracles called The Charlatans Unmasked, of ...

• Panaetius 185 BC – 109 BC · Greek

  Panaetius of Rhodes was a Greek Stoic philosopher and the principal figure of the Middle Stoa. After studying under Diogenes of Babylon and Antipater of Tarsus, he settled in Ro...

• Peregrinus Proteus c. 95 – 165 · Greek

  Peregrinus Proteus was a Greek Cynic philosopher of the second century AD, born in Parium on the Hellespont, who, according to the often hostile life by Lucian of Samosata, pass...

• Persaeus of Citium c. 307 BC – c. 243 BC · Greek

  Persaeus of Citium was a Greek Stoic philosopher and household friend of Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Stoic school, whose name he shared with his teacher's birthplace. Sen...

• Polystratus c. 270 BC – c. 219 BC · Greek

  Polystratus was a Greek Epicurean philosopher and the third head of the Garden in Athens, succeeding Hermarchus around the middle of the third century BC. The papyrus rolls pres...

• Sphaerus of Borysthenes c. 285 BC – c. 210 BC · Greek

  Sphaerus of Borysthenes was a Greek Stoic philosopher, pupil of Zeno of Citium and of Cleanthes, who later traveled to Sparta as the philosophical adviser to the reforming kings...

• Stilpo c. 360 BC – c. 280 BC · Greek

  Stilpo of Megara was a Greek philosopher of the Megarian school and one of the most admired philosophical teachers of the early Hellenistic age. He was famed for his ethical sel...

• Teles of Megara c. 290 BC – c. 230 BC · Greek

  Teles of Megara was a third-century-BC Greek Cynic philosopher, the earliest representative of the Cynic diatribe to survive in any substantial form. The Cynic Letters and the f...

• Aenesidemus c. 100 BC – c. 40 BC · Greek

  Aenesidemus of Cnossos was a 1st-century BC Greek philosopher who revived the Pyrrhonian school of Skepticism after a period in which Skepticism had been dominated by the New Ac...

• Hipparchia of Maroneia c. 350 BC – c. 280 BC · Greek

  Hipparchia of Maroneia was an ancient Greek Cynic philosopher of the late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC, one of the few women philosophers documented in the historical record f...