Polemo c. 350 BC – c. 270 BC

Polemo of Athens was a Greek philosopher and the fourth scholarch of the Platonic Academy, succeeding Xenocrates and presiding over the school for nearly forty years until his death around 270 BC. The ancient biographers tell the famous story of his youthful conversion to philosophy, when, returning drunk and crowned with garlands from a revel, he wandered into a lecture by Xenocrates and was so struck by the discourse on temperance that he abandoned his old life on the spot. As scholarch he stressed the practical and ethical orientation of Platonic philosophy and was the teacher of Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism.