The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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202 THE STOIC CREED
conversant with the thoughts of Plato, quite well knew :
Cato of Utica spent a portion
committed suicide by reading the Phcedo. But
of the night on which he
they met
the objection with the rejoinder that suicide is per
missible only when the suicide recognizes that it is
God s will that he should go. Yet, when we remember
that Zeno, the founder of the Stoic school, suffocated
himself in old age, because, through a fall, he had
broken one of his fingers ;
and that Cleanthes, for even
less reason, continued his abstinence till he died of
starvation, we have difficulty in
seeing how so trivial a
cause could be regarded by earnest and thinking men
as a sign from the Deity, or as sufficient justification
for an act so solemn as self-murder. The story about
Cleanthes, as recorded by Diogenes Laertius (vii. 7),
is that, suffering from swollen gums, he was enjoined
by his physician to fast for two days. At the end of
that time, he had so far recovered that permission was
given him to return to his former habits. But he re
fused, saying that he had now thus far traversed the
way, and, consequently, continued his fast till he died.
Indifference" of that sort, doubtless, seemed to ex
hibit moral freedom and strength of will ;
but it may be
taken rather as proving how inadequate the Stoic s
estimate of human life
still was, and how far short he
fell of grasping the full meaning of his own doctrine of
man s dignity and of apprehending the true nature of
God. And even the deed itself was frequently spoiled
by being done theatrically. This, at any rate, applies
to Stoics of the Roman period. The suicide of Cato of
Utica was dramatic ; so, too, was that of Seneca ;
so of
others. On reading the narrative of these and similar