3. Did you know that the founder of Stoicism, Zeno of Kition was probably from a Phoenician family? What is Stoicism? Stoicism is the philosophical belief that: 1) divine reason orders the universe, the material world, & nature (of which human society is a part, since humans are ‘naturally’ social creatures); hence, 2) to live happy, virtuous/ethical, & pious lives, we mortals must pursue & use reason to harmonize ourselves with divine reason/order. This especially includes using reason/wisdom to understand & govern our emotions. Powerful feelings like desire, negative feelings like hate, or strong emotional responses to terrible or wondrous events can all lead to mental disturbance, which is ‘unnatural’/contrary to divine order. (For Stoics, emotions are natural to humans, so are not intrinsically bad; rather, succumbing to excessive, unrestrained emotion is the problem). Thus, in practical terms, a happy, virtuous life comes from: a) the pursuit of reason/wisdom; b) leading a life of self-control (governing emotion with reason); and, c) existing in harmony with nature/divine will. Stoicism’s founder, Zeno of Kition (who arrived in Athens to learn philosophy ca. 312 BCE) first began teaching these ideas ca. 301 BCE in the Athenian agora (marketplace) under the stoa poikile (‘painted portico’). Zeno & his students were, therefore, called στωικοί, stoikoi, ‘men of the stoa,’ while their philosophy became known as: stoicism. Ultimately, because the Romans & early Christians embraced stoicism, it played an important role in shaping today’s world. (Even now, we say that anyone enduring pain without signs of distress is being ‘stoic’!)
As for Zeno himself, here is what we know: 1) Zeno was from the city-kingdom of Kition, one of 10 kingdoms on the island of Cyprus. Kition’s population consisted of both Phoenicians & Greeks; Kition’s culture combined traditions from both groups. 2) The 3rd c. CE author Diogenes Laertius reports (in book 7 section 1 of his Lives and Thoughts of Greek Philosophers) that Zeno’s “neck was bent to the side” (τὸν τράχηλον ἐπὶ θάτερα νενυκὼς ἦν) — as in, he may have had a condition called torticollis. Zeno was also “fairly long/tall” (ὑπομήκης) & “black/dark-skinned” (μελάγχρους), “for which reason someone called him an Egyptian vine-branch” (ὅθεν τις αὐτὸν εἶπεν Αἰγυπτίαν κληματίδα). Note: ancient Greek art often portrayed Egyptians as ‘black’ people, so the translation ‘black/dark-skinned’ (above) recognizes that μελα- in μελάγχρους — the root for the modern word melanin — means ‘black, dark’. Zeno tended not to dine with others (making him unusual for that era) & was said to be “thick limbed and flabby and weak” (παχύκνημός τε καὶ ἀπαγὴς καὶ ἀσθενής). Diogenes repeatedly mentions that Zeno was Phoenician. Finally, 3) another ancient source discussing Zeno, from a villa in Herculaneum that was covered by ash when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, has recently come to light. Excavation of this villa in the mid-1700s CE uncovered a library full of scrolls so charred & fragile that they disintegrated when anyone tried to unroll them. Now, however, thanks the newly developed technology of thermographic imaging, we can read these scrolls without destroying them. One item from this library is the History of the Stoic School by Philodemus of Gadara (ca. 110 BCE-40 BCE), a scholar from Roman Palestine. According to Philodemus’ History, Zeno was a frail ascetic with a “pronounced tendency towards isolation that led him to avoid social banquets.”* It also reports that “Zeno, of Phoenician origin, [was] mocked for his poor command of the Greek language, a sign of the Greeks’ disdain towards non-Greek speaking foreigners.”* Even so, as both Philodemus & Diogenes note, Zeno was such a respected philosopher that Athens celebrated him while he was alive & granted him public honors when he died.
Both Diogenes & Philodemus mention Zeno’s Phoenician ancestry & anti-social behavior. Additionally: Diogenes notes how Zeno’s skin color and height prompted his comparison to an ‘Egyptian vine-branch’ — marking Zeno as ‘foreign’ while simultaneously (and cruelly) targeting his bent neck (since vines twist & bend) — whereas Philodemus reports that, despite his education in Greek culture & philosophy, Athenians mocked Zeno’s ‘foreign’-sounding Greek. Ancient Greeks were, without any doubt, ethnocentric & ableist; the Greek sources that Diogenes & Philodemus drew from were almost certainly chauvinistic: Zeno’s Greek sounded ‘funny’; he looked like an Egyptian ‘vine.’ Still, notably, though Greeks & Romans might view skin color as possible evidence for ‘foreign-ness,’ they did not practice the modern construct of skin-color-based racism (i.e., grouping people by skin-color then placing said groups on a hierarchic scale of value & ability). Modern racism does manifest, however, in Zeno’s modern depictions, which routinely make him ‘white.’ Indeed, many modern commentators protest that Zeno’s skin color and Phoenician heritage are both ‘uncertain,’ adding that, because he was educated as a Hellenistic Greek, he should simply be considered ‘Greek’. But these protests ignore the history of Kition, whose population & culture were both Phoenician & Greek, not to mention the fact that cultural upbringing & individual heritage are not always one & the same (i.e., Zeno could have been a dark-skinned man who both acknowledged his Phoenician heritage and identified as ‘Greek’). Yet even if Diogenes’ & Philodemus’ accounts do not settle the question of his appearance (which is fair to say), why is it the default to treat Zeno of Kition as ‘white’ until ‘more definite’ evidence appears? Why not say that Zeno might have had dark skin or might have identified as Phoenician? Given we have sources from different eras plus contextual support (Kition’s history), what would ‘more definite’ evidence look like? How much would be ‘enough’ to satisfy ‘lingering doubts’? In the name of accuracy, then, we should say the following: our evidence to date indicates that Zeno of Kition, the founder of Stoicism, one of the most important & influential philosophies to emerge from Greco-Roman antiquity, could well have been a dark-skinned, disabled man of Phoenician heritage.
Also: Ceccarelli, S., Rippa, M., Caruso, G. et al. Pulsed thermographic analysis of Herculaneum papyri. Sci Rep 15, 34466 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-19911-w
