Zeno Of Citium Lost Everything In A Shipwreck. Then He Started Stoicism.

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]He was a wealthy Phoenician merchant.

[00:00:03]A storm took his ship, his cargo, his fortune.

[00:00:08]He walked into Athens with nothing and founded Stoicism. [music] His name was Zeno of Citium in Cyprus.

[00:00:19]In Athens, he wandered into a bookshop.

[00:00:22]He picked up Xenophon's account of Socrates >> [music] >> and asked the shopkeeper, "Where can I find men like this?"

[00:00:31]The shopkeeper pointed to Crates, [music] the Cynic, walking past.

[00:00:36]Zeno followed [music] Crates. He studied with the Cynics, then the Megarians, then the Academics.

[00:00:44]20 years later, he founded his own school under the painted colonnade, the Stoa [music] Poikile.

[00:00:52]We have called it Stoicism ever since.

[00:00:56]He lost everything.

[00:00:58]Then he built what could not be lost.

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