Panaetius
(
Παναίτιος). A Greek philosopher of Rhodes, born about
B.C. 180; the most important representative of Stoicism in his time. From Athens, where he had
received his education, he went to Rome, about B.C. 156. Being there received into the circle
of the younger Scipio and of Laelius, he was able to gain numerous adherents among the Roman
nobles by his skill in softening the harshness and subtlety of the Stoic teaching, and in
representing it in a refined and polished form. After Scipio's death (129 B.C.) he returned to
Athens, where he died, as the head of the Stoic school, about 111. Only unimportant fragments
of his writings remain. The most important of them, the
Treatise on Duty
(
Περὶ τοῦ Καθήκοντος), in three books, supplied the
groundwork of the
De Officiis of Cicero. See Thiancourt,
Essai sur
les Traités Philosophiques de Cicéron et leurs Sources
Grecques (Paris, 1885).