[History of the Stoa] or Stoicorum Index

The [History of the Stoa] (PHerc. 1018) hands down a mass of information on the lives and doctrines of the Stoics which is not found in Diogenes Laërtius and is mainly based on the direct witness of Stratocles of Rhodes. It is a gallery of biographical portraits of Stoic philosophers, from Zeno of Cytium to Panaetius and his followers, also containing lists of disciples, anecdotes and both doxographical and characterological considerations. Judging from what is still preserved, the narrative, which is coherent and continuous, show similarities with that of the latter part of PHerc. 1691/1021. There are a few excerpts and quotations, whose sources are always mentioned explicitly by indicating the name of the author and the title of the work. Great effort is spent in the characterisation of the philosophers.