The people of Athens held Zeno in high honor, as is proved by their depositing with him the keys of the city walls, and their honoring him with a golden crown and a bronze statue. This last mark of respect was also shown to him by citizens of his native town, who deemed his statue an ornament to their city, and the men of Citium living in Sidon were also proud to claim him for their own.
Antigonus (Gonatas) also favored him, and whenever he came to Athens would hear him lecture and often invited him to come to his court. This offer he declined, but dispatched there one of his friends, Persaeus, the son of Demetrius and a native of Citium, who flourished in the 130th Olympiad, at which time Zeno was already an old man.
According to Apollonius of Tyre in his work upon Zeno, the letter of Antigonus was couched in the following terms:
"King Antigonus to Zeno the philosopher, greeting.
"While in fortune and fame I deem myself your superior, in reason and education I own myself inferior, as well as in the perfect happiness which you have attained.
"Wherefore I have decided to ask you to pay me a visit, being persuaded that you will not refuse the request. By all means, then, do your best to hold conference with me, understanding clearly that you will not be the instructor of myself alone but of all the Macedonians taken together.
"For it is obvious that whoever instructs the ruler of Macedonia and guides him in the paths of virtue will also be training his subjects to be good men. As is the ruler, such for the most part it may be expected that his subjects will become."
And Zeno's reply is as follows:
"Zeno to King Antigonus, greeting.
"I welcome your love of learning in so far as you cleave to that true education which tends to advantage and not to that popular counterfeit of it which serves only to corrupt morals.
"But if anyone has yearned for philosophy, turning away from much-vaunted pleasure which renders effeminate the souls of some of the young, it is evident that not by nature only, but also by the bent of his will he is inclined to nobility of character. But if a noble nature be aided by moderate exercise and further receive ungrudging instruction, it easily comes to acquire virtue in perfection.
"But I am constrained by bodily weakness, due to old age, for I am eighty years old; and for that reason I am unable to join you.
"But I send you certain companions of my studies whose mental powers are not inferior to mine, while their bodily strength is far greater, and if you associate with these you will in no way fall short of the conditions necessary to perfect happiness."
So he sent Persaeus and Philonides the Theban; and Epicurus in his letter to his brother Aristobulus mentions them both as living with Antigonus.
—Diogenes Laërtius, 7.6-9
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