TheSchool of the Sextii was an eclecticAncient Romanschool of philosophy founded around 50 BC byQuintus Sextius the Elder and continued by his son,Sextius Niger, however it went extinct shortly after in 19 AD due to the ban on foreign cults.[1] The school blended elements ofPythagorean,Platonic,Cynic, andStoic philosophy together[2] with a belief in an elusive incorporeal power pervades the body in order to emphasize asceticism, honesty, and moral training through nightly examinations of conscience as a means of achievingeudaimonia.[3] The primary sources of information on the school areSeneca the Younger, who was taught by one of its members namedSotion, and the 5th century writerClaudianus Mamertus.[3] Other members of the school includedPapirius Fabianus,Crassicius Pasicles,Celsus.[3] WhileSeneca the Younger often conflates the school with Stoicism, the Sextians were not as inclined to rigorous logical exercises or any abstruse abstract thinking, and unlike theStoics, advocated avoidance ofpolitics, engaging in the correspondence between words and life, and vegetarianism.[4]
the school of the sextii.