Nothing can be created from nothing
Christianity had a predecessor as the major system of thought in Europe. Stoicism had very little in common with the religion which effectively separated man from nature to make him God's child. Justinian understood that a stoicist world view was too pagan in essence to allow it to coexist with the new-found dogma and the unifying political potential it presented.
"Everything is right for me, which is right for you, O Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which comes in due time for you. Everything is fruit to me which your seasons bring, O Nature. From you are all things, in you are all things, to you all things return." -Marcus Aurelius
However, Stoicism and its values such as Virtue were the dominant philosophy which shaped the livelihood of leaders and citizens in late Hellenism and then in the Roman Empire.
Its meditative approach to life and the central concept of ataraxia - absence of turmoil through detachment - is reminiscent of equanimity and reveals rooting or at least similarity with Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies.
"Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of one's desires, but by the removal of desire." -Epictetus
What sets it apart from Paganism and Eastern thought is its obvious place in the lineage of other Greek schools which hold pure logos - rationality, thought, scientific dialectics - as the compass and arbiter of all decisions, behaviors and judgments.
"The vivid force of his mind prevailed, and he fared forth far beyond the flaming ramparts of the heavens and traversed the boundless universe in thought and mind." -Lucretius
Lucretius - the soberly lyrical observer, reminds me of Lao Tzu in his capacity to see what is timeless. Ovid, in his Amores, writes: "Carmina sublimis tunc sunt peritura Lucreti / exitio terras cum dabit una dies" (which means the verses of the sublime Lucretius will perish only when a day will bring the end of the world). Everything experiences the inevitable dance of the cosmos: gestation, birth, growth, maturity, decline, illness, death. Not only is life caught up in the cycle but also societies, systems, ideologies, objects. All that remains is the stage - the universe - a patient spectator.
"Thus the sum of things is ever being renewed, and mortals live dependent one upon another. Some nations increase, others diminish, and in a short space the generations of living creatures are changed and like runners pass on the torch of life." -Lucretius
Lucretius probably never doubted the Roman Empire would overextend itself and that its power would dwindle and that it would eventually be replaced.
Societies and economical systems collapse. It is inevitable.
In the video below, a parallel is drawn between our global oil-based economy and the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
"According to Professor Guy Prouty, every civilization rises, evolves, and then collapses to a simpler structure — and this will include our own. Comparing America with the Western Roman Empire, Prouty notes the over-reach of our military, the unsustainability of capitalism, peak oil, and climate change. And, this time, we may see a global collapse. Transitioning to a simpler society will require us to change behavior and consciousness: decrease energy, get out of debt, decentralize, de-consume, grow our own food, build community, see ourselves as connected to the planet. Collapse is not the end, he says. It’s part of a natural cycle."
(PeakMomentTV)
Who knows? We might start hearing the whispers of Epicurians and Stoicists again in a few decades...
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