Musonius Rufus: fragments IX and XVII
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12957/principia.2026.96912Keywords:
Musonuis Rufus, Stoicism, hellenism, old age, exiliumAbstract
We present translations from the original Greek text of fragments IX and XVII of the Etruscan Stoic philosopher Gaius Musonius Rufus, a prominent figure in the 1st century AD. Fragment IX is most likely a passage from a letter Musonius himself to his disciple Lucius. In it, Musonius argues that exile is not an evil, placing himself among the examples of those who were exiled and made good use of the circumstance, thus providing evidence of the philosopher's second exile to the Island of Giaros. In fragment XVII, Musonius argues that the practice of virtues and the study of philosophy are the best provision for old age.
References
ADLER, Ada (ed.). Suidae lexicon. 5 v. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1928–1938.
ARNIM, Hans von. Leben und Werke des Dio von Prusa: mit einer Einleitung – Sophistik, Rhetorik, Philosophie in ihrem Kampf um die Jugendbildung. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1898.
ARNIM, Hans von. Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta. v. 1: Zeno or Zenonis Discipuli. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2005.
ARNIM, Hans von. Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta. v. 2: Chrysippi Fragmenta Logica et Physica. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2005.
ARNIM, Hans von. Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta. v. 3: Chrysippi Fragmenta Moralia. Fragmenta Successorum Chrysippi. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2005.
ARNOLD, Edward Vernon. Roman Stoicism: Being Lectures on the History of the Stoic Philosophy with Special Reference to Its Development within the Roman Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911.
ATHENAEUS. The Deipnosophists. Translated by Charles Burton Gulick. 7 v. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927-1941.
AULUS GELLIUS. Attic Nights. Translated by John Carew Rolfe. 3 v. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927.
CARLON, Jacqueline Marie. Pliny’s Women: Constructing Virtue and Creating Identity in the Roman World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
CICERO, Marcus Tullius. Cicero’s Letters to Atticus. Edited by David Roy Shackleton Bailey. 7 v. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965–1970.
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. Stromata (Miscellanies). Translated by John Ferguson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.
CORNELLI, Gabriele. O Fédon de Platão. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras; Penguin, 2025.
CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM LATINARUM. Editio princeps a Theodoro Mommsen conscripta et nunc multi tomi aucti et continuati. Berlin: Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1853-.
DIO CHRYSOSTOM. Discourses. Translated by Henry Lamar Crosby. v. 3. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1940.
DIO CHRYSOSTOM. Discourses I–XI. Translated by John William Cohoon. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1932.
DOTTARELLI, Luciano. Musonio l’Etrusco: la filosofia come scienza di vita. Roma: Annulli Editori, 2015.
ELENA, Gritti. Minicio Fundano: una personalità da riscoprir. Erga Logoi – Rivista di storia, letteratura, diritto e culture dell’antichità, v. 13, p. 113–134, 2025.
EPICTETUS. The Discourses of Epictetus as Reported by Arrian; Fragments; Encheiridion. Translated by William Abbott Oldfather. 2 v. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1928.
EUSEBIUS. The History of the Church. Translated by George Arthur Williamson. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965.
FESTUGIÈRE, André-Jean. Télès et Musonius: Prédications. Paris: Vrin, 1978.
FRANCIS, James Arthur. Subversive Virtue: Asceticism and Authority in the Second-Century Pagan World. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995.
FREY, Renea Christine. Speaking Truth to Power: Recovering a Rhetorical Theory of Parrhesia. Tese (Doutorado em Comunicação) – Miami University, Oxford, 2015.
GONZÁLEZ, Pedro Pablo Fuentes. Diatribes de Télès: Introduction, texte revu et commentaire des fragments, avec en appendice une traduction espagnole. Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 1998.
HENSE, Otto. Musonii Rufi Reliquiae. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1905.
JUSTIN MARTYR. First Apology; Second Apology. In: ROBERTS, Alexander; DONALDSON, James (eds.). Ante-Nicene Fathers. v. 1. Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Company, 1885.
JULIAN. Letter to Themistius. In: WRIGHT, Wilmer Cave (ed.). The Works of the Emperor Julian. v. 2. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913, p. 299–337.
LAURENTI, Renato. Musonio, maestro di Epitteto. ANRW, 2.36.3, p. 2105–2146, 1989.
LUTZ, Cora Elizabeth. Musonius Rufus: The Roman Socrates. In: BELLINGER, Alfred Raymond (ed.). Yale Classical Studies. v. 10. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1947, p. 1-147.
MAGIE, David (trans.). Scriptores Historiae Augustae. v. 1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1921.
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. The Communings with Himself of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Translated by Charles Reginald Haines. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1916.
ORIGEN. Against Celsus. In: ROBERTS, Alexander; DONALDSON, James (eds.). The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325. v. 4. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Company, 1885.
PFLIEGER, Theodor. Musonius bei Stobei. Freiburg im Breisgau, 1897.
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA. On the Life of Moses. Translated by Francis Henry Colson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1935.
PHILOSTRATUS. The Life of Apollonius of Tyana. Translated by Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare. 2 v. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1912.
PHILOSTRATUS. Apollonius of Tyana. Translated by Christopher Patrick Jones. 3 v. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005–2006.
PHILOSTRATUS. Lives of the Sophists. Translated by Wilmer Cave Wright. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921.
PLATO. Republic. Translated by Paul Shorey. 2 v. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1930–1935.
PLINY THE ELDER. The Natural History. Perseus Digital Library. Disponível em: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu . Acesso em: 12 nov. 2020.
PLINY THE YOUNGER. Letters. Translated by John Bickford Firth. London: George Bell and Sons, 1900.
POMEROY, Clarence. Musonius, the Etruscan. 1896.
RAME, Anna Laura. Il tema del perdono in Seneca e in Musonio Rufo. In: SORDI, Marta (ed.). Responsabilità, perdono e vendetta nel mondo antico. Milano: Vita e Pensiero, 1998, p. 191-208.
ROBERTS, Alexander; DONALDSON, James (eds.). The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Company, 1885.
RUDICH, Vasily. Political Dissidence under Nero: The Price of Dissimulation. London: Routledge, 1993.
STOBAEUS. Anthology (Eclogae). Translated by Charles Henry Haines. 2 v. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1928–1930.
SUDA ON LINE. μ 1305: Μουσώνιος (Musonius). Lexington: University of Kentucky, 1999–. Disponível em: https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-html/. Acesso em: 10 fev. 2026.
TACITUS, Publius Cornelius. The Annals. Translated by Alfred John Church; William Jackson Brodribb. London: Macmillan and Co., 1923.
THE RENDEL HARRIS PAPYRI. Edited by John Enoch Powell. v. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1936.
WENDLAND, Paul; KERN, Otto. Beiträge zur Geschichte der griechischen Philosophie und Religion. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1895.
WIRSZUBSKI, Chaim. Libertas as a Political Idea at Rome during the Late Republic and Early Principate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950.
XENOPHON. Cyropaedia. Translated by Walter Miller. 2 v. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1914.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Aldo Dinucci, Cristovão Frasson
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
AUTORIZAÇÃO
A Principia está autorizada a publicar o artigo ora submetido, caso seja aceito para publicação online. Fica atestado que a contribuição é original, que não está sendo submetida a outro editor para publicação, e que a presente declaração é a expressão da verdade.
Nosso periódico utiliza a licença do Creative Commons (CC) CC Attribution 4.0, preservando dessa forma, a integridade dos textos em ambiente de acesso aberto. Assim, autores que publicam nesta revista concordam com os seguintes termos:
1- Autores mantêm os direitos autorais e concedem à revista o direito de primeira publicação, sendo esta licenciada sob a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 Internacional.
2- Autores têm permissão e são estimulados a publicar e compartilhar o trabalho com reconhecimento da publicação inicial nesta revista.
3- Autores dos trabalhos aprovados autorizam a revista a ceder o conteúdo de seus trabalhos, após sua publicação, para reprodução em indexadores de conteúdo, bibliotecas virtuais e similares.
Para mais informações sobre a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, acessar: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
A Principia utiliza uma Licença Creative Commons - Atribuição-NãoComercial 4.0 Internacional.
