The far-reaching results of the various schools of philosophy which rose in Greece during the Periclean age will be noted in this chapter. That the principles involved in this philosophy may not have been formulated by the hetairai of Athens is doubtless true, yet that the inception and development of these principles were largely due to the freedom of these gifted women seems probable, especially when we remember the conditions under which this philosophy arose. A glance at the principles involved in the Stoic philosophy will show its thoroughly altruistic character. The sum of its tenets was to “live according to nature’s laws,” to subordinate one’s self to the welfare of one’s family, one’s country, and the entire race, and to “rise above the gross indulgences and pleasures of the vulgar” to higher laws of thought and action; it taught that to be just, and to live according to the dictates of reason rather than to be governed by the promptings of blind passion and the desire of the appetites, should be not only the duty but the highest pleasure of mankind. Possibly some of the minor precepts of the Stoic philosophy were absurd; no doubt in their desire for reform, its founders set up a canon of conduct which was severe and impracticable; but its fundamental principles, the subjection of the animal in man to the reasoning faculties, as applied to future Roman law, Roman civilization, and Roman character, served to produce specimens of manhood which the women of all subsequent ages should delight to honour. So long as virtue is applauded and moral greatness is exalted, the enactments of the Roman jurisconsults in the interest of women, prior to, and during the time of the Antonine Cæsars, will stand forth throughout the ages as the one single movement, during thousands of years, toward the removal of the legal disabilities of women. When we remember that the Stoic philosophy took root and flourished during an age of unparalleled profligacy which was stimulated and encouraged by the example of the most opulent and luxurious personages among the Greeks, and at a time when licentiousness had for centuries been sanctioned by religion and upheld by laws made by the men of Greece, it is quite evident that some potent influence, which had hitherto been unfelt, had been in operation to produce it. In order to understand the influence which the Stoic philosophy exerted on civilization, and especially on the legal position of women, we must first understand its effect upon Roman law. An inquiry into the changes which had been wrought in Roman jurisprudence at the time of the Antonine Cæsars, by engrafting upon it the underlying principles contained in the Stoic philosophy, discloses the fact that the emancipation of women had been practically accomplished in Rome.