Cleanthes in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

A Greek philosopher, a native of Assos in Asia Minor. He was originally a boxer (Diog. Laert. vii. 168), and while attending at Athens the lectures of Zeno, the founder of the Stoic philosophy, gained a livelihood at night by carrying water. He was Zeno's disciple for nineteen years, and in B.C. 263 succeeded him as head of the Stoic school. He died in his eightyfirst year by voluntary starvation. A beautiful Hymn to Zeus is the only one of his writings that has come down to us, of which a good edition is that of Pearson (London, 1891). The titles of the others are given by Diogenes Laertius (vii. 4).