SVF I.212
Stoic: Zeno of Citium · Ancient source: Cicero, Tusculanae disputationes, Book III, with Galen PHP IV 7 — Tusc. disp. III 74–75 · Source language: Latin · Source status: Testimonium, Later report
Original — Latin
Satis dictum esse arbitror aegritudinem esse opinionem mali praesentis, in qua opinione illud insit, ut aegritudinem suscipere oporteat. Additur ad hanc definitionem a Zenone recte, ut illa opinio praesentis mali sit recens. — Galenus, PHP IV 7 (Posidonius): “λύπη ἐστὶ δόξα πρόσφατος κακοῦ παρουσίας.”
StoicOs Translation
I think enough has been said to show that grief is the opinion of a present evil — an opinion which includes the belief that it is right to feel grief. To this definition Zeno rightly adds that the opinion of the present evil must be fresh (recens). — Galen (from Posidonius): “Grief is a fresh opinion of the presence of an evil.”
Context
In the third Tusculan, on the healing of grief, Cicero builds on the Stoic definition and singles out one word as Zeno's specific addition: the opinion must be recens, fresh. Galen preserves the Greek formula through Posidonius, who cites it as a definition spoken by Zeno and written up by Chrysippus.
Text verified against von Arnim, SVF I (1903), no. 212, pp. 51–52 (OCR of the scanned edition; the book/paragraph numbers are garbled in the OCR and restored per von Arnim's citation Tusc. III 74,75). Von Arnim appends Galen, PHP IV 7, where Posidonius cites the Greek short form: “grief is a fresh opinion of the presence of an evil”.
What the source actually tells us
Two independent witnesses — Cicero in Latin, Posidonius (via Galen) in Greek — converge on the same definition and both tie the decisive word “fresh” to Zeno by name. Few Zenonian definitions are as precisely delimited: the base definition is common school property, the addition of recens/prosphatos is expressly his.
Philosophical meaning
Grief is not caused by the loss but by the judgment about the loss — and, Zeno adds, by a judgment while it is still fresh. Time does not heal by erasing the fact; it heals because the opinion loses its freshness, its felt authority that grieving is owed. What time does slowly and blindly, reason can do sooner and deliberately: re-examine the judgment now. Here Zeno turns a definition into a therapy.
Scholarly uncertainty
Cicero and Posidonius are both late witnesses, and Posidonius cites the definition polemically, against Chrysippus; the exact scope of “fresh” (temporal recency or undiminished vividness) was already debated in antiquity. That the addition goes back to Zeno personally is, however, asserted by both lines independently.
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About this edition
StoicOs Ancient Library is a developing multilingual digital study edition of surviving early Stoic material. The Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta assembled by Hans von Arnim provides the traditional reference framework. StoicOs distinguishes carefully between fragments, testimonia, later reports and interpretation. StoicOs translations are prepared from the surviving ancient-language sources where available.