SVF I.264

Original — Ancient Greek

λέγει δὲ καὶ Ζήνων, ὁ τῆς Στωικῆς κτίστης αἱρέσεως, ἐν τῷ τῆς Πολιτείας βιβλίῳ μήτε ναοὺς δεῖν ποιεῖν μήτε ἀγάλματα· μηδὲν γὰρ εἶναι τῶν θεῶν ἄξιον κατασκεύασμα· καὶ γράφειν οὐ δέδιεν αὐταῖς λέξεσι τάδε· „ἱερά τε οἰκοδομεῖν οὐδὲν δεήσει· ἱερὸν γὰρ μὴ πολλοῦ ἄξιον καὶ ἅγιον οὐδὲν χρὴ νομίζειν· οὐδὲν δὲ πολλοῦ ἄξιον καὶ ἅγιον οἰκοδόμων ἔργον καὶ βαναύσων.“

StoicOs Translation

Zeno too, the founder of the Stoic school, says in his book The Republic that one should make neither temples nor statues — for no work of construction is worthy of the gods; and he is not afraid to write, in these very words: “There will be no need to build sanctuaries: for a sanctuary that is not worth much, and not holy, one ought not to consider anything; and no work of builders and artisans is worth much, or holy.”

Context

Clement of Alexandria, a Christian scholar around 200 CE, collects pagan authorities against temple-worship — and finds his best witness in the founder of the Stoa. He names the book (Zeno's famous, scandalous Republic), summarises its thesis, and then insists he is quoting verbatim. Plutarch and Theodoret independently confirm the doctrine from the same work.

Source notes:Text verified against H. von Arnim, SVF I (1903), no. 264, p. 61 (scanned page). Clement asserts he is quoting Zeno's Republic “in his very words” (αὐταῖς λέξεσι). Under the same number von Arnim prints the parallels Plutarch, De Stoicorum repugnantiis 6,1 p. 1034b (“a doctrine of Zeno's: not to build sanctuaries of the gods”) and Theodoret, Graec. aff. cur. III 74, both citing the Republic.

What the source actually tells us

This is one of the rare places where a witness claims to give Zeno's very words (αὐταῖς λέξεσι) from a named book. The claim is strengthened by the independent parallels in Plutarch and Theodoret, which report the same thesis with overlapping wording. Caution remains: Clement quotes from memory or intermediate sources, and the quotation's archaic austerity has been lightly smoothed in transmission — but as evidence for Zeno's Republic this ranks among the best we have.

Philosophical meaning

In his Republic Zeno drew the radical consequence of his theology: if god is the reason pervading the cosmos (cf. SVF I.85, I.162), then the divine cannot be housed. No building, however costly, is “worth much” beside the living cosmos itself; holiness belongs to minds in agreement with reason, not to the products of masons. The city of Zeno's Republic accordingly needs no temples — its sanctuary is the shared reason of its citizens.

Scholarly uncertainty

Clement's “very words” cannot be checked against the lost original, and the three witnesses vary slightly in wording; Plutarch cites the thesis precisely in order to accuse the Stoics of inconsistency (they honoured temples in practice). Whether the sentence stood in exactly this form in the Republic, and what surrounded it, is beyond recovery.

Go deeper

• Read SVF I.262 — one life, one common law →
• Read SVF I.162 — the natural law is divine →