SVF I.267
Stoic: Zeno of Citium · Ancient source: Cassius the Sceptic (ap. Diogenes Laërtius), Vitae philosophorum, Book VII — 7.33 · Source language: Ancient Greek · Source status: Testimonium, Later report
Original — Ancient Greek
καὶ κατὰ τοὺς διακοσίους (στίχους) μηθ᾽ ἱερὰ μήτε δικαστήρια μήτε γυμνάσια ἐν ταῖς πόλεσιν οἰκοδομεῖσθαι (scil. δογματίζειν τὸν Ζήνωνα).
StoicOs Translation
And at about line two hundred (of the Republic, Zeno lays down) that neither temples nor law-courts nor gymnasia are to be built in the cities.
Context
Diogenes Laërtius transmits the sceptic Cassius' indictment of Zeno's Republic — a hostile catalogue so precise that it cites the doctrine's position in the book roll.
Text verified against von Arnim, SVF I (1903), no. 267, p. 62 (OCR of the scanned edition). Both parentheses — “(lines)” and “(namely, that Zeno lays down)” — are von Arnim's editorial glosses. Cassius is a hostile sceptic cataloguing the Republic's scandals.
What the source actually tells us
Adversarial evidence of the best kind: Cassius read the book and cites by line-number. The temple-ban is triply attested (with SVF I.264 and I.266); courts and gymnasia extend the same programme.
Philosophical meaning
In the city of the wise the institutions of distrust are superfluous: no temples, since god is not contained in walls (SVF I.264); no law-courts, since the good do not litigate; no gymnasia, since education aims at the soul. Radical simplicity as political architecture.
Scholarly uncertainty
Cassius selects for scandal and Diogenes compresses; the line-number “two hundred” shows access to the roll but the surrounding argument is lost. The wording is doxographic, not Zeno's.
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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.