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Herillus

Ἥιλλος

(Ἥιλλος), of Carthage, a Stoic philosopher, was the disciple of Zeno of Cittium. He did not, however, confine himself to the opinions of his master, but held some doctrines directly opposed to them. He held that the chief good consisted in knowledge (ἐπιστήμη). This notion is often attacked by Cicero, who in two places speaks of his tenets as "jamdiu fracta et exstincta," and as "jampridem explosa." He wrote some books, which, according to Diogenes, were short, but full of force. Their titles were Περὶ ἀσκήσεως, Περὶ παθῶν, Περὶ ὑπολήψεως, Νομοθέτης, Μαιευτικός, Ἀντιφέμων διδάσκαλος, Διασκενάζων, Εὐθύνων, Ἑρμῆς, Μήδεια, Διαλογοι, Θέσεις ἠθικαί. Cleanthes wrote against him. (D. L. 7.165, 166, 174; Cic. Ac. 2.42, de Fin. 2.11, 13, 4.14, 15, 5.8. 25, de Offic. 1.2, de Orat. 3.17; Brucker, Hist. Philos. vol. i. p. 971; Ritter, Gesch. d. Philos. vol. iii. p. 508; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iii. p. 564; Krug., Herilli de summo Bono Sententia explosa non explodenda, in the Symbol. ad Hist. Phil. Lips. 1822, 4to.)

From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.