Persaeus of Citium, son of Demetrius, was a Stoic

Stoicism

Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early . The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions.Stoics were concerned...

 philosopher, and a friend and favourite student of Zeno of Citium

Zeno of Citium

Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher from Citium . Zeno was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, which he taught in Athens from about 300 BC. Based on the moral ideas of the Cynics, Stoicism laid great emphasis on goodness and peace of mind gained from living a life of virtue in...

.

He lived in the same house as Zeno. Later writers wrote that Persaeus had been Zeno's slave, who had perhaps originally been an amanuensis

Amanuensis

Amanuensis is a Latin word adopted in various languages, including English, for certain persons performing a function by hand, either writing down the words of another or performing manual labour...

 sent to Zeno by King Antigonus II Gonatas

Antigonus II Gonatas

Antigonus II Gonatas was a powerful ruler who firmly established the Antigonid dynasty in Macedonia and acquired fame for his victory over the Gauls who had invaded the Balkans.-Birth and family:...

; however, the source of this story seems to be due to a sarcastic remark made about Persaeus by Bion of Borysthenes

Bion of Borysthenes

Bion of Borysthenes , c. 325 – c. 250 BC, was a Greek philosopher. After being sold into slavery, and then released, he moved to Athens, where he studied in almost every school of philosophy. It is, however, for his Cynic-style diatribes that he is chiefly remembered...

 who upon seeing a statue of Persaeus inscribed: "Persaeus the pupil of Zeno," sneered that it ought to have been: "Persaeus the Servant of Zeno."

It is known that Antigonus II Gonatas

Antigonus II Gonatas

Antigonus II Gonatas was a powerful ruler who firmly established the Antigonid dynasty in Macedonia and acquired fame for his victory over the Gauls who had invaded the Balkans.-Birth and family:...

 invited Zeno to his court at Pella

Pella

Pella , an ancient Greek city located in Pella Prefecture of Macedonia in Greece, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia.-Etymology:...

 around 276 BC. Zeno refused because of his old age and sent his students Persaeus and Philonides of Thebes instead. Persaeus became an important figure at the Macedonian court. After Antigonus captured Corinth

Corinth

Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...

 around 244 BC, Persaeus was given control of the city as Archon

Archon

Archon is a Greek word that means "ruler" or "lord", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem ἀρχ-, meaning "to rule", derived from the same root as monarch, hierarchy, and anarchy.- Ancient Greece :In ancient Greece the...

. Persaeus died in 243 BC defending the city against the attack led by Aratus of Sicyon

Aratus of Sicyon

Aratus was a statesman of the ancient Greek city-state of Sicyon and a leader of the Achaean League. He deposed the Sicyonian tyrant Nicocles in 251 BC. Aratus was an advocate of Greek unity and brought Sicyon into the Achaean League, which he led to its maximum extent...

.

None of the writings of Persaeus survive except a few fragments. Diogenes Laërtius

Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes Laertius was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is known about his life, but his surviving Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is one of the principal surviving sources for the history of Greek philosophy.-Life:Nothing is definitively known about his life...

 lists the following works as being written by Persaeus:

• Ἠθικαῖς σχολαῖς - Ethical School.
• Περὶ βασιλείας - On Kingship.
• Πολιτεία Λακωνική - Constitution of the Lacedaemonians.
• Περὶ γάμου - On Marriage.
• Περὶ ἀσεβείας - On Impiety.
• Θυέστης - Thyestes.
• Περὶ ἐρώτων - On Love.
• Προτρεπτικοί - Exhortations.
• Διατριβῶν - Conversations.
• Χρειῶν - Apophthegms.
• Ἀπομνημονεύματα - Reminiscences.
• Πρὸς τοὺς Πλάτωνος νόμους - Plato's Laws.

Concerning Persaeus's philosophical views, Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

mentions that:

Persaeus says that it was men who had discovered some great aid to civilisation that were regarded as gods, and that the names of divinities were also bestowed upon actual material objects of use and profit, so that he is not even content to describe these as the creations of God, but makes out that they are themselves divine.