Posidonius, an eminent Stoic philosopher, born in Syria; established himself in Rhodes, where he rose to eminence; was visited by Cicero and Pompey, both of whom became his pupils; maintained that pain was no evil; "in vain, O Pain," he exclaimed one day under the pangs of it, "in vain thou subjectest me to torture; it is not in thee to extort from me the reproach that thou art an evil" (135-34 B.C.).