Zeno of Citium (The Stoic) (333-264 BC) was a Hellenisticphilosopher from Citium[?], Cyprus (then a Hellenic[?] colony). Zeno was the son of a merchant and a student of Crates of Thebes. Zeno was, himself, a merchant until the age of 42, when he started a school. Named for his teaching platform, the Painted Porch ("stoa" is Greek for "porch"), his teachings were the beginning of Stoicism. None of Zeno's works have survived; he is believed to have taught that tranquility can best be reached via indifference to pleasure and pain.
... negative implications, it merely designated anyone who assumed power for any period of time without a legitimate basis of authority.
The first to have the title of ...