Stoicism and the Roman Empire

In the first century b c, under the roman republic, people were perhaps attracted to epicureanism as offering some kind of alternative. It may well be that suddenly stoicism started to see a lot more attractive as it harked back to a traditional set of values which maybe people were beginning to feel were slightly lost. In fact, that would just make this interest in stoicism a manifestation of a broader cultural phenomenon in the early empire. People moaning about how much better things were in the republic before everything became so debauched with the imperial period coming absolutely. And you can imagine in a society in which pleasure is out of control, and a lot of very noble discussion about virtue