Reddit reviews Stoicism (Ancient Philosophies)

Here is my short list of books that I usually recommend as starting points (most of these are found in the FAQ as well):

• Stoicism by John Sellars is an introductory-level academic overview of Stoic philosophy and is a solid introduction to the subject.
  
  
• Stoicism: A Very Short Introduction by Brad Inwood is another broad overview by an academic scholar of Stoicism, but it's much more condensed. Very informative, however.
  
  
• Stoicism and the Art of Happiness by Donald Robertson is a practical introduction on what Stoicism is and how to implement it in your life.
  
  
• Epictetus - Discourses, Fragments, Handbook translated by Robin Hard is a book containing the lectures of the Stoic teacher Epictetus. He was the most influential Stoic philosopher of his age, and his Discourses were studied by the famous Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. (The "Enchiridion" is included in this collection as well, also called the "Handbook".)
  
  
• Seneca's Dialogues and Essays, especially the essays "On The Shortness of Life" and "On the Happy Life" and Letters from a Stoic contain Seneca's useful writings on a number of topics and is another popular place to begin learning about Stoicism.
  
  You can also check out the IEP entries on Stoicism and Stoic Ethics if you'd like to start with briefer reading first.
  
  Finally, there are a number of videos on Stoicism and related topics that you may find helpful. (But of course books go into more depth than short videos can.)

John Sellers in his book 'Stoicism' discusses the breadth of classic Stoic philosophy, which was not just ethics. It included formal logic (laying down the first description of propositional logic rather than term), physics, rhetoric, and ethics. It was understood that ethics needed to be informed by these other branches of philosophy, at the time. Later, they were slightly divorced from each other, but it's still of interest to note them.

The Heraclitus Fragments have a decidedly mystical tone to them, and are probably the source (this is a supposition) of that quality of the philosophy. The Stoics were not strict materialists, or reductionists. They are more properly described as vitalists, believing in an active principle (pneuma) and a passive one (matter).

Sellers discusses bodies, causes, existing versus subsiting in his book.
If your interests tend towards the little-a academic, you might find looking at these other areas of Stoicism useful. The later Stoics mostly (not entirely) discarded these for ethics-proper.

Hi /u/mcnelton - I hope you read this comment because none of the so far suggested books come from an academic approach.

I would recommend the (perhaps poorly titled) Stoicism and the Art of Happiness by Donald Robertson.

It's extremely well sourced and references a significant number of modern of academic and psychology texts as well as ancient ones. Each section contains practical exercises, and the book covers the whole historical context as well as the modern development of psychology treatments such as REBT and CBT which are based on the Stoic tradition.

If you want to take a step further in the academic direction but away from the practical, I would recommend the truly excellent Stoicism by John Sellars.