EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHERS
Epicurean History by Nathan H. Bartman (2022)

[T]here are plenty of witnesses of the unsurpassable kindness of [Epicurus] to everybody; both his own country which honored him with brazen statues, and his friends who were so numerous that they could not be contained in whole cities; and all his acquaintances who were bound to him by nothing but the charms of his doctrine […] Also, the perpetual succession of his school, which, when every other school decayed, continued without any falling off, and produced a countless number of philosophers, succeeding one another without any interruption. (Diogenes Laërtius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, Book X)

387 BCE: Plato founds his Academy.
384 BCE: Aristotle is born in the Central Macedonian city of Stagira.
348 BCE: Plato dies at the age of 80 due to natural causes.
341 BCE: Epicurus is born on the Island of Samos.
338 BCE: Aristotle begins three years of teaching 13-year-old Alexander III of Macedon.
334 BCE: Aristotle founds his Lyceum at the age of 50.
327 BCE: A 14-year-old Epicurus is tutored by a Platonist named Pamphilus
326 BCE: Alexander III of Macedon invades India; Pyrrho follows. As a result …
325 BCE: Pyrrho adopts the Indian school of Ajñāna and develops Skepticism
323 BCE: An 18-year-old Epicurus serves two years of Athenian conscription
322 BCE: Aristotle dies at the age of 62 due to natural causes.
321 BCE: A 20-year-old Epicurus moves with family to Colophon and studies under the Peripatetic Praxiphanes; he later studies under Nausiphanes of Teos, a Democritean pupil of Pyrrho whom he criticizes in his works
316 BCE: A 25-year-old Epicurus observes Halley’s Comet with Nausiphanes
311 BCE: A 30-year-old Epicurus begins teaching in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos
310 BCE: A 31-year-old Epicurus relocates Northward to Lampsacus
309 BCE: A 32-year-old Epicurus directly witnesses a Total Solar Eclipse
306 BCE: A 35-year-old Epicurus moves to Athens and establishes the Garden

HEGEMON – HΓEMΩN – /hɛːɡe.’mɔːn/ – “Leader” of the Epicurean Community

Hegemon: EPICURUS* of SAMOS (c. 11 January 341 – 270/69 BCE) the founder

KATHEGEMONES – KAΘHΓEMΩNHΣ – /ka.tʰɛːɡe.’mɔːniːz/ – “Guides”

Kathegemon: POLYAENUS* of LAMPSACUS (c. 345 – 286 BCE)
Kathegemon: METRODORUS* of LAMPSACUS (c. 331/0 – 278/7 BCE)
Kathegemon: HERMARCHUS* of MYTILENE (c. 325 – 250 BCE)

*The founder and his three allies are called HOI ANDRES – OI ANΔPEΣ – “The Men“

DIADOCHOI – ΔIAΔOXOI – /diː’a.dɔːkʰoi̯/ – “Succession” of Epicurean Scholarchs

Scholarch (1st): HERMARCHUS* (c. 325 – 250 BCE) Scholarch from 270 to 250 BCE
Scholarch (2nd): POLYSTRATUS (c. 300 – 219/8 BCE) from 250 to 219/8 BCE

NOTE: Scholarchs after Polystratus will NOT have personally known Epicurus.

Scholarch (3rd): DIONYSIUS of LAMPTRAI (c. 280 – 205 BCE) from 219/8 to 205 BCE
Scholarch (4th): BASILIDES of TYRUS (c. 245 – 175 BCE) from 205 to 175 BCE
Scholarch (5th): PROTARCHUS of BARGHILIA (c. 225 – 150 BCE) from 175 to 150 BCE
Scholarch (6th): APOLLODORUS of ATHENS (c. 200 – 125 BCE) from 147 to 125 BCE
Scholarch (7th): ZENO of SIDON (c. 166 – 75 BCE) Scholarch from 125 to 75 BCE
Scholarch (8th): PHAEDRUS (c. 138 – 70/69 BCE) Scholarch from 75 to 70/69 BCE
Scholarch (9th): PATRO (c. 100 – 25 BCE) Scholarch from 70/69 to 51 BCE

In A.D. 121 the then incumbent, Popillius Theotimus, appealed to Plotina, widow of the emperor Trajan and a devoted adherent, to intercede with Hadrian for relief from a requirement that the head should be a Roman citizen, which had resulted in unfortunate choices. The petition was granted and acknowledged with all the gratitude that was proper to the sect. (De Witt, Epicurus and His Philosophy 332)

Scholarch (16ish): POPILLIUS THEOTIMUS (early 2nd-century CE)
Scholarch (17ish): HELIODORUS (2nd-century CE) Hadrian writes him.

“Later in the century it is on record that the school became a beneficiary of the bounty of Marcus Aurelius [161-180 CE], who bestowed a stipend of 10,000 drachmas per annum upon the heads of all the recognized schools” (Epicurus and His Philosophy 332)

KATHEGETES – KAΘHΓHTEΣ – /ka.tʰɛːgɛː’tʰiːz/ – “Down from the Guides” or Teachers

Kathegete: ARISTOBULUS of SAMOS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) brother of Epicurus
Kathegete: CHAERDEMUS of SAMOS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) brother of Epicurus
Kathegete: NEOCLES of SAMOS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) another brother of Epicurus

GNORIMOI – ΓNΩPIMOI – /gnɔːriː’moi̯/ – “Known Familiars” or Disciples

APELLES (4th – 3rd-century BCE) the recipient of one of Epicurus’ many epistles
APOLLODORUS of LAMPSACUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) the brother of Leonteus
BATIS of LAMPSACUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) Idomeneus‘ wife and Metrodorus‘ sister
BOIDION (4th – 3rd-century BCE) “calf-eyes” hetaera who studied at the Garden
CALLISTRATUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
CARNEISCUS of LAMPSACUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) dedicated a book to Philainis
COLOTES of LAMPSACUS (c. 320 – 268 BCE) a popular Greek writer known for satire
CRONIUS of LAMPSACUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) a former student of Eudoxus
CTESSIPUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) attested in a letter fragment written by Epicurus
DEMELATA (4th – 3rd-century BCE) attested by Philodemus
DEMETRIA (4th – 3rd-century BCE) a companion to Hermarchus
EROTION (4th – 3rd-century BCE) “lovely” hetaera who studied at the Garden
EUDEMUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) mentioned in a letter written by Epicurus
HEDEIA (3rd-century BCE) “delectable” companion to Polyaenus
HIPPOCLIDES of LAMPSACUS (c. 300 – 219/8 BCE) born on the same day as Polystratus
IDOMENEUS of LAMPSACUS (c. 310 – 270 BCE) the main financier of the Garden
LEONTEUS of LAMPSACUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) the husband of Themista
LEONTION (4th – 3rd-century BCE) “lioness“, a respected writer and courtesan
LYCOPHRON (4th – 3rd-century BCE) a correspondent of Leonteus of Lampsacus
MAMMARION (3rd-century BCE) “tits“, a possible lover to Leonteus
MENESTRATUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) pupil of Metrodorus
MENOECEUS of LAMPSACUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) of Epicurus‘ Letter to Menoeceus
MENTORIDES of LAMPSACUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) the eldest brother of Metrodorus
MYS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) “mouse” a male slave who managed publishing
NICANOR (4th – 3rd-century BCE) student of Epicurus attested by Diogenes Laërtius
NIKIDION (4th – 3rd-century BCE)  “victress” possible lover to Idomeneus
PHILAINIS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) attested by Philodemus
PHILISTAS of LAMPSACUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) inspired Carneiscus to write
PYTHOCLES of LAMPSACUS (c. 324 — 3rd-century BCE) of Epicurus’ Letter to Pythocles
THEMISTA of LAMPSACUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) wife of Leonteus
THEOPHILIA (4th – 3rd-century BCE) attested by 1st-century Roman poet Martial

HELLENIC PHILOI – ΦIΛΩI – /’pʰi.loi̯/ – “Friends” or Associates

ANAXARCHUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
ARCHEPHON (4th – 3rd-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
CHARMIDES (4th – 3rd-century BCE) a friend of Arcesilaus the Academic Skeptic
DOSITHEUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) the father of Hegesianax
ERASISTRATUS of CHIOS (c. 304 – 250 BCE) of the Alexandrian school of medicine
ZOPYRUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
ALEXANDRIA the ATOMIST (3rd-century BCE) associated with Alexandria
ANTIDORUS THE EPICUREAN (3rd-century BCE) who wrote a work against Heraclides
APOLLONIDES (3rd-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
APOLLODORUS the EPICUREAN (3rd-century BCE) a pupil of Polystratus
ARTEMON of LAODICEA (3rd-century BCE) one of several teachers of Philonides
AUTODORUS the EPICUREAN (3rd-century BCE) criticizes Heraclides
CINEAS the EPICUREAN (3rd-century BCE) advised King Pyrrhus of Epirus (Plutarch)
DIODORUS (3rd-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
DIOTIMUS OF SEMACHIDES (3rd-century BCE) a pupil of Polystratus
EUGATHES (3rd-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
EUPHRONIUS (3rd-century BCE) ridiculed by Plutarch
HEGESIANAX (3rd-century BCE) son of Dositheus
HERMOCRATES (3rd-century BCE) who proposed natural explanation for prayer
PYRSON (3rd-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
THEOPHEIDES (3rd-century BCE) a friend of Hermarchus
ANTIPHANES (3rd – 2nd-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
ANTIOCHUS IV EPIPHANES (c. 3rd-century – 164 BCE) king and student to Philonides
ARISTONYMUS (3rd – 2nd-century BCE) a friend of Dionysius
DIOGENES of SELEUCIA (c. 3rd-century – 146 BCE) was put to death by Antiochus VI
HELIODORUS OF ANTIOCH (3rd – 2nd-century BCE) an official of Seleucus IV
ALCAEUS (2nd-century BCE) Sent and expelled from Rome with Philiscus in 154 BCE
CEPHISOPHON (2nd-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
DAMOPHANES (2nd-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
DEMETRIUS I SOTER (c. 185 – 150 BCE) a student to Philonides
EUCRATIDES of RHODES (2nd-century BCE) was known only by his gravestone
HERACLITUS of RHODIAPOLIS (2nd-century BCE) an Athenian physician
IOLAUS OF BITHYNIA (2nd-century BCE) a physician associated with Epicureanism
NICASICRATES of RHODES (2nd-century BCE) called a “dissident” by Philodemus
PHILISCUS (2nd-century BCE) Sent and expelled from Rome with Alcaeus in 154 BCE
PHILONIDES of LAODICEA (c. 200 – 130 BCE) Founded school in Antioch
THESPIS the EPICUREAN (2nd-century BCE) student of Basilides; taught Philodemus
TIMASAGORAS of RHODES (2nd-century BCE) called a “dissident” by Philodemus
ATHENAEUS (2nd – 1st-century BCE) a pupil of Polyaenus of Lampsacus
ATHENAGORAS (2nd – 1st-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
ASCLEPIADES of BITHYNIA (124 – 40 BCE) Physician with atomic drug theory
IRENAEUS OF MILETUS (2nd – 1st-century BCE) a pupil of Demetrius Lacon
PHILODEMUS of GADARA (c. 110 – 30 BCE) manuscripts preserved in Herculaneum
ANTIGENES (1st-century BCE) friend of Philodemus
ANTIPATER (1st-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
APOLLOPHANES of PERGAMUM (1st-century BCE) sent to Rome to teach
BACCHUS (1st-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
BROMIUS (1st-century BCE) peer to Philodemus; Zeno of Sidon’s pupil
DEMETRIUS LACON (1st-century BCE) Founded Milesian school; taught Philodemus
DIOGENES of TARSUS (1st-century BCE) travels with Plutiades of Tarsus
EGNATIUS (1st-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
LYSIAS of TARSUS (1st-century BCE) Tyrant of Tarsus who butchered the wealthy
ORION the EPICUREAN (1st-century BCE) Epicurean “notable” per Laërtius
PLATO OF SARDIS (1st-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
PLUTIADES of TARSUS (1st-century BCE) travels with Diogenes of Tarsus
PTOLEMEUS the BLACK of ALEXANDRIA (1st-century BCE) “notable” per Laërtius
PTOLEMEUS the WHITE of ALEXANDRIA (1st-century BCE) “notable” per Laërtius
TIMAGORAS (1st-century BCE) attested by Cicero
ARTEMIDORUS OF PARIUM (1st-century BCE/CE) fragmentary attestation
ATHENODORUS (1st-century CE) fragmentary attestation
ATHENODORUS OF ATHENS (1st-century CE) fragmentary attestation
AMYNIAS of SAMOS (1st-century CE) only known due to a stone inscription
BOETHUS OF SIDON (1st-century CE) an acquaintance of Plutarch
DIONYSIUS OF RHODES (1st-century CE) a friend of Diogenes of Oenoanda
MENNEAS (1st-century CE) fragmentary attestation
POLLIUS FELIX (1st-century CE) a patron of the poet Statius
THEODORIDAS OF LINDUS (1st-century CE) a friend of Diogenes of Oenoanda
XENOCLES OF DELPHI (1st-century CE) an acquaintance of Plutarch
XENOCRITOS (1st-century CE) known only from a stone inscription
EPICURIUS (1st – 2nd-century CE) a philosopher attested by Plutarch
CELSUS [1] the EPICUREAN (2nd-century CE) a friend of Lucian of Samosata
CELSUS [2] the EPICUREAN (2nd-century CE) a Greek opponent to the Christian church
DIOCLES the EPICUREAN (2nd-century CE) a Greek opponent to the Christian church
DIOGENES of OENOANDA (2nd-century CE) posted teachings on a 205-ft. wall
DIOGENIANUS (2nd-century CE) who wrote a polemic against Chrysippus
HERACLITUS of RHODIAPOLIS (2nd-century CE) known from a stone inscription
LUCIAN OF SAMOSATA (c. 125 – 180 CE) a Syrian satirist
NICERATUS of RHODES (2nd-century CE) a close friend of Diogenes of Oenoanda
PHILIDAS HERACLEONOS of DIDYMA (2nd-century CE) known from a stone inscription
ZENOCRATES THE EPICUREAN (2nd – 3rd-century CE) a hedonist
EXUPERANTIA (3rd – 4th-century CE) the wife of Heraclamon Leonides
HERACLAMON LEONIDES (3rd – 4th-century CE) the husband of Exuperantia

ROMAN AMICI – AMICI – /a’miːkiː / – “Friends” or “Associates”

ANTONIUS (2nd-century BCE) Exchanged views with Galen on medical matters.
GAIUS AMAFINIUS (late 2nd-century BCE) among the first Epicureans to write in Latin
RABIRIUS (late 2nd-century BCE) among the first Epicureans to write in Latin
TITUS ALBUCIUS (late 2nd-century BCE) studied in Athens; passed teachings to Rome
AULUS TORQUATUS (2nd – 1st-century BCE) a relative of L. Manlius
CATIUS INSUBER (c. 2nd-century – 45 BCE) popular Celtic author from Northern Italy
LUCIUS CORNELIUS SISENNA (2nd – 1st-century BCE) a historian
LUCIUS MANLIUS TORQUATUS (2nd-century – 46 BCE) a friend of Cicero
NERO THE EPICUREAN (2nd – 1st-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS (110 – 32 BCE) Close friend of Cicero; wisely apolitical
ANTHIS (1st-century BCE) a freedwoman of Calpurnia Caesaris
AURELIUS OPILIUS (1st-century BCE) Freedman who retired to Mytilene
DION (1st-century BCE) A philosopher for whom Cicero had no regard
LUCIUS AUFIDIUS BASSUS (1st-century BCE) Used philosophy to deal with illness
LUCIUS CORNELIUS BALBUS (1st-century BCE) a friend of Cicero
LUCIUS LUCCESIUS (1st-century BCE) a friend of Cicero
LUCIUS PAPIRIUS PAETUS (1st-century BCE) good friends with Cicero
LUCIUS SAUFEIUS (1st-century BCE) a friend of Cicero and Atticus; seemingly apolitical
LUCIUS VARIUS RUFUS (1st-century BCE) Roman poet and associate of Virgil
MARCUS FADIUS GALLUS (1st-century BCE) a friend of Cicero
MARCUS POMPILIUS ANDRONICUS (1st-century BCE) correspondent with Cicero
MARCUS VALERIUS MESSALLA CORVINUS (1st-century BCE) a friend of Horace
MARIUS the EPICUREAN (1st-century BCE) a friend of Cicero and subject of a text
MATIUS the EPICUREAN (1st-century BCE) a friend of Cicero
PLAUTIUS TUCCA (1st-century BCE) Roman poet and associate of Virgil
PUBLIUS CORNELIUS DOLABELLA (1st-century BCE) Senate declared him an “enemy”
PUBLIUS VOLUMNIUS ETRAPELUS (1st-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
SIRO (1st-century BCE) Pupil of Zeno; taught Virgil; founded the school in Naples
STATILIUS the EPICUREAN (1st-century BCE) a friend of Cicero
TREBIANUS (1st-century BCE) fragmentary attestation
VELLEIUS the EPICUREAN (1st-century BCE) a friend of Cicero
LUCIUS CALPURNIUS PISO CAESONINUS (c. 100 – 43 BCE) friend of Cicero
TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS (99 – 55 BCE) writes De Rerum Natura
GAIUS VIBIUS PANSA CAETRONIANUS (c. 90s – 43 BCE) Friend of Cicero
AULUS HIRTIUS (c. 90 – 43 BCE) a friend of Cicero and former lobbyist against Caesar
GAIUS CASSIUS LONGINUS (86 – 42 BCE) a friend of Cicero
CAIUS TREBATIUS TESTA (84 BCE – 4 CE) a friend of Cicero
CALPURNIA CAESARIS (c. 75 BCE – 00s BCE) Daughter of Piso
PUBLIUS VIRGILIUS MARO (70 – 19 BCE) student of Siro at the Garden of Naples
GAIUS CILNIUS MAECENAS (70 – 8 BCE) political advisor to Octavian/Augustus
QUINTUS HORACE HORATIUS FLACCUS (65 – 8 BCE) Coined carpe diem or “seize the day!”
CAIUS STALLIUS HAURANUS (1st-century BCE – 1st-century CE) a student in Naples
LUCIUS CALPURNIUS PISO PONTIFEX (48 BCE – 32 CE) the son of Piso Caesoninus
PUBLIUS QUINTILIUS VARUS (46 BCE – 9 CE) a general and fellow-student of Virgil
ALEXANDER the EPICUREAN (1st-century CE) who was “fond of learning”
DIODORUS the EPICUREAN (1st-century CE) who allegedly committed suicide
GAIUS PETRONIUS ARBITER (c. 27 – 66 CE) who allegedly committed suicide
MARCUS GAVIUS APICIUS (1st-century CE) a gourmet during Tiberius’ reign
NOMENTANUS (1st-century CE) a Roman Epicurean during Tiberius’ reign
PUBLIUS MANLIUS VOPISCUS (1st-century CE) a patron of the poet Statius
CAIUS ARTORIUS CELER (1st – 2nd-century CE) a philosopher from North Africa
EMPRESS POMPEIA PLOTINA CLAUDIA PHOEBE PISO (c. 68 – 121/2 CE) Trajan‘s widow
MAXIMUS THE EPICUREAN (1st – 2nd-century CE) fragmentary attestation
AURELIUS BELIUS PHILIPPUS (2nd-century CE) Head of Apamean school
DAMIS THE EPICUREAN (2nd-century CE) whose historical personage is poorly attested
PUDENTIANUS (2nd-century CE) Galen wrote a lost work to him
TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS LEPIDUS (2nd-century CE) Founded school in Amastris
EMPEROR LUCIUS SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS (145 – 211 CE) Emperor from 193 to 211
ZENOBIUS (2nd – 3rd-century CE) the target of a book by Alexander of Aphrodisias
PALLADAS of ALEXANDRIA (4th-century CE) the “last known ancient Epicurean”

We have seen that at the beginning of the third century AD, some five centuries after the death of its founder, Epicureanism was still alive both in major centres and in remoter parts of the Graeco-Roman world. It is generally held, however, that its demise lay not far off, that by the middle of the fourth century it would have become a virtually forgotten creed, overwhelmed, along with Stoicism, by the spread of Christianity, fully justifying St. Augustine’s boast that ‘its ashes are so cold that not a single spark can be struck from them‘. (Jones, Epicurean Tradition 94)

MEDIEVAL EPICUREANS:

FREDERICK II, HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR (1194 – 1250) who burns in Dante’s Inferno
FARINATA DEGLI UBERTI (1212 – 1264) a Florentine who burns in Dante’s Inferno
CAVALCANTE DE’ CAVALCANTI (c. 1230 – 1280) who burns in Dante’s Inferno
MANFRED, KING OF SICILY (1232 – 1266) the son of Frederick II
GUIDO CAVALCANTI (c. 1250 – 1300) best friend of Dante and son of Cavalcante

MODERN EPICUREANS AND NEO-EPICUREANS:

LORENZO VALLA (1406 – 1457) wrote On Pleasure and sympathized with Epicurus
ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM (1466 – 1536) a Dutch philosopher and Humanist
LUDOVICO ARIOSTO (1474 – 1533) a poet who employed Epicurean themes
GIOVANNI DI LORENZO DE’ MEDICI, POPE LEO X (1475 – 1521) a Humanist
FRANCESCO GUICCIARDINI (1483 – 1540) of the Italian Renaissance
MICHEL EYQUEM DE MONTAIGNE (1533 – 1592) of the French Renaissance
ELIO DIODATAI (1576 – 1661) a Genevan jurist and supporter of Galileo
FRANÇOIS DE LA MOTHE LE VAYER (1588 – 1672) a writer and friend of Moliére
ISAAC BEECKMAN (1588 – 1637) a Dutch philosopher who advised Gassendi
THÉOPHILE DE VIAU (1590 – 1626) banished from France on charges of immorality
PIERRE GASSENDI (1592 – 1655) tried to reconcile Epicureanism with Christianity
JACQUES VALLÉE, SIEUR DES BARREAUX (1599 – 1673) a French poet
FRANÇOIS LUILLIER (1600 – 1651) known as a practicing Epicurean
GABRIEL NAUDÉ (1600 – 1653) a French librarian and friend of Gassendi
GUILLES DE LAUNAY (c. 1600– 1675) wrote that Epicurus was the ideal natural philosopher
GUI PATIN (1601 – 1672) a French doctor and great friend of Gabriel Naudé
EMMANUEL MAIGNAN (1601 – 1676) a French physicist and Christian Epicurean
JEAN FRANÇOIS SARASIN (1611 – 1654) a French writer and Epicurean devotee
MARION DE LORME (1613 – 1650) a famous French courtesan
CHARLES DE SAINT-ÉVREMOND (1613 – 1703) a follower of Gassendi
FRANÇOIS VI, DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD (1613 – 1680) a French author
ANTOINE MENJOT (c. 1615 – 1696) a French doctor and follower of Gassendi
WALTER CHARLETON (1619 – 1707) a main transmitter of Epicureanism to England
SAVINIEN DE CYRANO DE BERGERAC (1619 – 1655) a French novelist and playwright
FRANÇOIS BERNIER (1620 – 1688) a French physician and follower of Gassendi
NINON DE L’ENCLOS (1620 – 1705) an author who left her inheritance for 9-year-old Voltaire
THOMAS WILLIS (1621 – 1675) an English doctor and contemporary of Charleton
JEAN DE LA FONTAINE (1621 – 1695) a widely-read French poet and fabulist
MARGARET CAVENDISH, DUCHESS (1623 – 1673) an atomist but not a classical Epicurean
MADAME MARIE DE RABUTIN-CHANTAL, MARQUISE DE SÉVIGNÉ (1626 – 1696)
SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE, 1st BARONET (1628 – 1699) an essayist and friend of Wilmot
ANTOINETTE DESHOULIÈRES (1634 – 1655) a French, epicurean poet
GUILLAUME AMFRYE DE CHAULIEU (1639 – 1720) a convinced Epicurean poet
APHRA BEHN (1640 – 1689) an English playwright, poet, writer, and libertine translator
GUILLAUME LAMY (1644 – 1683) a French physician who taught La Mettrie
CHARLES AUGUSTE DE LA FARE (1644 – 1712) a French poet and friend of Chaulieu
JACQUES PARRAIN DES COUTURES (1645 – 1702) who wrote La Morale d’Epicure
JOHN WILMOT, 2nd EARL of ROCHESTER (1647 – 1680) a satirist; friend of Temple
JEAN DE LA CHAPELLE (1651 – 1723) the “father of French epicurean poetry.”
FRANÇOIS COURTIN (1659 – 1739) abbot of Mont-Saint-Quentin by age nineteen
WILLIAM CONGREVE (1670 – 1729) an English playwright of the Restoration Period
BERNARD MANDEVILLE (1670 – 1733) an Anglo-Dutch economist and satirist
CELESTINO GALIANI (1681 – 1753) an Archbishop and “Christian Epicurean”
JULIEN OFFRAY DE LA METTRIE (1709 – 1751) grounded mental processes in the body
FREDERICK II of PRUSSIA (1712 – 1786) also known as “Frederick The Great”
DENIS DIDEROT (1713 – 1784) a French author, social critic, and religious skeptic
CLAUDE ADRIEN HELVÉTIUS (1715 – 1771) a French utilitarian philosopher
PAUL-HENRI THIRY, BARON D’HOLBACH (1723 – 1789) an atheist
THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743 – 1826) the third President of the United States of America
JEREMY BENTHAM (1748 – 1832) an English philosopher and founder Utilitarianism
RICHARD PAYNE KNIGHT (1751 – 1824) an English classical scholar and collector
PIERRE JEAN GEORGES CABANIS (1757 – 1808) a French physiologist and materialist
WILLIAM SHORT (1759 – 1849) an ambassador and friend of Thomas Jefferson
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR (1775 – 1864) an English writer, poet, and activist
CHARLES GREVILLE (1794 – 1865) an English diarist and amateur cricket player
FRANCIS WRIGHT (1795 – 1852) a Scottish-American writer, feminist, and abolitionist
WALT WHITMAN (1819 – 1892) an American poet whose father attended Wright’s lectures
WILLIAM WALLACE (1844 – 1897) a Scottish philosopher inspired by Epicurus
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850 – 1894) an American author (see: Treasure Island)
JEAN-MARIE GUYAU (1854 – 1888) a French author and anarchist who died at the age of 33
HENRY DWIGHT SEDGWICK (1861 – 1957) wrote Memoirs of an Epicurean
CHARLES LEOPOLD MAYER (1881 – 1971) a French biochemist and Liberal
JUN TSUJI (1884 – 1944) a Japanese dadaist, absurdist, poet, essayist and playwright
H. P. LOVECRAFT (1890 – 1927) Cosmicism was inspired by Epicureanism
YAAKOV MALKIN (1926-2019) Rabbi of the Secular Humanist Jewish denomination
JOSÉ MUJICA (1935 – PRESENT) a farmer and 40th President of Uruguay (2010-15)
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS (1949 – 2011) a writer, polemicist and religious critic
HARIS DIMITRIADIS (1952 – PRESENT) writer and promoter of Epicurean philosophy
CASSIUS AMICUS (1958 – PRESENT) a writer and proprietor of New Epicurean 
HIRAM CRESPO (1975 – PRESENT) a writer and founder of SocietyOfEpicurus.com
NATHAN H. BARTMAN (1988 – PRESENT) author of this historical investigation.

FORMER EPICUREANS:

TIMOCRATES of LAMPSACUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) brother of Metrodorus
HERODOTUS of LAMPSACUS (4th – 3rd-century BCE) a friend of Timocrates
METRODORUS of STRATONECIUS (2nd-century BCE) converted to Academic Skepticism
CICERO (106 BCE – 43 BCE) a student of Phaedrus and fierce critic of Epicureanism
SAUL of TARSUS (c. 5 – 65 CE) who is better known as St. Paul the Apostle

EPICUREAN COMMUNITIES:

[Epicurus] philosophy rode this tide. It had reached Alexandria even before his arrival in Athens. By the second century it was flourishing in Antioch and Tarsus, had invaded Judaea, and was known in Babylon. Word of it had reached Rome while Epicurus was still living, and in the last century B.C. it swept over Italy. […] Both Thessalonica and Corinth must have been strongholds of Epicureanism.” (De Witt, Epicurus and His Philosophy 29, 338)

After the third century BCE there were Epicurean centres in Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt: adherents, identified from their cities, came from Tyre, Sidon, Tarsus, and Alexandria. Epicureanism also expanded west. […] The existence of communities in the Naples region is attested by both Horace and Vergil. […] Epicureanism can be attested in a board variety of locations: Herculanem, Sorrento, Rhodes, Cos,Pergamon, Oenoanda (the Lycus valley), Apameia (Syria), Rhodiapolis, and Amastris (Bithynia). Locations like Athens and Oxyrhynchus provide evidence for the preservation fo Epicurean writing, as well as Herculaneum. […] Asia Minor (notably Ephesus, Alexandria, and Syria are all suggested as prime candidates for its location. (King, Epicureanism and the Gospel of John: A Study of Their Comparability 11-13)

It will be worth our while to observe how admirably Epicureanism was equipped for the penetration for Asia. As mentioned already, the branch school at Lampsacus was strategically situated for dissemination of the creed along the coast of the Black Sea. On the west coast of Asia there was another school at Mytilene […] Still further to the south was the original school at Colophon, close to Ephesus. […] The gateway to Asia, however, had been open to the cred of Epicurus for three centuries before Paul’s time and Tarsus was a center of Epicureanism. […] Epicureanism was the court philosophy of Antioch during the reigns of at least two kings of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes and Demetrius Soter. (King, Epicureanism and the Gospel of John: A Study on Their Comparability 62)

In it he attests the widespread Epicurean communities of Athens, and Chalcis and Thebes in Boeotia. […] We meet Epicureans not just in Athens, where they were amongst Paul’s audiences, but we also come across Epicurean communities in the West, in Herculaneum or Sorrento, in the East, on Rhodes and Cos, in Pergamon, Lycian Oinoanda, Syrian Apameia, in remote southern Lycian Rhodiapolis or in Amastris in Bithynia on the Black Sea. (The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism 20, 48)

School at LAMPSACUS (modern Northwestern Turkey) Founded by Epicurus
The GARDEN (O KHΠOΣ) of ATHENS (Central Greece) Founded by Epicurus
Community in CORINTH (Peloponnese peninsula, Greece)
Community in CHALCIS (Euboea island, Greece)
Community in THEBES (Boeotia, Central Greece)
Community in THESSALONIKI (Macedonia region, Greece)
Community in KOS (Southeastern island of Greece)
School at RHODES (Southeastern island of Greece)
School at AMASTRIS (Northern Turkey) Founded by Tiberius Claudius Lepidus
Community in TARSUS (Northwest Turkey)
Community in PERGAMON (Western Turkey)
Community in COLOPHON (Western Turkey)
Community in EPHESUS (Southwestern Turkey)
School at MILETUS (Southwestern Turkey) Founded by Demetrius Laco
Community in OINOANDA (Southwestern Turkey) Supported by Diogenes
Community in RHODIAPOLIS (Southwestern Turkey)
School at ANTIOCH (South-central Turkey) Founded by Philonides
School at APAMEIA (Western Syria) Lead by Aurelius Belius Philippus
Community at SIDON (Lebanon)
Community at TYRE (Lebanon)
Community in ALEXANDRIA (City of Alexander III of Macedon in Egypt)
Community in OXYRHYNCHUS (Southern Egypt)
School at NAPLES (Southwestern Italy) Founded by Siro
Community in HERCULANEUM (Southwestern Italy) Lead by Philodemus
Community in ROME (Western Italy) Inspired by Albucius

Greek Philoi:

“Epicurus, son of Neocles and Chaerestrate, was an Athenian […] he took up philosophy at the age of fourteen. […] Epicurus was joined in his philosophical pursuits, at his urging, by his three brothers—Neocles, Chaeredemus, and Aristobulus—as Philodemus the Epicurean [110 BCE – 30 BCE] says in the tenth book of his collection On Philosophers […] (Diogenes Laërtius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 492-493.)

“Timocrates, the brother of Metrodorus, who studied with Epicurus and then left his school, says […] that other courtesans consorted both with [Epicurus] and with Metrodorus, including Mammarion, Hedia, Erotion, and Nicidion (Ibid. 494-495.)

“[Timocrates] withdrew in anger and returned home to take service under Lysimachus in Lampsacus [a ruler to whom Epicurus owed money]. There he joined up with the other deserter Herodotus, whose feelings may have been similarly hurt, and began a campaign of pamphleteering with a view of stirring up trouble for Epicurus among the Athenians […] Two desertions are on record from this early group of adherents, an occurrence notoriously rare in the camp of Epicurus. One was that of Timocrates, the unpredictable brother of the capable Metrodorus […] The other deserter was Herodotus, who made common cause with the spiteful Timocrates and discovered specious grounds for impugning the genuineness of the loyalty of Epicurus to Athens” (De Witt, Epicurus and His Philosophy 54, 82-83).

“Metrodorus tells us how even Timocrates [harmed] the eldest of his brother Mentorides.” (Philodemus, On Angercol. XII.7-8)

“ … Metrodorus of Stratoniceus, defected to Carneades [the head of the skeptical Platonist Academy], perhaps because he found Epicurus’ incomparable goodness oppressive ….” (Diogenes Laërtius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 497)

“There also appears to have been both slaves and women in Epicurus’s schools. Gilles Ménage lists three female Epicureans: Themisto, Leontium, and Theophilia.” (Allen, The Adoption of Aristotelian and Platonic Concepts 133)

“The oversight of these [publishing concerns] would undoubtedly have fallen to the talented slave whose name was Mys. […] He was rewarded by freedom at the master’s death, and tradition reports him as a philosopher in his own right” (De Witt, Epicurus and His Philosophy 95).

“The hetairai Boidion, Leontion, Hedeia, Nikidion, Mammarion, Demelata, Erotion, and Philainis were connected with the school. Metrodorus’ sister Batis married Idomeneus […] Leonteus married Themista […] We know that Metrodorus and Polyainos were married and had children….” (Frischer, The Sculpted World, Epicureanism and Philosophical Recruitment in Ancient Greece 62)

“Epicurus had many students, and among the most distinguished was Metrodorus of Lampsacus […] Such was his character that he gave his sister Batis in marriage to Idomeneus, and took the courtesan Leontion of Athens as his concubine. […] Epicurus also had as a student […] Timocrates, Metrodorus‘ shiftless brother.” (Laërtius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 501)

“Preserved in the collection at Herculaneum is a fragment of an essay by one Carneiscus, a contemporary of Epicurus, that discusses the proper attitude toward the death of a friend. The work derives its title from Carneiscus‘ fellow-Epicurean Philistas (appropriately named), who manifests the right outlook and demeanor.” (Konstan, Friendship in the Classical World 109)

“Among the Herculaneum remains there is a letter of Epicurus to a little child, who may possibly be this daughter of Metrodorus. The letter runs thus: ‘We came to Lampsacus, Pythocles, Hermarchus, Ctesippus, and myself, and we are quit well. We found there Themista and our other friends, and they are quite well.” (Courtney, Studies in Philosophy: Ancient and Modern 32)

“Epicurus promised Menoeceus that if we develop a firm identity and conviction in our naturalist faith, we would live as gods among mortals.” (Crespo, Tending the Epicurean Garden)

“‘Let them also take care of Nicanor, as I [Epicurus] have always done, so that no members of the school who have been helpful to me in private life and shown me every kindness and chosen to grow old with me in philosophy may lack the necessities, so far as my means allow.” (Diogenes Laërtius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 500)

“There was also Polyaenus of Lampsacus […] and Epicurus‘ successor, Hermarchus […] There is also Leonteus of Lampsacus and his wife, Themista, with whom Epicurus corresponded; and Colotes and Idomeneus, both from Lampsacus. All of these were well-regarded, as was Polystratus, who succeeded Hermarchus. (Polystratus was succeeded by Dionysius, and Dionysius by Basilides.) Apollodorus, the ‘tyrant of the Garden,’ was also distinguished […] and the two Ptolemies from Alexandria: the Black and the White; and Zeno of Sidon, a student of Apollodorus, a prolific writer, and Demetrius, who was called the Laconian, and Diogenes of Tarsus who compiled The Selected Letters; and Orion and others whom the genuine Epicureans call ‘sophists.’” (Ibid. 502.)

“ … particularly influential contemporary of Zeno in the Garden, who, however, did not become school head, wasDemetrius of Laconia who also set up school at or near Miletus” (The Cambridge Companion To Epicureanism 32-34).

“Of Epicurean scholars in the city [of Alexandria] we have the names of only two, Ptolemaeus the White and Ptolemaeus the Black, which may mean that the former was Greek and the second a native” (De Witt, Epicurus and His Philosophy 340).

“[M]embers and followers of the Athenian Garden found themselves more than once in conflict with the very independent Epicurean community at Rhodes, each group invoking Epicurean scripture in its own support and each ready to condemn the other as unfaithful to the canonical teachings.” (Sedley, Epicurean Theories of Knowledge From Hermarchus To Lucretius and Philodemus)

“Cicero’s first systemic lessons in philosophy were given him by the Epicurean Phaedrus, then at Rome because of the unsettled state of Athens. […] The pupil seems to have been converted at once to the tenets of the master. Phaedrusremained to the end of his life a friend of Cicero, who speaks warmly in praise of his teacher’s amiable disposition and refined style. […] Cicero abandoned Epicureanism, but his schoolfellow, T. Pomponius Atticus received more lasting impressions from the teaching of Phaedrus. […] Atticus and his friend became acquainted with Patro, who succeeded Phaedrus as head of the Epicurean school.” (Reid, M. Tulli Ciceronis Academica 1)

“In A.D. 121 the then incumbent, Popillius Theotimus, appealed to Plotina, widow of the emperor Trajan and a devoted adherent, to intercede with Hadrian for relief from a requirement that the head should be a Roman citizen … ”(De Witt, Epicurus and His Philosophy 332)

“[Emperor Hadrian’s] letter is followed by a document which begins with the name (in the dative) Heliodorus, who, whether or not he was the new head of the school, was clearly an Epicurean.” (Birley, Hadrian: The Restless Emperor182)

“I [Epicurus] call you blessed, Apelles, [3rd-century BCE] because you have set out for philosophy undefiled by any paideia.” (Athenaeus, Deipnosophists)

“Furthermore, Autodorus the Epicurean [3rd-century BCE] criticizes him in a polemic against his tract Of Justice.” (Diogenes Laërtius, On the Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, Book V 92)

“Antidorus: It is unclear which Antidorus Diogenes is referencing. […] Diogenes also tells us that a certainAntidorus the Epicurean [3rd-century BCE] wrote a work against Heraclides.” (Diogenes Laërtius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 256)

“How should we regard, for instance, the Epicurean Diogenes of Seleucia, who long enjoyed the king’s favor in spite of his offensive behavior, until he was finally executed (Ath. 5.211a-d)?” (Oxford Handbook of Epicurus and Epicureanism 303)

“The talented physician Erasistratus of Antioch [3rd-century BCE] and Alexandria, an atomist, if not certainly an Epicurean, had proposed the theory that the air [atmosphere] breathed into the lungs was transformed by the heart into the vital breath, pneuma, Latin spiritus, and these words became regular designations for the immortal part of man [to Christians]. […] the brilliant physician Erasistratus, at least an atomist, if not an Epicurean” (De Witt, Epicurus and His Philosophy 259).

“There is also the inscription honoring the Epicurean Eucratides of Rhodes […] From Rhodiapolis comes the inscription honoring the physician and philosopher Heraclitus—if not an Epicurean at least connected with the Epicureans of Athens” (Clay, Paradosis and Survival 235)

“The fragmentary nature of the text makes it difficult to ascertain whether Euphronius is meant to be an early Epicurean or Aelian’s contemporary.” (Gordon, The Invention and Gendering of Epicurus 156)

“Proclus solves a problem in the Platonic theory of prayer which had already been pointed out by the Epicurean Hermocrates [3rd-century BCE] – does one have to pray to be able to pray properly? – by using Epicurean ideas of prayer as meditation, when the good is not a result generated from outside, but consists in the act of the prayer itself and, consequently, in looking after the self.” (The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism 60)

“A senatus consultum decreed the ejection of two Epicurean philosophers, Alcaeus and Philiscus. […] The texts indicate that Alcaeus and Philiscus were removed because they introduced unnatural pleasures to the young. The charge may derive from a source hostile to Epicureanism which added the motive because of the negative stereotype attached to the school, rather than from the actual wording of the senatus consultum.” (Gruen, Studies in Greek culture and Roman policy 177)

“The gateway to Asia, however, had been open to the creed of Epicurus for three centuries before Paul’s time and Tarsus was a center of Epicureanism. In the second century B.C. a renegade Epicurean [Lysias of Tarsus] had made himself a tyrant of the city and ruled it for a time. In the same century a famous Epicurean philosopher named Diogeneshad flourished there; his writings on the doctrines of Epicurus were in circulation for centuries. Meanwhile, Epicureanism was the court philosophy at Antioch during the reigns of at least two kings of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes and Demetrius Soter.” (De Witt, St. Paul and Epicurus 62)

“[A]t Tarsus an Epicurean philosopher who had become the tyrant of that city, Lysias by name; who having been created by his countrymen Stephanephorus, that is to say, the priest of Heracles, did not lay down his command, but seized on the tyranny. He put on a purple tunic with a white centre, and over that he wore a very superb and costly cloak, and he put on white Lacedaemonian sandals, and assumed also a crown of golden laurel leaves. And he distributed the property of the rich among the poor, and put many to death who did not surrender their property willingly.” (Deipnosophists, Book V)

“With Thespis [2nd-century BCE], another Epicurean, he played a role in an argument concerning the subject of anger, both of them [with Philonides] taking a position against Nicasicrates and Timasagoras.” (Oxford Handbook of Epicurus and Epicureanism 22)

“An inference similar to the one made by Velleius can be found in a discussion by Demetrius Laco about the forms of the gods […] as well as in Zeno of Sidon’s discussion on inference from analogy as quoted by Philodemus in On Signs[…] Of greatest relevance is a section of the treatise that quotes notes from Zeno’s lectures taken by Philodemus‘ fellow student Bromius ….” (Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition 141)

“Among the other philosophers from Tarsus […] are Plutiades [1st-century BCE] and Diogenes, who were among those philosophers that went round from city to city and conducted schools in an able manner.” (Strabo, Geography 14.5.15)

“The first and most dogged sees Asclepiades as a medical atomist, and the corpuscular hypothesis as an adaptation of Epicurean atomism.” (Vallance, The Lost Theory of Asclepiades of Bithynia 10)

“According to Seneca, an Epicurean philosopher named Diodorus who committed suicide in the mid-first century CE chose as his last words the penultimate declaration of Virgil’s Dido […] (‘I have lived, and I have run the course that fortune granted,’ Aen. 4.653). Diodorus the Epicurean is otherwise unknown, and it is difficult to appraise Seneca’s claim that Diodorus quoted Dido before slitting his own throat.” (Gordon, The Invention and Gendering of Epicurus68)

“The evidences from the second century are remarkable. Parallel to the previous refutation of the Epicurean Diocles by the Peripatetic Sotion we find the Christian Origen of Caesarea refuting the Roman Epicurean Celsus […] Celsus was the attacker.” (De Witt, Epicurus and His Philosophy 349)

“An Epicurean named Xenocles, for example, weighs in on the salubriousness of fruit, as opposed to elaborate dishes (635b-c). Alexander the Epicurean is ‘accomplished and fond of learning’ […] whereas Plutarch, who is avoiding eggs because of a dream about them, drolly presents himself in that dialogue as superstitious. The mild Boethus [1st-century CE], an Epicurean and mathematician who appears in Table Talk as well as in Why the Pythia No Longer Delivers Oracles in Verse, is never pilloried, though it is possible that we should regard him as the recipient of ‘incidental polemic’” (Gordon, The Invention and Gendering of Epicurus 157)

“Xenocritos […] son of Aresteas, who is listed with the title ‘Epicurean philosopher’ among the molpoi who made a votive dedication for the health of the archiereus G. Julius Apollonides, son of Gaius, on the island of Amorgos.” (Ahlholm, Philosophers in Stone: Philosophy and Self-Representation in Epigraphy of the Roman Empire 72)

“Little is known of the Epicurean Diogenianus. He likely flourished in the second century AD; Eusebius preserves what is known of his works. For criticism of the pagan belief in oracles Eusebius quotes from Diogenianus‘ attack on Chrysippus’ doctrine of Fate ….” (Carriker, The Library of Eusebius of Caesarea 89)

“Throughout Lucian’s work, the classic enemies of the Epicureans – the Platonists, the Stoics, the Academics, and others – are the prime targets of his biting words. But Epicurus himself is never treated with less than courtesy, and rarely if ever is the later Epicurean a target of derision. In general, Lucian refers to Epicurus in tones that can only be described as reverential …” (Amicus, Lion of Epicurus – Lucian and His Epicurean Passages 1)

“The new investigations at Oenoanda initiated by Smith in 1968 have led to the discovery of two new letters from Diogenes‘ epistolary: a letter to Dionysius of Rhodes […] and a long letter Diogenes [of Oenoanda] addressed to his associates in Rhodes concerning an Epicurean by the name of Niceratus.” (Clay, Paradosis and Survival: Three Chapters in the History of Epicurean Philosophy 241)

“A third case of an Epicurean priest comes from Miletos. Those who held the year-long post of prophet in charge of Apollo’s sanctuary at Didyma often ended their year by setting up an inscription documenting their role, and one of these involves Philidas, an Epicurean philosopher …” (Harland, North Coast of the Black Sea, Asia Minor)

“In Alciphron’s Letters of Parasites, the philosopher guests at a birthday feast exhibit the typecast appearances appropriate to each school. The Stoic is grubby, with scraggly beard and unkempt hair. But the Epicurean (a man namedZenocrates [2nd-century CE]), who relies on his full beard to affect a solemn air, is ‘not neglectful of his locks. The well-coifed Epicurean stares at the harp girl with a melting, lascivious look through half-closed eyes and publicly takes her into his arms.'” (Gordon, The Invention and Gendering of Epicurus 159)

“‘Zenocrates the Epicurean took the girl harpist in his balm, the quintessence of pleasure.’” (The Philosophy of Epicurus 247)

“This is all the life there is.
It is good enough for me.
Worry won’t make another,
Or make this one last longer.
The flesh of man wastes in time.
Today there’s wine and dancing.
Today there’s flowers and women.
We might as well enjoy them.
Tomorrow — nobody knows” by Palladas of Alexandria
(Rexroth, Poems from the Greek Anthology)

Latin Amici:

“It is impossible to say precisely when Epicureanism appeared at Rome. […] an obscure statement tells us, two Epicureans, Alcius and Philiscus, were expelled from Rome on the ground of immoral influence on the young. […] The earliest expositor of Epicurean in Latin was a person called Amafinius […] A host of writers sprang up in his train, and, in the words of Cicero, took possession of all Italy. But the only names recorded in literature are those of Rabirius, and Catius the Insubrian. […] There are other indications of the progress of Epicureanism at this epoch. A professor of Greek, Pompilius Andronicus, by birth a Syrian, who must have been contemporary with Lucretius, spoiled his chances as a teacher of literature by his devotion to Epicureanism. […] Amongst the circle of Cicero’sfriends there were many Epicureans — more perhaps than members of any other sect. Atticus, a wealthy, cultured, and kingly man, who steered clear of politics, stands first in the list: and with him one may join Verrius, Saufeius, PapiriusPætus, Trebatius Pansa, and Cassius, one of the assassins of Cæser. […] Phædrus, an illustrious member of the sect, contemporary with Zeno fo Sidon, its head for the time, had found his way to Rome, and about the year 90 B.C. Gave young Cicero his first philosophical lessons. […] Patro, who was now the head of the sect, wrote to Cicero […] Philodemus, another Epicurean writer of the Ciceronian epoch …” (Wallace, Epicureanism 250-255)

“Amafinius was the oldest confirmed Roman Epicurean author, and Gaius Memmius was the dedicatee of the De rerum natura. Servius’s treatment of the Eclogues, and the Georgies passage, so often read as Epicurean, justifies adding Virgil to the list. Cicero’s Epicurean friends Atticus, Cassius, and Lucus Papirius Paetus are also logical choices, as is Lucius Torquatus, the Epicurean interlocutor from the De finibus.” (Palmer, Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance 151)

“Appius and Lucius Saufeius were also known Epicureans who had studied in Athens under Phaedrus. The production of the works of Rabirius, Amafinius, and Catius suggests that Epicureanism was beginning to spread among non-Greek-speaking Romans.” (Montarese, Lucretius and His Sources: A Study of Lucretius, “De Rerum Natura” I 635-920 8)

“In the case of Siro, Philodemus, and Amafinius the supply of biographical testimony is not generous, but it is sufficient to enable us to assign them their relative places in the context of current Epicurean activity. What is lacking, at least for Siro and Amafinius, is a record of their actual teachings. With Lucretius the situation is quite the reverse. The De rerum natura present a complete record of his philosophical output.” (Jones, Epicurean Tradition 70)

“Toward the end of the century the fiery Lucilius was satirizing Titus Albucius, whom Cicero dubbed ‘a perfect Epicurean’ […] by measures taken in 92 B.C. the school of one Aurelius Opilius, freedman of a noble Epicurean, was forced to close along with the others. […] Of distinguished family also was Statilius Taurus, mentioned by Plutarch as excluded from the conspiracy against Caesar, which was headed by Cassius, both of them known to have professed the creed […] Little is known of Velleius, whom Cicero chose to be a spokesman for Epicureanism in his Book On the Nature of the Gods; he may have pursued his studies in Athens. Atticus certainly chose that city as a fit place in which to practice that Epicurean political neutrality by which he won a singular fame. Among Epicureans who pursued a similar course at home were Cicero’s friends Marius and Matius. […] Matius, a loyal Epicurean friend who defied both the assassins and their sympathizers after the tragic Ides of March” (De Witt, Epicurus and His Philosophy 342-343).

“Moreover, there is external evidence found mainly in the exposition of Torquatus, the Epicurean spokesman in the first and the second books of Cicero’s De finibus. Torquatus‘ account derives either from Philodemus‘ own writings or from some other source of which Philodemus would approve.” (Tsouna-McKirahan, The Ethics of Philodemus 14)

“A few adherents of this philosophy were not in the party of Cæsar, and among these may be mentioned Lucius Manlius Torquatus […] Aulus Torquatus, a man of the same high character, was, we may infer, of the same sect, from the Epicurean tone of the consolation which Cicero addressed to him in exile. Saufeius, the intimate friend of Atticus, seems also to have been of good repute.” (Jerome, Aspects of the Study of Roman History 234)

“On the other hand, Cicero, addressing and no doubt gently needling his friend Marcus Fabius Gallus, an Epicurean, conjures up a decidedly less heroic …” (Dynamic Reading: Studies in the Reception of Epicureanism 42)

“In the late first century A.D., after the villa and library of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus had been overwhelmed by the eruption of Vesuvius, the local aristocrat, Pollius Felix, practiced his Epicurean philosophy in his magnificent villa at Surrentum (Sorrento).” (Armstrong, Vergil, Philodemus, and the Augustans 32)

“Cicero had mentioned the excellent character and record of Pansa […] As Cicero acknowledges, Pansa happened to be an Epicurean.” (Gordon, The Invention and Gendering of Epicurus 131)

“Against those Epicureans who supported Caesar […] L. Piso Caesoninus and Philodemus […] C. Vibius Pansa […] and A. Hirtius, consuls in 43 BC, P. Cornelius Colabella […] the jurist C. Trebatius Testa […] P. Volumnius Eutrapelus […] and C. Matius […] must be set others who opposition to Caesar is confirmed […] L. Manlius Torquatus, consul in 65 BC, Aulus Torquatus […] L. Papirius Paetus […] M. Fadius Gallus […] Trebianus […] and Statilius […] For a good many (L. Varius Rufus, T. Pomponius Atticus, Valerius Messalla), including some who had been moderately pro-Caesar (Piso Caesoninus, Hirtius, Pansa, Trebatius Testa, Matius), declared themselves not against the liberators but against Antony and the triumvirs. Just as the tyrannicide Gaius Cassiushimself had turned Epicurean in 46 BC ‘not to enjoy the hortulus, but to reach quickly the conclusion that the tyrant had to be eliminated …” (Jones, Epicurean Tradition)

“Piso’s daughter, Calpurnia Caesaris (born ca. 75), was an Epicurean, and so probably was her much younger half-brother L. Calpurnius Piso Pontifex (48 BCE—32 CE)…” (Philodemus, On Anger 7-8)

“In epigram 27 Sider, Philodemus‘ patron Piso […] is asked to grace a dinner of Epicurean philosophers who rank as his [companions] on the 20th, the day of Epicurus’ birthday, and a favorite day for the school’s feasts. ( Piso’s daughter Calpurnia, Julius Caesar’s wife, had an Epicurean freedwoman Anthis who named her own son Ikadion, ‘Mr. 20^th.)” (The Philosophizing Muse: The Influence of Greek Philosophy on Roman Poetry 93)

“The influence is marked by the new vogue of the word candor and the adjective candid. Horace was resorting to this new terminology when he declared that Earth had never produced ‘whiter souls’ than Virgil, Plotius, and Varius[Rufus], a trio still Epicurean […] Horace ascribed to the Epicurean Quintilius Varus, the kind but unsparing critic” (De Witt, Epicurus and His Philosophy 302)

“Avallone (1962, 60) writes that Maecenas was Epicurean; André (1967) believes that he was Epicurean, but not totally committed to the philosophy; Le Doze (2014) considers him to be an Epicurean, not a true Epicurean, but a Roman version of one.” (Mountford, Maecenas)

“Horace’s Satires owe debts of influence to a wide range of genres and authors, including […] the moral tradition of Epicureanism.” (Yona, Epicurean Ethics in Horace: The Psychology of Satire)

“In Letter 30, he [Seneca] recounts a conversation with an elderly Epicurean named Aufidius Bassus, who he says is facing the approach of death with enviable tranquility.” (Mitsis, Oxford Handbook of Epicurus and Epicureanism 501)

“Along with caution and control goes the active hope of good things to come, as exemplified by the words of Cicero to the merry Epicurean Papirius Paetus: ‘You, however, as your philosophy teaches, will feel bound to hope for the best, contemplate the worst, and endure whatever shall come’” (De Witt, Epicurus and His Philosophy 316).

“One writer by the name of Marcus Pompilius Andronicus was more interested in his Epicurean sect than in giving special attention to matters of grammar in his writing.” (McDonald, The Biblical Canon: Its Origin, Transmission, and Authority)

“In the first century of the Empire the heroism of suicide among the aristocracy in opposition to the despotism of the Caesars became associated with Stoicism, but the most dramatic of the death scenes described by Tacitus is that of the Epicurean Petronius …” (Epicurus and His Philosophy 344).

“If we are to believe Cicero and Seneca, the image projected onto the Epicureans by detractors influenced the self-fashioning of later Epicureans like Apicius, Nomentanus, and Piso, who misunderstood what Epicurus meant by pleasure” (The Invention and Gendering of Epicurus 11)

“Pollius Felix is an Epicurean (113), like Manlius Vopiscus of I 3 and Septimius Severus of IV 5.” Stace, P. Papinius Statius, Silvae Book II: A Commentary)

“More direct evidence comes from an Epicurean character from Apamea, recorded in an inscription made by Aurelius Belius Philippus [2nd-century CE].” (King, Epicureanism and the Gospel of John: A Study of Their Compatibility 18)

“Also, Alexander refused responses to anyone from Amastris in Pontus because an important citizen of that city, Lepidus, was an Epicurean with many followers.” (Gordon, Epicurus in Lycia: The Second-century World of Diogenes of Oenoanda 114)

“These lines encourage Vessey […] to label Septimius Severus an Epicurean. Plausible enough.” (Birley, Septimius Severus: The African Emperor 233)

“[Paul of Tarsus] was a Jew by birth, by early education an Epicurean, and by conversion a Christian” (De Witt, St. Paul and Epicurus 168)

“Yet [Paul’s] youthful allegiance to the creed of Epicurus so far prevails over the convictions of his mature age that he finds it quite easy to write ‘according to nature’ and ‘contrary to nature’ and in First Corinthians 11:14 actually recognizes the principle he elsewhere repudiates: ‘Does not Nature herself teach you?’ This phraseology is foreign to the New Testament except in his Epistles. In spite of himself he shares the Epicurean slant of the public mind of the time.” (De Witt, St. Paul and Epicurus 171)

“… Paul, who in his impressionable youth had been captivated buy the siren voices of Epicurus […] When [Paul] wrote, ‘All things are lawful,’ asserting his liberty of choice, it was the ex-Epicurean who spoke.” (De Witt, St. Paul and Epicurus 176-177)

“The affinity of Paul‘s teachings to those of Epicurus will become still more clear for us if we glance at the topics of fame, power, and riches, especially the last.” (De Witt, St. Paul and Epicurus 179)

The Dark Ages:

“‘Praise be the Gods,’ exclaims the Emperor Julian, ‘for having annihilated Epicurean doctrine so completely that its books even are grown scarce.’ Naturally, in the closing struggle between paganism and Christianity, a system like Epicureanism was out of place. The only philosophy in which dying polytheism could hope to find comfort was the spiritualist doctrine of Neo-Platonism. […] From the third to the seventeenth century, Epicureanism was dormant as a system. The name, however, still survived as a stigma.” (Wallace, Epicureanism 258-260)

“… a few lines by the emperor Julian (c. 331–363), written in approximately the same period and concerning the most appropriate readings for a priest, cast a clear light on the decline that the school had already undergone at the time: Let us not admit discourses by Epicureans […] though indeed the gods have already in their wisdom destroyed their works, so that most of their books are no longer available.” (Floridi, Sextus Empiricus: The Transmission of Recovery of Pyrrhonism 13)

“[B]y the middle of the fourth century [Epicureanism] would have become a virtually forgotten creed, overwhelmed, […] by the spread of Christianity, fully justifying St. Augustine’s boast that ‘its ashes are so cold that not a single spark can be struck from them.’” (Jones, Epicurean Tradition 94)

“In the Middle Ages […] Epicurus is represented in company with Sardanapalus, an infamous oriental voluptuary. It matter little that this charge was false.” (De Witt, St. Paul and Epicurus 22-23)

“With the rise of Christianity, Epicureanism went into decline. In the medieval period, the two primary sources of philosophical inspiration were Plato and Aristotle. The little attention that Epicurus received was usually in the service of criticizing atheistic materialism. However, Epicurean atomism was revived in the seventeenth century. […] Unsurprisingly, Christians by and large were inimical to Epicurus, and even though he was a voluminous author, few of his writing survived the Middle Ages.” (O’Keefe, Epicureanism 5-7)

“Outside of strictly Christian circles the tradition of ancient philosophy shrank to a trickle but never quite perished. […] The trickle of the literary tradition was of course confined to the Byzantine region of Europe until the revival of learning int he West. On the other hand, the repudiation of Epicurus as a sensualist did not depend upon knowledge of Greek. […] In spite of Christian hostility, however, it need not be inferred that the loss of Epicurean writings was due to deliberate destruction.” (De Witt, Epicurus and His Philosophy 354-355)

Medieval Amici and Vriunt:

“The Emperor Frederick II (1194-1250) is in the circle of the Heretics because of the commonly held belief that he was an Epicurean.” (Alighieri, Dante’s Inferno 88)

“He [Farinata degli Uberti] was of the opinion of Epicurus, that the soul dies with the body, and maintained that human happiness consisted in temporal pleasures; but he did not follow these in the way that Epicurus did, that is by making long fasts to have afterwards pleasure in eating dry bread; but was fond of good and delicate viands, and ate them without waiting to be hungry; and for this sin he is damned as a Heretic in this place.” (Boccaccio, Expositions on Dante’s Comedy)

“And, again, speaking of Manfred [son of Frederick II], Villani says:—“His life was Epicurean, not believing in God or the saints, but only in corporeal delight. […] The great Epicurean of the time, in some of its good, as well as its bad senses, was the free-thinking and free-living emperor Frederick II, of whom Gregory IX wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, that he held it wrong for a man to believe anything which he could not prove by the force and reason of nature.” (Wallace, Epicureanism 261)

“Through Manfred, the converted Epicurean, Dante may therefore highlight his polemic against those of his ‘Epicurean’ intellectual contemporaries who refused to believe in the gospel of miracles […] The Epicurean excommunicate Manfred …” (Corbett, Dante and Epicurus: A Dualistic Vision of Secular and Spiritual Fulfillment)

“In line with Cicero’s treatment in De finibus, Dante elects the noble Roman Torquatus as the advocate for Epicureanism in his prose works, the Convivio and the Monarchia. Aside from the pagan Torquatus, Dante identifies four thirteenth-century magnates as ‘disciples’ of Epicurus in Inferno X: the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, the influential Ghibelline Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, and the Florentine statesmen Farinata and Cavalcante dei Cavalcanti. To this list we may add Guido Cavalcanti who is indirectly associated with Epicureanism and named in the canto.” (Corbett, Dante and Epicurus: A Dualistic Vision of Secular and Spiritual Fulfillment)

Modern Friends, Amici, Amis, Vrienden, and 友達:

“Three centuries later the scene has changed. Lorenzo Valla (c. 1406-1457), one of the greatest figures of the early Italian Renaissance, ventures to write a work On Pleasure in which he contrasts the Stoics with the Epicureans and declares his sympathy with the latter. That was in 1431. […] Soon after, Montaigne (1533-92) everywhere throughout his Essays, and Bruno (1548-1600) in his Degli Eroici Furori, avow themselves champions of Epicurus’s doctrine of pleasure.” (The Faith of Epicurus 149)

“In one of his first writings, the De Contemptu Mundi of the 1480s, Erasmus appropriated Epicurean doctrine. He praised the Epicurean retreat from the world, politics, and marriage […] Erasmus never accepted the ascetic principle of self-denial. Instead, he openly praised the Epicurean stress on modest pleasures, telling the dedicatee that ‘indeed, the whole rationale (ratioI) of our life is Epicurean!’” (Monfasani, Renaissance Humanist, from the Middle Ages to Modern Times)

“… the first two great Epicureans of the Renaissance were Michel de Montaigne (1533-92) in France and Francesco Guicciardini (1483-1540) in Italy. Epicurean in everything, as man and as poet, was the early classicist Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533). But not until the French abbot Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655) was the system of Epicurus to rise again in its entirety—this time, however, by approaching truth through faith.” (Thinkers and Theories in Ethics 31)

“The glory of the Holy See under the highly educated humanist and Epicurean Leo X knew few limits.” (Hagan, What Great Paintings Say 118)

“The Epicurean critique of religion, combined with the Epicurean accounts of the self-formation of the cosmos and the spontaneous emergence of living forms on earth, had a significant impact on European philosophy of the 17th and 18th centuries. […] there was a decided attempt at this time to articulate the notion of a creator God of infinite power whose responsibility for the world is exhausted in the initial instantaneous act of creation […] a challenging task set for philosophers by a Pope with definite Epicurean leanings, Leo X.” (Wilson, Epicureanism: A Very Short Introduction)

“Desbarreaux, La Fare, Chaulieu, Chapelle, Dehenault, and Mme Deshoulières […] La Fontaine […] It is justifiable to refer to them as a school of Epicurean poets; a network of correspondaence in prose and verse links them together.” (Spink, French Free-Thought from Gassendi to Voltaire 152)

“Pascal condemns Des Barreaux’s Epicurean thought and audacious behavior. The libertine Des Barreaux, like Théophile de Viau before him […] Epicurean libertines, like Des Barreaux …” (Boitano, The Polemics of Libertine Conversion in Pascal’s Pensées 119)

“The work was preceded by a prefatory letter to François Luillier (c. 1600—51) who was something of a Maecenas and had the reputation of being a practicing Epicurean in ordinary life.” (Spink, French Free-Thought from Gassendi to Voltaire 138)

“Parisian Epicureans of the early seventeenth century included Gabriel Naudé, Elio Diodatai and François de la Mothe le Vayer, and, on the periphery, the storywriter Cyrano de Bergerac, and the playwright Moliére.” (The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism 268)

“The general view of Cyrano [de Bergerac] that he was a disciple of Gassendi, may require no correction, but he went far beyond Gassendi in the daring of his Epicurean naturalism.” (Kors, Epicureans and Atheists in France, 1650-172973)

“Gilles de Launay, a professor of philosophy and historiographe du roi, began his Introduction a la philosophie, […] by invoking Epicurus as the ideal model of the natural philosopher. […] He was what all philosophers should aspire to be: He had ‘withdrawn from commerce with the world,’ seeking a happiness of the mind that was ‘very pure and very innocent.’ He was ‘this great genius of Greece . . . [and] the great master of ethics.’” (Kors, Epicureans and Atheists in France, 1650-1729 59)

“Epicureanism resurged at different times, though usually with regard to this or that particular aspect of its doctrines. A fuller resurgence, which some have called neo-Epicureanism, took place in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its most notable representatives were the French philosophers Claude Gillermet de Bérigard (CE 1578–1663), Emmanual Maignan (CE 1601–76), and Pierre Gassendi (CE 1592–1655), who advocated a fuller version of Epicureanism than the others.” (Iannone, Dictionary of World Philosophy 175)

“In this, [Gassendi] was followed by Saint-Evremond, by Sarasin, and by a whole long line of epicurean poets—Dehénault, Mme Deshoulières, La Fare, and Chaulier—which in fact extended from Théophile de Viau to Chaulieu and thence to Voltaire.” (Wade, Intellectual Origins of the French Enlightenment 229)

“The Epicureanism of the likes of Ninon de Lenclos, Marion de Lorme, the Marquis de Sévigné and the La Fares, the Chaulieus, the Saint-Evremonds, in short, of the whole of that delightful company of souls […] their Epicureanism, I say, somewhat altered the tone of fiction.” (de Sade, The Crimes of Love: Heroic and Tragic Tales, Preceded by an Essay on Novels 305)

“Théophile is thus a perfect Epicurean by birth and by principle, an Epicurean in the diversity and the brevity of his enjoyments, an Epicurean in the prudent and wise administration of his pleasures.” (Hallays, The Spell of the Heart of France 165)

“Thus, if our melancholy Epicurean [Jean Dehénault] has left few traces of his literary talents, he has at least the somewhat remarkable distinction of having written a piece of prose which passed as the word of Saint-Évremond, and perhaps a play which men of taste have thought was Molière’s.” (Aldington, Literary Studies and Reviews 97)

“The poet Jean-François Sarasin, in a ‘Discours de morale’ devoted to Epicurus […] attributed the fact that ‘Epicurus fell into public hatred’ to the ignorance, prejudice, and hasty verdict of his judges (Kors, Epicureans and Atheists in France, 1650-1729 10)

“Montaigne writes with the mellowed and kindly cynicism of an Epicurean sage. […] The most conspicuous of these efforts [to rehabilitate Epicureanism] was the exposition and adaptation of the Epicurean system by Pierre Gassendi(1592-1655). […] The lighter graces and easy-going morality of Epicureanism found a skillful advocate in St. Evremond, whose letters to the modern Leontion, as he calls Ninon de l’Enclose, give what we may style the French-novel version of the liaison between Epicurus and his lady disciple.” (Wallace, Epicureanism 263-264)

“Similarly, the ostensibly fideistic Antoine Menjot, in his Opusculus post humes (1697), urged his readers to see Epicurus and Gassendi as in many ways the most pious of the ancient and modern philosophers, respectively.” (Kors, Epicureans and Atheists in France, 1650-1729 60)

“ … an erudite and closely argued case for seeing La Rochefoucauld as an Epicurean, continuing the antistoical Pyrrhonism of the later Montaigne.” (Barish, The Antitheatrical Prejudice 211)

“The ‘baptism’ of Epicurus was the achievement of the French philosopher Pierre Gassendi […] Walter Charleton was the most significant disseminator of Epicureanism in England, drawing on him in both his moral and natural philosophy […] A translation of Antoine Le Grand’s early work on Epicurean philosophy was published in 1676 as Divine Epicurus, or, The Empire of Pleasure over the Virtues.” (Hutton, British Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century61)

“Cavendish‘s friend, Walter Charleton, the main vector for Epicurean philosophy in England, edited and published J.B. van Helmont’s A Ternary of Paradoxes, which discussed corpuscular effluvia, in 1650.” (The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism, 268)

“The Cartesian Antoine Le Grand, along with Walter Charleton, and later Charles de Marguetel de Saint Denis, sieur de Saint-Évremond, promoted openly Epicurean systems of morals. They insisted that Epicurus had been unjustly maligned by his enemies, and the earlier image of the Epicurean pig swilling in a filthy trough was replaced by a new image of the Epicurean as a man of taste, refinement and delicate feeling” (The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism, 278)

“As Catherine Wilson in her study of Epicurean reception laconically remarks, while intellectual historians have been unable to gauge the exact sources of Locke’s epistemology, he ‘owned two copies of Diogenes Lartius’ Lives, three copies of On the Nature of Things‘ and ‘was associated with well-known Gassendists François Bernier and Gilles de Launay.’” (Dynamic Reading: Studies in the Reception of Epicureanism 175)

“ … many readers, even if they did not read Gassendi directly, indeed were deeply familiar with François Bernier’sAbrege […] was one of the learned world’s most significant Epicurean voices.” (Kors, Epicureans and Atheists in France, 1650-1729 59)

“The word ‘pleasure’ recalls to mind the name of Epicurus, and I confess, that of all the opinions of the philosophers concerning the supreme good, there are none which appear to me to be so reasonable as his.” (L’enclos, Life, Letters and Epicurean Philosophy of Ninon de L’Enclos)

“La Fontaine shared the Epicurean view that the happy man is one who lives a simple, trouble-free life, retired from the world, where, like the brute beasts who are cared for by nature, he has just what he needs and no more.” (Calder, The Fables of La Fontaine: Wisdom Brought Down to Earth 150)

“All the Fables are steeped in La Fontaine’s Epicurean humanism, his passion for liberty, for friendship …” (Blackham, The Fable as Literature 123)

“… Cavendish ‘expounded an Epicurean atomism at once so extreme and fanciful that she shocked the enemies of atomism, and embarrassed its friends.’ […] But Cavendish was not a classic Epicurean.” (Sarasohn, The Natural Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish 35)

“The epicurean poet, Antoinette Deshoulières (1634–1694), a disciple of the atomist natural philosopher Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) could also be considered a libertine.” (Stanton, The Dynamics of Gender in Early Modern France 33)

“By far the most outstanding of the Epicurean poets in Chaulieu, the man whom Voltaire called his master. He was the acknowledged leader of the Epicureans of the Temple. […] His thought was more truly Epicurean in the strictly philosophical sense of the word than one would have expected in a light poet.” (Rozenblum, A Seventeenth-century Epicurean Poet: Guillaume Amfrye de Chaulieu 3)

“Wilson also mentions the attraction of seventeenth-century women intellectuals (including Margaret Cavendish,Lucy Hutchinson [a devoted Puritan and Calvinist], and Aphra Behn) to Epicureanism.” (Dynamic Reading: Studies in the Reception of Epicureanism 137)

“Guillaume Lamy (1644 – 1683) was a self-proclaimed Epicurean, a philosopher and physician based in Paris, who published his major works between the late 1660s and the late 1670s.” (Early Modern Medicine and Natural Philosophy 355)

“The most prominent heterodox neo-Epicurean was Guillaume Lamy, doctor-regent of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Paris.” (Kors, Epicurean and Atheists in France, 1650-1729 49)

“Toward the end of the grand siècle La Fare, the Epicurean and inseparable friend of the Abbé de Chaulieu, translated the famous second ode.” (Robinson, Sappho and Her Influence: Volume 2 168)

“The yet more successful translation of Lucretius’s poem into French was by the baron Jacques Parrain Des Coutures […] While noting that the Christian obviously would reject the Epicurean denial of an afterlife as manifestly false, it urged readers to recognize the value of the Epicurean views of ethics and the force of the Epicurean assault against superstition and polytheism.” (Kors, Epicureans and Atheists in France, 1650-1729 34)

“In 1678 he discussed his political theory of religious revolutions with the Epicurean libertine, court poet and dramatist John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, who rejected immortality and providence.” (Hudson, The English Deists: Studies in Early Enlightenment 68)

“The controversial Epicurean moralist, Bernard Mandeville, makes a distinction between Christian Epicureans like Erasmus, Gassendi and Temple, who claim that piety and virtue are the only true sources of voluptas, and libertines such as Hobbes’s follower Charles de Saint-Évremond, who associate it with more straightforwardly sensual pleasure.” (Bullard, Edmund Burke and the Art of Rhetoric 91)

“In 1685 the English Epicurean Sir William Temple signaled a very different attitude by abandoning a promising early diplomatic career and retiring to his garden at Moor Park in Surrey, there to devote himself to writing moral essays (including Upon the Garden of Epicurus) and raising apricots.” (Most, The Classical Tradition 323)

“François Courtin, who was given the abbey of Mont-Saint-Quentin at the age of nineteen, was a poet and Epicurean described by Voltaire as ‘big, fat, round, short, and lazy.’” (Buchan, John Law: A Scottish Adventurer of the Eighteenth Century 1753)

“Congreve wrote all of his plays during the 1690s, when he was in his twenties, and under the influence of his Epicurean philosophy of self-restrained morality.” (Trumbach, Sex and the Gender Revolution, Volume 1: Heterosexuality and the Third Gender in Enlightenment London 77)

“He [Rousseau] belonged to a school which is traceable to Chapelle, the father of French epicurean poetry.” (Hutson, A History of French Literature 146)

“As evidenced by the use of Guillaume Lamy by Julien Offray de La Mettrie, this neo-Epicurean influence played a significant role in the development of a later Enlightenment materialism.” (Kors, Epicureans and Atheists in France, 1650-1729 49)

“There is more than enough to suggest that its author [Celestino Galiani] was committed to a moderate, Christian Epicureanism, in which morality and natural law were in accordance with men’s natural desire for the pleasures …” (Robertson, The Case for the Enlightenment 206)

“Frederick [the Great] replies to Sweerts that he is only too happy to obey, for he loves all the pleasures condemned by “un faux mystique” (Christianity) and would always follow the Epicurean gospel.” (Blanning, Frederick the Great: King of Prussia 156-157)

“Diderot denounces the way this philosophical perspective had been vilified and misrepresented as vulgar hedonism […] Diderot, a partisan of the Epicurean rather than the Cartesian understanding of matter, challenged Descartes’ plenum of vortices and whirlpools …” (Kavanagh, Enlightened Pleasures: Eighteenth-Century France and the New Epicureanism 4-5)

“Epicurean theory […] was used to state perhaps the central naturalistic doctrine of Holbach’s text: ‘The indestructible elements, the atoms of Epicurus, whose movement, concourse, and combinations have produced all beings, are, without doubt, more real causes than the God of theology” […] Holbach, by intellectual spirit, deep philosophical family resemblance, and reflective temperament, was indeed an Epicurean disciple.” (Kors, Epicureans and Atheists in France 1650-1729 201)

“ … As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing every thing rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.” (Thomas Jefferson, Letter To William Short, October 31st, 1819)

“The fundamental starting point of Bentham’s theory was thus the observation […] that ‘nature has placed man under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure’. Associating pleasure with happiness and pain with unhappiness then, Bentham maintained that ‘[p]leasure … and the avoidance of pains, are the ends which the legislator has in view’. For him, questions of ethical conduct, or indeed just legislation, lay in measuring happiness, and for this reason, he is right labelled an Epicurean.” (Jeffery, Reason and Emotion in International Ethics 105)

“June 26th, Delbury.—I rode to Downton Castle on Monday, a gimcrack castle and bad bouse built by Payne Knight, an epicurean philosopher, who after building the cast went and lived in a lodge of cottage in the park: there he died, not without suspicion of having put an end to himself, which would have been fully conformable to his notions.” (Greville, The Greville Memoirs 190)

“Given what Bentham says later about his formative influences, one of these Epicurean writers, and perhaps the most important, was the French materialist philosopher Claude Adrien Helvétius.” (Bentham and the Arts 24)

“A typical more modern Epicurean, in theory if not in practice, is Walter Savage Landor. He is typical at any rate in his enthusiasm for the atomic philosophy and the personality of Epicurus, and his hostility to Plato.” (Shorey, Platonism, Ancient and Modern 18)

“Then there was Charles Greville […] a friend when friendship was most wanted; high born, high bred, avowedly Epicurean …” (Taylor, Autobiography of Henry Taylor. 1800-1875: Volume 1 315)

“Wright’s novel, in which she implicitly advanced her own arguments against organized religion and for women’s equality, had offered a favorable account of the unfairly maligned Epicurus and his Garden […] Wright’s epicurean critique of religion …” (Hull, Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers 472)

“But in its frank acceptance of the realities of our human life, and of the laws of universal nature—in its emphasis on friendly love as the great help in moral progress—and in its rejection of the asceticism which mistakes penance for discipline, Epicureanism proclaimed elements of truth which the world cannot afford to lose.” (Wallace, Epicureanism270)

“Heavily influenced by the Epicurean hedonism, Guyau emphasized the principle and power of life that naturally lead the human beings to moral decisions.” (Lee, Ham Sok Hon’s Ssial Cosmopolitan Vision 17)

“M. Guyau treats Epicureanism mainly as the ancient forerunner of utilitarian and hedonistic theories. Signor Trezza gives a somewhat idealized picture of it, as the ancient gospel of a full and free humanity, living in the perception of the great law of nature and of love, and anticipating by two thousand years the advent of true philosophy.” (Wallace,Epicureanism 266)

“As to the word spiritual, I frankly don’t know what it means. The dictionary tells me that spirit ‘is the intelligent or immaterial part of man, soul.’ I look up soul and learn that it is ‘the immaterial part of man.’ And that spiritual means “of spirit, as opposed to matter, I am on the side of the materialists.” (Sedgwick, Memoirs of an Epicurean 156)

“‘[L]ife is linked with sensation and cannot be understood except through sensation […] in human affairs, Epicureanism is the only natural ethics which does not demand profound or subtle reasoning.’” (Holmes, “Reviewed Work: Sensation: The Origin of Life by Charles Leopold Mayer” 118-119)

“Tsuji was not devoted to massively propagating ideas of class war […] Tsuji was instead an Epicurean, seeking a simple lifestyle and reveling in a peaceful enjoyment of modest pleasures, both physical, social, and intellectual. […] Tsuji was not interested in striving for monetary wealth and fame as the foundations for his happiness. Rather, the ability to live freely, play his flute, and socialize were his espoused means to wellbeing and he did not feel bound by some sort of civic duty.” (Erana Jae Taylor, Tsuji Jun: Japanese Dadaist, Anarchist, Philosopher, Monk 2)

“…it is plain that [humanity’s] only logical goal […] is simply the achievement of a reasonable equilibrium which shall enhance his likelihood of experiencing the sort of reactions he wishes, and which shall help along his natural impulse […] Here, then, is a practical and imperative system of ethics, resting on the firmest possible foundation and being essentially that taught by Epicurus and Lucretius.” (H. P. Lovecraft, Selected Letters, Volume 5, 241)

“Christopher Hitchens also declared himself an Epicurean …” (Evans, Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations: Ancient Philosophy for Modern Problems 91)

“Onfray is anarchistic in proclivity, yet above all, and concomitantly, he is a hedonistic Epicurean.” (Quadrio, New Atheism: Critical Perspectives and Contemporary Debates 151)

Fragmentary Attestations:

“ANTIGENES (first century BC)
Antigenes was a friend of Philodemus of Gadara and probably also an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 27)

“ANTIPATER (first century AD?)
Antipater was an Epicurean and a friend of Diogenes of Oenoanda.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 27)

“ANTIPHANES (third/second century BC)
Antiphanes was an Epicurean who for unknown reasons fell out with the school.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 28)

“ANTONIUS (second century BC)
Antonius was an Epicurean who exchanged views with Galen on medical matters.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 30)

“APOLLODORUS [of Lampsacus] [1] (fourth century BC)
Apollodorus was an Epicurean and a brother of Leontius of Lampsacus.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 31)

“APOLLODORUS [the Epicurean] [2] (third century BC)
Apollodorus was an Epicurean, perhaps a pupil of Polystratus.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 31)

“APOLLODORUS [of Athens] [4] (second century BC)
Apollodorus was an Epicurean, heading the school for most of the second half of the second century BC. His long tenure earned him the nickname of ‘Tyrant of the Garden’. He wrote many books, including a life of Epicurus, and was the teacher of Zeno of Sidon.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 31)

“APOLLONIDES [2] (third century BC)
Apollonides was an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 32)

“APOLLOPHANES OF PERGAMUM (first century BC)
Apollophanes was an Epicurean and a leading citizen of Pergamum, sent on a mission to Rome on his city’s behalf.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 35)

“AMYNIAS OF SAMOS (first century BC/first century AD)
Amynias was an Epicurean and priest at the temple of Hera on Samos.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 21)

“ANAXARCHUS (fourth/third century BC)
According to Plutarch of Chaeronea, Anaxarchus was the recipient of a letter from Epicurus. He is assumed to have been an Epicurean himself.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 22)

“ARCEPHON [1] (fourth/third century BC)
Arcephon was an Epicurean and the recipient of a letter from Epicurus himself.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 36)

“ARISTONYMUS [2] (third/second century BC)
Aristonymus was an Epicurean and a friend of Dionysius [3].”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 36)

“ARTEMON [1] (third/second century BC)
Artemon was an Epicurean and the teacher of Philonides of Laodicea.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 51)

“ATHENAEUS [1] (second/first century BC)
Athenaeus was an Epicurean, a pupil of Polyaenus of Lampsacus.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 54)

“ATHENOGORUS [1] (second/first century BC)
Athenogorus was an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 55)

“ATHENODORUS OF ATHENS (first century AD)
Athenodorus was an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 56)

“ARTEMIDORUS OF PARIUM (first century BC/first century AD)
Artemidorus wrote a book on celestial phenomena with which Seneca entirely disagreed. He may have been an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 50)

“BACCHUS (first century BC)
Bacchius was a friend of Philodemus of Gadara and probably also an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 59)

“BALBUS, LUCIUS CORNELIUS (first century BC)
Balbus came from Gades (Cadiz) in Spain and went on to become the first foreign-born consul of Rome in 40 BC. He became a friend of Cicero, who successfully defended him in a legal action. Comments made by Cicero suggest he was an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 59)

“BASSUS, LUCIUS AUFIDIUS (first century BC)
According to Seneca, Bassus was an Epicurean who bore witness to his school’s teaching in a way he coped with prolonged ill health. He was an historian but none of his writings have survived.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 59)

“CALLISTRATUS (third century BC?)
Callistratus was an Epicurus.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 69)

“CELER, CAIUS ARTORIUS (first or second century AD)
Celer was an Epicurean philosopher from North Africa.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 72)

“CELSUS [1] (first century AD)
Celer was an Epicurean who lived during the time of Nero.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 73)

“CELSUS [2] (second century AD)
Celsus was an Epicurean and friend of Lucian of Samosata.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 73)

“CEPHISOPHON (second century BC?)
Cephisophon was an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 74)

“CHARMIDES [2] (fourth/third century BC)
Charmides was an Epicurean and a friend of Arcesilaus of Pitane.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 74)

“CINEAS (third century BC)
Cineas was an advisor to Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus. He was clearly well-versed in philosophy and may have been an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 79)

“CRONIUS OF LAMPSACUS (fourth/third century BC)
Cronius studied under Eudoxus of Cnidus before becoming an Epicurean and correspondent of Epicurus.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 88)

“DAMIS [2] (second century AD)
Damis is an Epicurean mentioned by Lucian of Samosata. Opinions are divides as to whether he is to be regarded as an historical figure or not.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 100)

“DAMOPHANES (second century BC?)
Damophanes was probably an Epicurean. His name appears in fragments of a text in which an Epicurean position on religion is articulated.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 91)

DEMETRIA (fourth/third century BC)
Demetria was a member of the community of Epicurus and the female companion to Hermarchus of Mitylene.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 93)

“DIODORUS [3] (third century BC)
Diodorus was an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 100)

“DIODORUS [5] (first century AD)
Diodorus was an Epicurean who committed suicide in a state of contentment and with a clear conscience, according to Seneca.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 100)

“DION [2] (first century BCE)
Dion appears to have been an Epicurean with whom Cicero was acquainted but for whom he had little time or respect.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 105)

“DIONYSIUS OF RHODES (first century AD?)
Dionysius was an Epicurean and a friend of Diogenes of Oenoanda.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 107)

“DIOTIMUS OF SEMACHIDES (third century BC)
Diotimus was an Epicurean in Athens and perhaps the pupil of Polystratus.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 109)

“DOLABELLA, PUBLIUS CORNELIUS (first century BC)
Dolabella was an Epicurean and for a time the son-in-law of Cicero. Politically active, he achieved the dubious distiction of being pronounced a public enemy b y the Roman Senate. In 43 BC, utterly defeated, he ordered one of his soldiers to kill him.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 109)

“DOSITHEUS (fourth/third century BC)
Dositheus was probably an Epicurean. A letter written to him by Epicurus on the death of his son Hegesianax [2] was copied by Diogenes of Oenoanda. His name sometimes appears as Sositheus.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 111)

“DOSSENNUS
Dossennus appears to have been a philosopher, perhaps an Epicurean. Seneca mentions a monument to him with an inscription testifying to his wisdom.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 111)

“EGNATIUS (first century BC)
Egnatius was an Epicurean who wrote a poem On the Nature of Things. It bears some resemblances to the work of the same name by Lucretius and is generally thought to have been written after it.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 113)

“EPICURIUS (first/second century AD)
Epicurius was an Epicurean who appears in a work by Plutarch of Chaeronea.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 116)

“EUDEMUS (fourth century BC)
Eudemus was an Epicurean mentioned in a letter by Epicurus.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 121)

“EUGATHES (third century BC?)
Eugathes was a barber from Thessaly who abandoned cutting hair in order to become an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 123)

“EXUPERANTIA (third/fourth century AD)
Exuperantia was a philosopher in Hadrumetum. Like her husband, Heraclamon Leonides, she was probably an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 131)

“HAURANUS, CAIUS STALLIUS (first century BC/first century AD?)
Hauranus was a member of the Epicurean community of Neapolis (Naples).”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 138)

“HEGESIANAX [2] (third century BC)
Hegesianax was probably an Epicurean. The son of Dositheus and brother of Pyrson, he died young and Epicurus sent a letter of consolation to his family.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 139)

“HERACLAMON LEONIDES (third/fourth century AD)
Heraclamon was an Epicurean from Hadrumetum. His wife was Exuperantia.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 139)

“HELIODORUS [2] (first/second century AD)
Heliodorus was an Epicurean and close friend of the emperor Hadrian. He succeeded Popillius Theotimus as head of the school in Athens.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 139)

“HELIODORUS OF ANTIOCH (third/second century BC)
Heliodorus was an Epicurean who held a senior position at the court of Seleucus IV. He fell out with the king over a political matter and assassinated him.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 139)

“HERACLITUS OF RHODIAPOLIS (first century AD)
Heraclitus was a physician, poet and Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 144)

“HIPPOCLIDES (fourth/third century BC)
Hippoclides was an Epicurean. According to Valerius Maximus, he was born on the same day as Polystratus, was close to him all his life, and died on the same day as he did.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 152)

“HIRTIUS, AULUS (first century BC)
Hirtius was an Epicurean and a correspondent of Cicero, although none of their letters survive.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 154)

“IOLAUS OF BITHYNIA (second century BC)
Iolaus was a physician and perhaps an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 158)

“IRENAEUS OF MILETUS (second/first century BC)
Irenaeus was an Epicurean and a pupil of Demetrius Lacon.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 158)

“LUCCESIUS, LUCIUS (first century BC)
Lucceius was an historian and a friend of Cicero. Some of Cicero’s letters to Lucceius suggest that he may have been an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 170)

“LYCOPHRON [2] (fourth/third century BC)
According to Plutarch of Chaeronea, Lycophron was an Epicurean. Leontius of Lampsacus corresponded with him.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 172)

“MAXIMUS [1] (first/second century AD)
Maximus was an Epicurean and a friend of Pliny the Younger. He was sent to Rome to reform the constitutions of Greek cities. He was an acquaintance of Epictetus and a supposed discussion between them is preserved in Discourses III.7.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 178)

“MENESTRATUS (fourth/third century BC)
Menestratus was an Epicurean, a pupil of Metrodorus of Lampsacus.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 185)

“MENNEAS (first century AD?)
Menneas was an Epicurean and a friend of Diogenes of Oenoanda.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 185)

“MESSALLA CORVINUS, MARCUS VALERIUS (first century BC)
Messalla was an Epicurean and a friend of Horace. As young men, they studied together in Athens. He opposed Julius Caesar but eventually made his peace with Augustus. As an author he wrote a number of works, including philosophical treatises, but none survive.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 185)

“NERO (second/first century BC)
Demetrius Lacon dedicated a book to Nero, making it likely he was an Epicurean himself.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 194

“OPILLUS, AURELIUS (second century BC)
Opillus was originally the slave of an Epicurean and may have been one himself. In any event, when he was freed he became a teacher of philosophy, although he later switched to rhetoric and grammar. When Publius Rutilius Rufus was sent into exile, Opillus went with him.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 201)

“PLATO OF SARDIS (first century BC)
Plato was an Epicurean who taught in Athens.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 223)

“POLLIUS FELIX (first century AD)
Pollius was an Epicurean and a patron of the poet Statius.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 223)

“PUDENTIANUS (second century AD?)
Pudentianus was an Epicurean. Galen wrote a lost work about him.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 236)

“PYRSON (third century BC)
Pyrson was the son of Dositheus and brother of Hegesianax [2]. He was probably an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 238)

“VOLUMNIUS EUTRAPELUS, PUBLIUS (first century BC)
Volumnius was a friend of Cicero and Marcus Brutus. According to Plutarch of Chaeronea he was also a philosopher, and it seems most likely that he was an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 238)

“SISENNA, LUCUIUS CORNELIUS (second/first century BC)
Sisenna achieved acclaim as an historian. Cicero suggests he was an Epicurean, but not a very consistent one.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 249)

“THEODORIDAS OF LINDUS (first century AD?)
Theodoridas was a philosophical acquaintance of Diogenes of Oenoanda. He was probably an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 263)

“THEOPHEIDES (third century BC)
Theopheides was a friend of Hermarchus of Mitylene. Hermarchus wrote him a letter in which he attacked Alexinus of Elis. It seems likely Theopheides was an Epicurean”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 266)

“TIMAGORAS (first century BC)
Timagoras was an Epicurean mentioned by Cicero.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 266)

“TREBIANUS (first century BC)
Trebianus was a friend of Cicero who took an interest in philosophy and may have been an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 274)

“TUCCA, PLAUTIUS (first century BC)
Tucca was an Epicurean, a pupil of both Philodemus of Gadara and Siro. Virgil and Horace were amongst his friends and he edited the manuscript of Virgil’s Aeneid when the poet died.
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 247)

“ZENOBIUS (second/third century AD)
Zenobius was an Epicurean, the target of a lost book by Alexander of Aphrodisias.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 285)

“ZOPYRUS (fourth/third century BC)
Carneiscus dedicated a book about friendship to Zopyrus, suggesting he was probably an Epicurean.”
(Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient Worlds: An A-Z Guide 285)

Thanks to my Epicurean friends.

– Nate

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