Search results for " Epicureanism"
showing 4 items of 4 documents
A View from the Garden: Contemplative Isolation and Constructive Sociability in Lucretius and in the Epicurean Tradition
2021
It is often assumed that Epicurean philosophy and its foremost Roman prophet, T. Lucretius Carus, adopted a deeply hostile attitude towards both politics and religion. Individualistic (or even solipsistic) interpretations of Epicureanism – as well as of the Epicurean catechism of De Rerum Natura – have long co-existed with, and provided support to, the claim that the Epicureans attached little value to religious experiences. In the present paper, I shall argue that, in this and many other respects, the modern reception of Epicureanism – with its brave aspirations after the liberation of science from social and religious restraints – has had undue influence on our understanding of De Rerum N…
Granting Epicurean Wisdom at Rome: Exchange and Reciprocity in Lucretius' Didactic (DRN 1.921-950)
2018
In the first book of De Rerum Natura, Lucretius describes his didactic undertaking as a metaphorical process of gift exchange (1.50-53): the obscure and salvific precepts of Epicurean philosophy, skilfully arranged in hexameters, are said to be 'gifts' (dona) that the poet has prepared with loyal zeal (studio fideli). Such a suggestive depiction of Lucretius' relationship to the work's dedicatee, Gaius Memmius, seems to reflect a relevant functional pattern of De Rerum Natura as a coherent system of communication strategies, variously readapting social models and cultural traditions. The present paper employs the interpretative approach of gift theories – the thought-provoking theories elab…
Filodemo, Cicerone, Nepote: a proposito del contesto storico-culturale di Oec. Col. XXII.9-48
2018
Until recently, Philodemus’ treatise On Household Management (Περὶ οἰκονομίας, PHerc. 1424) has been mainly used as a source for the reconstruction of early Epicurean economic thought (especially of Metrodorus’ writing Περὶ πλούτου). Over the past few years, however, scholars have called attention to Philodemus’ creative (yet philosophically orthodox) readaptation of Epicurean ethical and social theories to the needs of contemporary Roman society. Following this scholarly line, the present paper reassesses a passage from On Household Management (col. XXII.9–48) which has so far been interpreted as an unoriginal repetition of Metrodorus’ arguments, and situates it in the cultural context of …
Vox Naturae: The Myth of Animal Nature in the Latin Roman Republic
2016
The paper examines the representation of animals as embodiment of nature in the culture of the late Roman republic. By discussing a selection of passages from Sallust, Cicero and Lucretius in conjunction with other Greek and Latin sources, the paper shows that the typically Western myth of 'animal nature' - the cultural belief that animal mirror a perennial state of nature, as opposed to human society - played a very important role in the ethical debate of the first century BC and took in this period a form which was bound to influence the centuries to come.