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Epicurus in Rome

Epicurus in Rome
Open Access

Epicurus in Rome

Philosophical Perspectives in the Ciceronian Age
Sergio Yona, University of Missouri, Columbia
Gregson Davis, Duke University, North Carolina
February 2023
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9781009281393
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    The role of Greek thought in the final days of the Roman republic is a topic that has garnered much attention in recent years. This volume of essays, commissioned specially from a distinguished international group of scholars, explores the role and influence of Greek philosophy, specifically Epicureanism, in the late republic. It focuses primarily (although not exclusively) on the works and views of Cicero, premier politician and Roman philosopher of the day, and Lucretius, foremost among the representatives and supporters of Epicureanism at the time. Throughout the volume, the impact of such disparate reception on the part of these leading authors is explored in a way that illuminates the popularity as well as the controversy attached to the followers of Epicurus in Italy, ranging from ethical and political concerns to the understanding of scientific and celestial phenomena. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

    • Provides a more holistic sense of the status and nature of Epicureanism in late republican Rome
    • Explores contradictory opinions regarding philosophy in Rome and the degree to which it was compatible with traditional Roman culture
    • Features a distinguished international cast of contributors
    • This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core

    Reviews & endorsements

    '… this volume represents a major advance in scholarship, for it sheds new light not only on the Romans' engagement with Epicurean philosophy at the end of the Republican Age, but also, more broadly, on the opportunity for philosophy to reshape the concept of Romanitas.' Giulio Celotto, Religious Studies Review

    See more reviews

    Product details

    February 2023
    Paperback
    9781009281393
    220 pages
    228 × 152 × 12 mm
    0.32kg
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • 1. Introduction Sergio Yona
    • Part I. Epicurus and Roman Identities:
    • 2. Sint ista Graecorum: How to be an Epicurean in Late Republican Rome – Evidence from Cicero's On Ends 1-2 Geert Roskam
    • 3. Cicero's Rhetoric of Anti-Epicureanism: Anonymity as Critique Daniel P. Hanchey
    • 4. Was Atticus an Epicurean? Nathan Gilbert
    • 5. Caesar the Epicurean? A Matter of Life and Death Katharina Volk
    • 6. Otium and Voluptas: Catullus and Roman Epicureanism Monica Gale
    • Part II. Epicurus and Lucretian Postures:
    • 7. 'Love it or Leave it.' Nature's Ultimatum in Lucretius' On the Nature of Things (3.931-962) Elizabeth Asmis
    • 8. Kitsch, Death and the Epicurean Pamela Gordon
    • 9. Page, Stage, Image: Confronting Ennius with Lucretius' On the Nature of Things Mathias Hanses
    • 10. Lucretius on the Size of the Sun T. H. M. Gellar-Goad.
      Contributors
    • Sergio Yona, Geert Roskam, Daniel P. Hanchey, Nathan Gilbert, Katharina Volk, Monica Gale, Elizabeth Asmis, Pamela Gordon, Mathias Hanses, T. H. M. Gellar-Goad

    • Editors
    • Sergio Yona , University of Missouri, Columbia

      Sergio Yona is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ancient Mediterranean Studies at the University of Missouri. He is the author of Epicurean Ethics in Horace: The Psychology of Satire (2018).

    • Gregson Davis , Duke University, North Carolina

      Gregson Davis is Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emeritus at Duke University. His major publications include: Polyhymnia: The Rhetoric of Horatian Lyric Discourse (1984) and Parthenope: The Interplay of Ideas in Vergilian Bucolic (2012).