The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Agemarchus; and to those who study philosophy with him, and to whomsoever
Hermarchus leaves as his successors in his school, that they may abide
and dwell in it, in the study and practice of philosophy; and I give it
also to all those who philosophize according to my doctrines, that they
may, to the best of their ability, maintain my school which exists in my
garden, in concert with Amynomachus and Timocrates; and I enjoin their
heirs to do the same in the most perfect and secure manner that they can;
so that they also may maintain my garden, as those also shall to whom
my immediate successors hand it down. As for the house in Melita, that
Amynomachus and Timocrates shall allow Hermarchus that he may live in it
during his life, together with all his companions in philosophy.
“Out of the income which is derived from that property, which is here
bequeathed by me to Amynomachus and Timocrates, I will that they,
consulting with Hermarchus, shall arrange in the best manner possible
the offerings to the manes in honour of the memory of my father, and
mother, and brothers, and myself, and that my birth-day may be kept as
it has been in the habit of being kept, on the tenth day of the month
Gamelion; and that the re-union of all the philosophers of our school,
established in honour of Metrodorus and myself, may take place on the
twentieth day of every month. They shall also celebrate, as I have been
in the habit of doing myself, the day consecrated to my brothers, in the
month Poseideon; and the day consecrated to the memory of Polyænus, in
the month Metageitnion.
“Amynomachus and Timocrates, shall be the guardians of Epicurus, the
son of Metrodorus, and of the son of Polyænus, as long as they study
philosophy under, and live with, Hermarchus. In the same way also, they
shall be the guardians of the daughter of Metrodorus, and when she is
of marriageable age, they shall give her to whomsoever Hermarchus shall
select of his companions in philosophy, provided she is well behaved
and obedient to Hermarchus. And Amynomachus and Timocrates shall, out
of my income, give them such a sum for their support as shall appear
sufficient year by year, after due consultation with Hermarchus. And
they shall associate Hermarchus with themselves in the management of my
revenues, in order that everything may be done with the approval of that
man who has grown old with me in the study of philosophy, and who is
now left as the president of all those who have studied philosophy with
us. And as for the dowry for the girl when she is come to marriageable
age, let Amynomachus and Timocrates arrange that, taking for the purpose
such a sum from my property as shall seem to them, in conjunction with
Hermarchus, to be reasonable. And let them also take care of Nicanor,
as we ourselves have done; in order that all those who have studied
philosophy with us, and who have assisted us with their means, and who
have shown great friendship for us, and who have chosen to grow old with
us in the study of philosophy, may never be in want of anything as far as
our power to prevent it may extend.
“I further enjoin them to give all my books to Hermarchus; and, if
anything should happen to Hermarchus before the children of Metrodorus
are grown up, then I desire that Amynomachus and Timocrates, shall take
care that, provided they are well behaved, they shall have everything
that is necessary for them, as far as the estate which I leave behind me
shall allow such things to be furnished to them. And the same men shall
also take care of everything else that I have enjoined; so that it may
all be fulfilled, as far as the case may permit.
“Of my slaves, I hereby emancipate Mus, and Nicias, and Lycon: I also
give Phædrium her freedom.”
And when he was at the point of death, he wrote the following letter to
Idomeneus:—
“We have written this letter to you on a happy day to us, which is
also the last day of our life. For strangury has attacked me, and also
a dysentery, so violent that nothing can be added to the violence of
my sufferings. But the cheerfulness of my mind, which arises from the
recollection of all my philosophical contemplations, counterbalances
all these afflictions. And I beg you to take care of the children of
Metrodorus, in a manner worthy of the devotion shown by the youth to me,
and to philosophy.”
Such then as I have given it, was his will.
XI. He had a great number of pupils, of whom the most eminent were
Metrodorus, the Athenian, and Timocrates, and Sandes, of Lampsacus; who,
from the time that he first became acquainted with him, never left him,
except once when he went home for six months; after which he returned to
him. And he was a virtuous man in every respect, as Epicurus tells us
in his Fundamental Principles. And he also bears witness to his virtue
in the third book of his Timocrates. And being a man of this character,
he gave his sister Batis in marriage to Idomeneus; and he himself had
Leontium, the Attic courtesan, for his concubine. He was very unmoved
at all disturbances, and even at death; as Epicurus tells us, in the
first book of his Metrodorus. He is said to have died seven years before
Epicurus himself, in the fifty-third year of his age. And Epicurus
himself, in the will which I have given above, gives many charges about
the guardianship of his children, showing by this that he had been dead
some time. He also had a brother whom I have mentioned before, of the
name of Timocrates, a trifling, silly man.
The writings of Metrodorus are these. Three books addressed to the
Physicians; one essay on the Sensations; one addressed to Timocrates;
one on Magnanimity; one on the Illness of Epicurus; one addressed to the
Dialecticians; one against the Nine Sophists; one on the Road to Wisdom;
one on Change; one on Riches; one against Democritus; one on Nobility of
Birth.
XII. Likewise Polyænus, of Lampsacus, the son of Athenodorus, was a man
of mild and friendly manners, as Philodemus particularly assures us.
XIII. And his successor was Hermarchus, of Mitylene, the son of
Agemarchus, a poor man; and his favourite pursuit was rhetoric. And the
following excellent works of his are extant. Twenty-two books of letters
about Empedocles; an essay on Mathematics; A treatise against Plato;
another against Aristotle. And he died of paralysis, being a most eminent
man.
XIV. There was also Leonteus, of Lampsacus, and his wife Themista, to
whom Epicurus wrote.
XV. There were also Colotes and Idomeneus; and these also were natives
of Lampsacus. And among the most eminent philosophers of the school of
Epicurus, were Polystratus, who succeeded Hermarchus, and Dionysius who
succeeded him, and Basilides who succeeded him. Likewise Apollodorus,
who was nicknamed the tyrant of the gardens (κηποτύραννος), was a very
eminent man, and wrote more than four hundred books. And there were the
two Ptolemies of Alexandria, Ptolemy the Black, and Ptolemy the Fair. And
Zeno, of Sidon, a pupil of Apollodorus, a very voluminous author; and
Demetrius, who was surnamed the Lacedæmonian; and Diogenes, of Tarsus,
who wrote the Select Dialogues; and Orion, and others whom the genuine
Epicureans call Sophists.
XVI. There were also three other persons of the name of Epicurus; first,
the son of Leonteus and Themista; secondly, a native of Magnesia; and
lastly, a Gladiator.
XVII. And Epicurus was a most voluminous author, exceeding all men in
the number of his books; for there are more than three hundred volumes
of them; and in the whole of them there is not one citation from other
sources, but they are filled wholly with the sentiments of Epicurus
himself. In the quantity of his writings he was rivalled by Chrysippus,
as Carneades asserts, who calls him a parasite of the books of Epicurus;
for if ever this latter wrote anything, Chrysippus immediately set his
heart on writing a book of equal size; and in this way he often wrote
the same thing over again; putting down whatever came into his head; and
he published it all without any corrections, by reason of his haste. And
he quotes such numbers of testimonies from other authors, that his books
are entirely filled with them alone; as one may find also in the works of
Aristotle and Zeno.
Such then, and so numerous are the works of Epicurus; the chief of which
are the following. Thirty-seven treatises on Natural Philosophy; one
on Atoms, and the Vacuum; one on Love; an abridgment of the Arguments
employed against the Natural Philosophers; Doubts in Contradiction of
the Doctrines of the Megarians; Fundamental Propositions; a treatise
on Choice and Avoidance; another on the Chief Good; another on the
Criterion, called also the Canon; the Chæredemus, a treatise on the
Gods; one on Piety; the Hegesianax; four essays on Lives; one on Just
Dealing; the Neocles; one essay addressed to Themista; the Banquet; the
Eurylochus; one essay addressed to Metrodorus; one on Seeing; one on the
Angle in an Atom; one on Touch; one on Fate; Opinions on the Passions;
one treatise addressed to Timocrates; Prognostics; Exhortations; a
treatise on Spectres; one on Perceptions; the Aristobulus; an essay on
Music; one on Justice and the other Virtues; one on Gifts and Gratitude;
the Polymedes; the Timocrates, a treatise in three books; the Metrodorus,
in five books; the Antidorus, in two books; Opinions about the South
Winds; a treatise addressed to Mithras; the Callistolas; an essay on
Kingly Power; the Anaximenes; Letters.
XVIII. And I will endeavour to give an abridgment of the doctrines
contained in these works, as it may be agreeable, quoting three letters
of his, in which he has made a sort of epitome of all his philosophy. I
will also give his fundamental and peculiar opinions, and any apophthegms
which he uttered which appear worthy of being selected. So that you
may be thoroughly acquainted with the man, and may also judge that I
understand him.
Now the first letter is one that he wrote to Herodotus, on the subject of
Natural Philosophy; the second is one that he wrote to Pythocles, which
is about the Heavenly Bodies; the third is addressed to Menœceus, and in
that there are contained the discussions about lives.
We must now begin with the first, after having said a little by way of
preface concerning the divisions of philosophy which he adopted.
XIX. Now he divides philosophy into three parts. The canonical, the
physical, and the ethical. The canonical, which serves as an introduction
to science, is contained in the single treatise which is called the
Canon. The physical embraces the whole range of speculation on subjects
of natural philosophy, and is contained in the thirty-seven books on
nature, and in the letters again it is discussed in an elementary manner.
The ethical contains the discussions on Choice and Avoidance; and is
comprised in the books about lives, and in some of the Letters, and in
the treatise on the Chief Good. Accordingly, most people are in the habit
of combining the canonical division with the physical; and then they
designate the whole under the names of the criterion of the truth, and a
discussion on principles, and elements. And they say that the physical
division is conversant about production, and destruction, and nature;
and that the ethical division has reference to the objects of choice and
avoidance, and lives, and the chief good of mankind.
XX. Dialectics they wholly reject as superfluous. For they say that
the correspondence of words with things is sufficient for the natural
philosopher, so as to enable him to advance with certainty in the study
of nature.
Now, in the Canon, Epicurus says that the criteria of truth are the
senses, and the preconceptions, and the passions. But the Epicureans, in