Note 50 — Chapter XIV · THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY AS A WHOLE AND ITS HISTORICAL POSITION.
Oswald J. (Oswald Joseph) Reichel translation
Quint Inst. vi. 3, 78, names L. Varus as an Epicurean, a friend of Augustus, perhaps the individual who according to Donat. V. Virg. 79, Serv. on Ecl. vi. 13. attended the lectures of Syro in company with Virgil. Horace, notwithstanding Ep. i. 4, 15, was no Epicurean, but only a man who gathered everywhere what he could make use of (Sat. i. 5, 101). In Caligula’s time, a senator Pompedius was an Epicurean (Joseph. Antiquit. ix. 1, 5); under Nero, Aufidius Bassus, a friend of Seneca (Sen. Ep. 30, 1 and 3 and 5; 14), the elder Celsus (Orig. c. Cels. i. 8), and Diodorus, who committed suicide (Sen. Vi. Be. 19, 1); under Vespasian or his sons, Pollius (Stat. Silv. ii. 2, 113). In the first half of the second century, Cleomedes, Met. p. 87, complained of the honours paid to Epicurus. In the second half of the same century lived Antonius, mentioned by Galen. De Prop. An. Affect. v. 1, and Zenobius, who, according to Simpl. Phys. 113, b, was an opponent of Alexander of Aphrodisias. In the first half of the third century lived Diogenes Laërtius, who, if not a perfect Epicurean himself, was at least a friend of the Epicureans. Amongst other Epicureans, the names of Athenæus (whose epigram on Epicurus is quoted by Diog. x. 12). Autodorus (Diog. v. 92), and Hermodorus (Lucian, Icaromen. 16) may be mentioned; but Diog. x. 11 does not justify us calling Diocles of Magnesia an Epicurean. ↑