Note 3 — Chapter XXI · THE EPICUREAN SYSTEM AS A WHOLE; ITS POSITION IN HISTORY.

It has been already stated, p. 405, 1, 4, that Epicurus admitted his debt to Democritus, but not without some reserve; otherwise he claimed to be entirely self-taught, and to have learned nothing from the ancient teachers, and expressed himself with such conceit and scorn as to spare neither them nor their writings. Diog. 8, besides mentioning his abuse of Nausiphanes (sup. 342, 1), refers also to his calling the Platonists Διονυσοκόλακας, Plato himself in irony the golden Plato, Heraclitus κυκητήν, Democritus Ληρόκριτον, Antidorus Σαινίδωρον, the Cynics ἐχθροὺς τῆς Ἑλλάδος, the Dialecticians πολυφθονέρους, Pyrrho ἀμαθῆν and ἀπαίδευτον, and charging Aristotle and Protagoras with vices in their youth. Diogenes refuses to allow that any of these statements are true, Epicurus’ friendliness being well known. But the devotion of Epicurus to his friends and admirers does not exclude hatred and injustice towards his predecessors (see p. 418, 2), of whom a fair estimate was rendered impossible by the superficial nature of his knowledge and the onesidedness of his point of view. Sext. Math. i. 2, attests τὴν πρὸς τοὺς περὶ Πλάτωνα καὶ Ἀριστοτέλη καὶ τοὺς ὁμοίους δυσμένειαν; Plut. Adv. Col. 26, 1, mentions a false objection to Arcesilaus; and Cic. N. D. i. 33, 93, says: Cum Epicurus Aristotelem vexarit contumeliosissime, Phædoni Socratico turpissime maledixerit, etc. The rude jokes mentioned by Diogenes are in harmony with a man whom Cic. N. D. ii. 17, 46, calls homo non aptissimus ad jocandum minimeque resipiens patriam. On these jokes he apparently prided himself as well as on a certain bombastic elegance. See p. 496, 6. In this Epicurus was followed by his pupils. Cic. N. D. i. 34, 93, says of Zeno: Non eos solum, qui tunc erant, Apollodorum, Silum, ceteros figebat maledictis, sed Socratem ipsum … scurram Atticum fuisse dicebat (according to Cic. Brut. 85, 292, Epicurus had already expressed a disparaging opinion of the Socratic irony), Chrysippum nunquam nisi Chrysippam vocabat. ↑